Before my meeting with the executive chef at the Marylebone Hotel (Simon Conboy) I drafted up some answers to the 6 key pitch points set out by Sasha in his past talk. I didn’t learn these answers but utilised having the prepared answers to weave the points into the conversation to ensure my aims for the meeting and my project were clearly laid out.
The Pitch
What Is It?Â
Venture aiming to connect people to nature in hospitality spaces through natural events, experiences, and design schemes.
Looks to target the senses to evoke meaningful experiences with nature; this could be through physical applications of nature or technological applications.Â
Biophilic design – aims to target human’s innate connection to nature, typically seen as interior design aiming to bring in natural planting, colour schemes, lighting to recreate the experience of interacting with nature
What’s Special About It? – The Hook?
- Biophilic design is rarely implemented in hospitality spaces, and if it is it generally involves comprehensive refurbishments of the space that require venues to shut whilst they are being constructed and then require modernising after 5-8 years.
- Such natural experiences can help to attract greater and new customers, consequently boosting profits especially relevant after venue closures throughout the pandemic.
- Nature.In is on trend with the sustainability movement and the newfound appreciation for nature and the outdoors following the lockdowns.
- I am aiming to recreate the experience of nature through more 1-1, personal interactions, which isn’t currently being done in hospitality venues; rather than larger, more interior design focused schemes.
What Proof Do I Have That It Will Work?
- People spend 90% of their time indoors in Britain and so this work tires to bring the outdoors inside and bridge the gap between the two.Â
- The health benefits of biophilic design are backed up by numerous academic studies.
- There is vast interest in these types of 1-1 event having engaged with 40 people over the past 2 days through a herb event which I ran at the Chelsea Collage of Arts.
- Many people enjoyed the herb event but felt it was too short, as they were just passing through and so only briefly interacted with the herbs. Many wanted longer events and so utilising herbs or similar plants throughout a meal for example may be very beneficial to building this connection with nature.
- 85% of 40 people asked said that they would be attracted to a venue specifically if it was offering an experience with nature. The others would said that they wouldn’t be strictly attracted to visit the space, but many said they would still enjoy the natural elements once there but it wouldn’t draw them to the venue on their own.
What Have I Got So Far?
- Panel discussion with biophilic design experts from across the world
- Herb Event at Chelsea Collage of Arts, ran over 2 days
- Developing online sharing group – to build a community of customers of hospitality spaces to share images of applications of nature that they like and dislike stating why they hold this opinion and forms a space directing people to spaces that are trying to encompass nature.
- Future immersive technobiophilic event at Chelsea Collage of Arts Canteen
What Do I Want?
To secure spaces to test in and hold larger scale interventions.
Ideas to explore in Simon’s spaces:
- Pairing Herb Plants With Meals
- For instance, if someone ordered a tomato burrata salad, it could be advertised as a special dish, whereby the basil plant is brought to the table along with the dish, so people can pick and add their own herbs to their meal.Â
- A short question could be asked when ordering the dish to assess their connection to nature and then it could be asked again when they pay the bill to assess any change in that connection.
- Immersive Natural ExperiencesÂ
- Projectors, speakers, and diffusers offering an engaging and dynamic experience of natural scenery
- May be partnered with physical applications of nature such as herbs of plants specific to the chosen scenery.
- This may work well in a supper club type event.
- Dishes Names After Parts of Nature (Accompanied by complimentary plants, scents, and sounds)
- For instance, different types of certain species such as butterflies or even trees?
- People may learn the names of certain parts of nature which they can identify when they next come across it, thus strengthening their connection to nature not only in the event but also afterwards through the transference of knowledge
What Does The Marylebone Hotel/ Simon Get?
A cutting edge, innovative link into the sustainability movement that brings nature closer to people that may not be able to access it so readily in big cities such as London but have a newfound appreciation for the outdoors after lockdown. Subsequently, these customers will be attracted to the space which boosts profits of the venue and improves satisfaction of their customers due to them feeling the benefits of interacting with nature.
The Meeting
During the meeting I addressed the areas of the pitch with Simon by linking them into conversation as and where I could. We discussed the hotel space itself and their usual offering so that I could gain more awareness for the space and its aims.
Simon also discussed the sustainability goals of the hotel and their push to keep things local, which I found a very interesting side of the hotel to explore and link into the aims of my project. Subsequently, since the meeting I have been trying to brainstorm ways to seamlessly connect my work with their green initiatives. For instance, the hotel has a big push on healthy foods offering dishes such as ‘superfoods salads’, as well as catering for greener modes of travel by making space for electric bike and cars. In regard to keeping things local, the hotel has beehives on the roof, they also get any extra honey from the London Honey Company. Additionally, their cheeses come from Roth and Co which is diagonally opposite the hotel and has been there since the 1800s serving all locally sourced produce. The hotel has also run seasonal events such as highlighting the strawberry for ‘keeping things British’.
The hotel resides in Marylebone village, which has a strong community aspect, despite being in Central London. This made me think of ways I could try and address this idea of inclusiveness and bringing the local community together to experience nature with my event.
Sadly, Simon informed me that it wouldn’t really be possible to host technological immersive natural events in their spaces, as they only rooms really suitable are sectioned out as events spaces and so I would have to privately hire the space and run the event there, which would be incredibly costly.
One idea Simon and I brainstormed whilst in the meeting was to do a pop up event on their terrace, which has a lot of footfall being on Marylebone Lane. The pop up could involve handing out take away salad taster boxes which people could add herbs to from the selection I have on my stand and then they could answer some quick questions about their connection to nature and take these away with them. Simon said they would be able to absorb the cost of that type of smaller event as well. I then later thought that this could also entice the customers to visit other nature events which could be run later on in the hotel space, almost as a part of a ‘Nature. In collaboration/ event series’.
After the meeting Simon asked if I could email over my ideas to host in their space after our discussion (as they had altered) so that he can pitch them to the rest of the team and they can look at getting PR going around the event to promote the event’s link to their sustainability motives through connecting people to nature. I have since compiled this email and sent it over to get things in motion (see below).
