“What If Crowds Were Gardens?”

source: Nano Banana

“What if crowds were gardens and music was sunlight?” This was just one of the mind-bending ideas from the Love Tomorrow summit I attended last week.

I was looking forward to the talks of Vincent Buyssens, Steven Bartlett and Sadhguru.

The location was of course awesome being the Tomorrowland festival location in Belgium and instead of DJ’s, there were speakers at the different stages and tents.

While the incredible Tomorrowland venue provided an amazing atmosphere, there’s a clear opportunity for the next edition to scale the audio-visual setup to match the size of the stages, ensuring every attendee can fully experience the brilliant presentations.

Vincent Buyssens and Creative AI

For me, the most impactful session came from Vincent Buyssens, who demonstrated how to unlock creativity in AI. He showed that the quality of the output depends entirely on the creativity of the input. The difference was stunning. I saw him before at a meetup in Ghent where he showed how he created the Hugo Boss campaign and now he showed how he creates prompts to trigger creativity from an LLM.

For example instead of asking

- “How do we energize crowds at festivals”

ask

- “What if crowds are gardens and music is sunlight? Navigate to where ‘mosh pit’ meets ‘greenhouse’. How do humans photosynthesise joy? What grows when we’re planted this close together.

With the first prompt the LLM answers me:

It all starts on stage! 🎤 Artists can electrify a crowd with dynamic stage presence, direct interaction, and classic call-and-response techniques. Breaking the barrier between the performer and the fan creates unforgettable, high-energy moments.

Transform the festival grounds into an interactive playground! 🎡 Use immersive art installations, gamification like scavenger hunts, and smart tech like synced LED wristbands to keep attendees engaged and the energy flowing long after the set ends.

Don’t underestimate the power of atmosphere! ✨ Cultivate energy with surprise moments, themed zones, and by prioritizing attendee comfort (plenty of water & shade). A happy, comfortable crowd is an energetic crowd.

With the second prompt I got:

What if crowds are gardens & music is sunlight? We navigate to where the mosh pit meets the greenhouse — a humid, chaotic biome where we’re planted close, limbs tangled, all reaching for the percussive light of the stage.

In this space, humans photosynthesize joy. The formula: Music (light) + Crowd Energy (nutrients) → Euphoria (sugar) + Catharsis (oxygen). Our shared resonance is the chlorophyll, converting sound and presence into a chemical reaction for the soul.

What grows here? Ephemeral blooms of shared smiles. A strange and beautiful fruit of emotional release. And beneath it all, a network of connection, helping someone up, sharing a moment. It’s a harvest of feeling.

The ultimate harvest is the deep taproot of belonging. In the chaos, we find physical proof we are not alone. We leave with a seed of that memory planted inside us — the knowledge that we can turn noise into pure unity.

Payflip Transparent HR

Another talk I found interesting and that shared Ideas similar to my own was from PayFlip, that wanted to change HR and focus on people. When you start you get to see the pay rates of the complete company so you understand where you are and where you can go. Full transparency and goal setting. I worked at a lot of companies where there is nothing in place and you cannot grow from 1 level to another or into another role. I found this amazing to see.

Sadhguru

Then I went to see Sadhguru and Alok, a conversation between a dj and a guru. While the sound issues and rain made it difficult to hear the talk, it led to one of the unexpected highlights of the day: a wonderful conversation about spirituality with a fellow attendee I had just met. It’s a great reminder that valuable connections can happen anywhere.

Diary of a CEO

Finally the talk I was most looking forward to was Steven Bartlett, Diary of a CEO. I have been following his podcasts for a while now on YouTube and enjoyed them a lot. While I don’t watch every episode, the ones I do always make me think. He has good guests, good questions and some good simple advice to run a business. One point he made during his talk that stuck with me was to fail fast. I already heard this a lot but the reason he gave was interesting. When you fail fast you have learned, and this is the goal to learn as much as possible. He connected this to the idea that to truly know a topic, you must be able to explain it to a 10-year-old. If they can understand and repeat it, you’ve mastered it. If not, it’s back to learning.

Papillion

Besides the talks I also got access to Papillon, the connector zone. The zone was relaxing and had a chillout zone with some nice lounge couches, a coffee stall that was free all day, the brunch and dinner were amazingly good, with a variety of dishes and desserts. I also had the opportunity to meet some nice people there and made some nice connections.

Overall, the Love Tomorrow summit was a thought-provoking experience. I left inspired by new ways to think about AI, the compelling case for corporate transparency, and the great people I met. A huge thank you to the organizers and speakers. I’m already looking forward to the next edition!

Did anyone else attend? I’d love to hear your key takeaways in the comments!