STONE SOUP

Co-Create a Weekend of Immersive Experiences

The Stone Soup Experience Design Camp is a co-created laboratory to exchange, evolve, and explore your creative side, your ability to play and your skills as experience designers. Grow your craft by creating experiences, workshops, and adventures with and for each other. 

You don’t consider yourself an experience designer? We believe we are all designing experiences to some extent, be it privately or through our work. If this field is new to you, but what we talk about on this website sounds appealing, you are open to join and contribute in your own way - don’t be shy and apply! 

From all the applications we will select a mix of diverse ingredients to end up with a delicious soup full of rich and exciting flavors.

our Playground

This Stone Soup will be held in a small castle which offers spaces to gather, create, and play. There are various objects and furniture that are available for use in prototypes and experiences. The location is easily accessible by train from Berlin (1.5 hours) and Szczecin (45 minutes). 

There is enough room for everyone to sleep in the castle, where there are assorted rooms with mattresses on the floors and some beds. There are also 4 small private cabins directly outside of the castle which are available to rent for an extra fee. There is a field near the cabins where you can bring your own tent or camper if you prefer. See pictures of the sleeping options here.

Join the Community

Since the first Stone Soup in 2018 we’ve had artists, woodworkers, physicists, designers of all kinds, entrepreneurs, parents, architects, actors, directors, event organizers, storytellers and many more professions and life-paths join the Stone Soup community. Each event brings together its own inspiring and varied cohort of passionate participants. A silent but grateful participant can be a valued contribution as much as a passionate initiator.

Co-evolve your Craft

What are you curious to explore and learn? What are you excited to share? At Stone Soup there’s no us and them, we collectively contribute to each other’s learning experience. Workshops, experiences, and spontaneous adventures are all initiated by the participants themselves for one big exchange of skills, stories, and explorations. Come prepared or co-create spontaneously, don’t be afraid to show your talent and contribute in any way you like.

Practice the Principles

Stone Soup takes vulnerability, trust, and leaps of faith. The principles help us get there. They have been crafted over years and inspire everything we do.

The principles that will guide us during the Berlin 2022 Stone Soup are Flexible Hierarchy, Radical Interdependence, Do-Acracy, Safety, Enthusiastic Consent, “Yes, And”, Transparency, and Come as you are. Read more about the principles here.

Share expectations

During the weekend, we’re all part of the community. You’re expected to

Prepare for the event - Expect at least a few zoom calls with your guide team before and after. If you’d like to help organize a piece of the stone soup, we’d love your help! Let us know in the application form.

Attend Fully - Arrive by 18:00, Wednesday, August 24th and stay until 12:00, August 28th.

Conscious - No alcohol or drugs and we take consent very seriously.

Eat - We eat all meals together, and we can accommodate any dietary needs you have (all meals are vegetarian by default). Meals will be catered, and the nightly magical experience dinners will be co-created by the participants.

Clean - We are responsible for keeping the spaces and kitchen clean. On the final morning we’ll have a “clean-up party” to leave the location looking as clean as a whistle.

Receive guidance along the way

In July participants will be assigned to a group with whom you will co-create a magical dinner experience. In this group of participants, there will be one “stone” who is a Stone Soup alumni who can offer help along the way. This group will help you get introduced to other participants, prepare, and set intentions for the camp. In the month after the Soup, we’ll gather again - virtually - to decompress, reflect and collect feedback. 

Not For Profit Community

Stone Soup is not a business, it’s a community of experience designers. No one receives a monetary profit and all left-over money is offered to be refunded. Costs take care of the venue, groceries, creative supplies, venue insurance, miscellaneous, and scholarships. Transport is not included.

Tickets

A standard ticket costs 250€ per person, which includes all meals and accommodation.

For those who need financial assistance, we provide “Scholarship Tickets” for 180€, as well as the possibility to request additional financial assistance in the application form.

For those able to help another person attend the Stone Soup, we offer a “Social Ticket” for 320€, where your additional payment will fund another participant’s Scholarship Ticket.

COVID-19 & Safety

In the coming weeks, we will add details about covid-19 and safety regulations.

From previous Stone Soups

Next to growth and explorations within the domain of experience design Stone Soup’s camps have over the years proved to also be places that stimulate personal development, experiment with inclusive self-organization, promote inclusive group culture, and propagate play. To give you a sense of what it’s like, here’s a Poland '18 summary by Piotr Migdal and a Netherlands '19 summary by Alexander Gierholz.

“Imagine a retreat with no agenda— where the programming is brought in parcels by the other attendees to create a flexible, organic weekend with design thinking workshops & chakra balancing meditations on equal footing.”

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“A wonderful mixture between a friend-group weekend, and an international conference.”

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“It’s amazing how little you need to create something beautiful with enormous impact.”

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“If people sign up for some random, bottom-up improvised event, for its intrinsic value, well, then it is exactly the self-selected crowd I am looking for.”

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“The prep work beforehand seemed intimidating […]. It turned out to not really be an issue since so much of it could be improvised once there. It's a great environment to test out ideas and arrive with half-finished projects.”

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“Of course all the experiences and workshops we did are standing out in my memory because they were amazing, but I also really appreciated the small and meaningful conversations I had with some people.”

We’re here to answer your questions

If you have any questions about the camp, reach out to us at stonesoupzoom@gmail.com