We were delighted to participate as an official partner of the #24butterfly Corporate Karisma Festival in Linz from May 2–4 this year. The event provided an inspiring platform to explore the phenomenon of corporate culture from various perspectives—organizational development, leadership, and creative design.
Our consultants, Thomas Köplin and Thomas W. Richter, performed on the topic “The Art of Shaping the Future – How Working Artistically Helps Organizations Surpass Themselves.” The subject? A true AoA classic. The performance? Only possible with their ace up the sleeve—the directorial expertise and staging repertoire of our colleague, Annalena Maas.
That was our ambition at the #24butterflyfestival hosted by cucocu.com, which explored “Valuable Ideas to Enrich Corporate Culture.” At the beautiful Posthof in Linz, our performance aimed to highlight two key aspects: On the one hand, we wanted to emphasize that artistic interventions rarely find space within our consulting mandates. On the other hand, our appearance addressed the visible struggle to define a stance when the arts are called upon to contribute to individual, societal, or corporate development. At Age of Artists, we have a clear position on this—one that was woven into the performance itself:
“It’s not about turning everyone into artists in the traditional sense. It’s about enabling people to unlock their creativity to shape their world. It’s about positioning the artistic human as a counterpart to artificial intelligence. It’s about developing a new—or at least expanded—understanding of global, societal, and economic challenges that incorporates the artistic not only within art but also as a complement to established patterns of thinking and acting. (…) This becomes easier to grasp when we understand the artistic as a metaphor or analogy—an analogy for something that exists in all of us but is more easily observed in artists because they are more practiced in it.”
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire #24butterfly team for organizing such a beautifully crafted and professionally executed conference. It was truly outstanding! The event offered a sparkling atmosphere filled with inspiring keynotes, workshops, and speakers—not to mention the engaging conversations in and around the conference. A special thanks goes to Ernst Demmel for the idea to invite us and for providing the space to present the guiding principles of our consulting approach in a different and creative way.
Of course, we hope to have the opportunity to showcase our enchanting (post-dramatic) piece again someday. We’re open to inquiries for a reprise—we already have a few more ideas in mind…
