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In this panel discussion, Tobias Hartmann and Max Schweder (Cylvester), Margrit Miebach (CityLeaks) and Ralph Christoper (C/o Pop) joined us to discuss how pop-up and urban experiences, creativity and innovationcould have a transformative impact on the destination.

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Cylvester are electronic music performers working in Cologne and across Germany. As the pandemic began, they couldn't perform on stage any longer, so they opted to run other projects. They saw the pandemic as an opportunity to create a sustainable and portable piece which could be taken to different locations to perform. As a result, they created 'All your base', a portable digital art tool for multimedia, creative and interactive performances in urban spaces.

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CityLeaks is a festival of urban culture, art, architecture and design. They work with festival centres in urban areas and public spaces. They bring artistic interventions into space and work toward recreating and regenerating spaces in the urban context. C/o Pop is a festival which began back in 2004. It revolves around pop culture events and concerts.

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The panellists discussed a number of aspects in relation to pop-up and urban experiences and tourism and travel. Projects as such reveal destination culture and creativity by regenerating spaces and giving artists a chance to showcase their talent and transform places. Tobias mentioned that finding authenticity in this process could be rather difficult. However, they are using accessibility and sustainability in a creative way to create opportunities. He suggests it is important to take the first step, as once the initiative is taken, other things will follow. Margrit added that it is important to think about artists and spaces and try to bring national and international talents to the destination. Ralph further explained that, for example, in the case of C/o Pop, it is key to keep the convention but bring innovative solutions year after another.

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The panel also discussed their views on pop-up experiences as opposed to long-term solutions starting that both have their advantages and disadvantages. However, opportunities exist in creating long-term solutions around art and creativity. For example, in Berlin, there is already an initiative to move from pop-up experiences to long-term solutions. Tobias mentioned that they consider each project as a laboratory that allows them to createsomething and later elaborate on it. The All Your Base project is a toolkit facilitating bigger projects. It is their core identity, but it could be adopted to generate other artistic and creative projects.

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Ralph also added that technology is fast growing. It brings many opportunities, but it is not worry-free. As the tech solutions advance, it is important to remember that extend the real opportunities with them and not replace them.