SLOW DESIGN & BUSINESS IMMERSIONS
Mallorca
Spain
EXPERIENCE SUSTAINABILITY
MISSION
Nomadic Thread Society is pleased to facilitate Slow Design & Business Immersions, purpose driven, grassroots, professional retreats supplying active educations in sustainable design, business and culture. We invite you to step from your company HQ’s into the fields and studios where the sustainability revolution is rooted.
ACTIONABLE TAKE AWAYS
- Fluency in the language of sustainability, across varied sectors, translating to engagement, commitment, and relevance at home.
- Immediate exposure to solutions and challenges in conscious sourcing, design, labor, etc.- where all parts of varied small operations and practices are in view – they’re not in white papers or happening in factories and subsidiaries in other countries.
- First hand meetings with founders at the forefront of the sustainability movement, creating a refreshed professional network and community, and an ironclad commitment to the concept and movement.
- Vibrant, story-based content to share with teams and customers at home.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Immersions are co-hosted by a roster of inspiring, ethical, independent entrepreneurs, designers, artisans, makers, scientists, and experts. Lived practices and philosophies are participated in first hand at workshops, farms, and businesses across the island. All this occurs during 6 day group stays in historic fincas.
The program is intended for groups and teams. The minimum number of participants is 6, this is also an ideal number. Immersions take place during off and low seasons, in January, April, May, September, October, and November.
Group facilitation serves to fine tune and integrate the learnings; participants receive support in applying them to their own agendas. Visual content, documentation, and action plans are created to take home and plug in to their own businesses, industries, and lives.
These are very personal experiences – seeds of ongoing relationships are born while learning and collaborating in a close group. A casual, collaborative, and convivial environment awaits.
WHY MALLORCA?
Mallorca is the mothership of the Balearic Islands, a diverse island and cultural microcosm in which a broad variety of smaller, sustainable design and business models can be experienced closely, held by layers of history and breathtaking landscapes. Absorb the very ethos of sustainability during a highly immersive and engaging working retreat.
WE PROPOSE..
Based on the re-discovery that the ancient tradition of regenerative agriculture is the way forward for today’s sustainable food production, we believe that going back to basics – studying heritage wisdoms and smaller, local ways – will produce solutions across all human activity. When planning to adopt more sustainable practices, it’s useful to look at how they’re applied in simpler circumstances, relearning how to think things through. Attention to modus operandi on a grass roots level delivers precious data and alternative strategies, wether it’s a political campaign or global business.
WHO ARE THESE IMMERSIONS FOR ?
Communications teams, hospitality groups, advertising and marketing executives, culture makers, influencers, sustainability and innovation departments, angel investors, trade commissions, students, and creatives who wish to gain first hand knowledge of and adopt practices in sustainable design, enterprise, and living.
ADD VALUE
Getting fluent in the language of sustainability gives companies an edge in both attracting, communicating with, and retaining current and future generations of customers, employees, and executives.
The NYU Stern Business School Center for Sustainability hosted a panel in 2019 in which the CEO of Vanguard and Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review briefed a room full of investors on how ROI is best served by adopting sustainability throughout company practices, citing talent retention as the driving factor. The adoption of more equitable, ecological, conscientious business practices is practically a mandate for the future.
PROGRAM SAMPLE
- Sophie Mounet Parik
Permaculturist and entrepreneur producing non toxic food for locals and local businesses.
- Reclaim, Sarah Rennison
Sustainable luxury handbags, made in Mallorca from reclaimed textiles. Fair labor, conscious supply chain, green shipping.
- Sustainable Real Estate Development Panel
Ximena Bianco, Sustainable Architect
Eduardo Ramos, Ecocreamos. Structure, materials, water, energy. landscaping, positioning.
SLOW LIVING EXPERIENCES
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- Sustainable, local food shopping with chefs, Emma Plateau and Deborah Pina Zitrone.
- Prepping & cooking a “slow” meal together
- Hiking & foraging
- Sustainable retail tour – optional
SCHEDULE
• Day 1
ARRIVAL
ORIENTATION
YOGA
WELCOME DINNER
• Days 2,3,4,5
YOGA
BREAKFAST
WORKSHOP OR EDUCATIONAL VISIT
LUNCH
WORKSHOP OR EDUCATIONAL VISIT
EARLY EVENING REST
DINNER
ENTERTAINMENT OR GROUP ACTIVITY SOME EVENINGS
• Day 6
BREAKFAST
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY
DEPARTURE
* Yoga is optional and self lead.
What does conscious, slow design and culture mean?
Both conscious and slow are terms interchangeable with “sustainable” in the current zeitgeist. These ubiquitous, important current concepts can and are being applied to fashion, agriculture, animal husbandry, energy, food, urban engineering, architecture, forest and land management, the politics of labor, economics and all their varied sub- sectors. They call for heightened attention to all aspects of human activity on the planet, asking us to engage in responsible capitalism, to work towards equity and inclusion, to safeguard ecosystems.
On September 20, 2022, The New York Times Summit on Sustainability hosted Al Gore among it’s speakers. He declared a veritable sustainability revolution in the making.
Making the case for small business, independent creatives, and sustainability.
Going big, scaling, maximizing profit – these have long been the mantras of the business world, and have certainly contributed to an era of over consumption. It’s time to reconsider. Scale can come in the form of a web or network of responsible businesses delivering goods to their communities, rather than the mass producers we are accustomed to.
The global handmade market grew to $752 billion in sales in 2022, expected to expand to a staggering $1,152 billion by 2028. These numbers reflect a network of small businesses and makers who are succeeding in the sustainability movement.
Small enterprises are more nimble with process – consuming less materials and energy, managing less supply chain, creating less waste, and setting an overall softer pace of consumerism. Commitment to company ethos and personal, respectful management of human resources are more readily achievable.
Personal satisfaction, creative freedom, and mental health become the bottom line, creating soulful reverberations and a baseline of fulfillment for indie founders, makers, and their customers.
ABOUT NICOLE GULOTTA
Program Director & Facilitator
Nicole’s studies in Art History at NYU and general fooling around in the NYC creative scene of the 90’s planted a deep aesthetic appreciation and set her on a humanistic trajectory early on. Twenty five years as a NYC- based fashion and wardrobe stylist followed; an independent, creative, business person was formed.
Her tree-hugging nature drew her into the deep end of the world’s heritage hand-made sector in 2009, when she founded Nomadic Thread Society.⇐Click through.
“I gravitated towards conscious design and business practices from the start, digging into working with heritage textiles in developing communities around the world. Support of artisanship, fair trade, and sustainability became company ethos. Working from the heart, my business concept coincided with the emerging redirection of global fashion.”
These days Nicole applies her cultural curiosity, activist nature, and independent business chops to design and business development, along with consulting and mentoring in the conscious design and culture spaces.
“I have an anthropological angle on creativity, opportunity, and enterprise. What do people seek, want, make, do, wear? How do they express themselves? What materials are available? How is the work done? And the most pressing question, can this all be done responsibly? “
Tara Mohr’s Playing Big Facilitators Training gave her the impetus to formalize this program and bring it to life.
DO GET IN TOUCH TO RECEIVE FULL PROGRAM DETAILS, PRICING, AND DISCUSS DATES.
We Recognize that demand and needs vary! Please let us know if you have a larger or smaller group, perhaps we can accommodate you.
