This time next summer, how would you feel about escaping to your own private island? Having the space to think, work on a few ideas … ya know, generally soak up all the inspiration that can be soaked from living on your own goddamn island for an entire week. Such an opportunity exists, friend, and it’s called Ideas Island.
All-round upstanding human being, Fredrik Haren is a Swedish global keynote speaker and author of The Idea Book (as well as eight other books), and he knows the importance of a safe haven for creatives. So much so, that he bought a two islands close to Stockholm, one for himself and one for guests, so that “more people could get a chance to experience the magic of being alone with your ideas on an island”.
With its own private sandy beach, dock and traditional Swedish cabins, successful applicants will have the choice of staying alone on Ideas Island, or with a group of up to six. Accessed by a rowboat, the typical length of stay offered by Fredrik is one week, but if you can convince him otherwise, longer stays will be considered.
The application form (currently accepting submissions for summer 2020) is far simpler and less intimidating than you might think. “You do not have to be a world class creative person to get to go,” says Fredrik, who himself lives on another private island two months out of the year. “The important thing is that you are passionate about the creative project you want to work on”.
What do you have to lose?
I would start by getting inside the head of Fredrik by enjoying (and benefitting) from one of his very engaging and humorous keynote talks:
Fredrik is also “a man who just loves islands”, and believes they are like micro cosmos of planet earth, that can help us better understand humanity. He even started his own world tour of islands and dedicated a blog to it here.
The concept of Ideas Island is a completely “not-for-profit-project” that Fredrik sees as a way of giving back to the world and encouraging creativity. Guests are given the option of donating to a charity if they wish, but making money on your creative process is by no means his goal. Charging people he says, “would take away all the magic. It would be boring. And, frankly, uncreative.”
Sound too good to be true? Ideas island was created “in honour of all creative people who have created things that people used to think was too good to be true.”
Apply here. And there’s always Plan B.
