eBay Open: 12 hours of live graffiti for more than 1,000 guests

At eBay Open in Berlin more than 1,000 sellers came together. Our task: make recycling and the circular economy visible as graffiti, for twelve hours, in the middle of the running programme.

The task

A topic like the circular economy is quickly told on a stage and quickly forgotten afterwards. eBay wanted it visible, throughout the whole day, without anyone having to stop for it.

Added to that was the plain question of size: more than 1,000 guests do not file past a station one after the other, they come in waves. A format that keeps only twenty people busy at once would have been clogged all day.

The execution

We worked on four canvases measuring two by two metres and interpreted recycling and the circular economy with spray paint, with the eBay logo as a recurring element. The pieces took shape live, across the full twelve hours, visible to everyone who passed by.

So that the waves would not queue, we additionally set up 450 small easels. Every guest could take one and make a mini piece of their own, from abstract structures to wild graffiti paintings. Whoever only wanted to sign left their signature on the large canvases.

The result

After the event the four pieces were stretched on frames and exhibited at the client's.

For planning an event of this size that is the decisive point: the format scales with the number of guests instead of failing at it. We plan a graffiti format for groups from 10 to 1,000 people; the stations grow with them, the running stays the same.

Frequently asked questions about this project

How does live graffiti work for more than 1,000 guests at a company event?

At eBay Open in Berlin it ran on two levels at the same time: four canvases measuring two by two metres as continuous live art, and next to them 450 small easels where every guest could help themselves. For twelve hours, without registration.

The reason for this setup is the arrival curve. More than 1,000 guests do not file past a station one after the other, they come in waves, mostly around programme items and breaks. A format that keeps twenty people busy at once would have been clogged all day and would have looked like a queue to everyone else. The mini easels take exactly this pressure away, because they can be multiplied with the number of guests while the running stays the same. Whoever did not want to paint at all left their signature on the large canvases instead and was still part of the result without having to queue for it.

How do you make a topic like the circular economy visible at an event?

By letting it take shape over twelve hours instead of explaining it once on stage. At eBay Open we interpreted recycling and the circular economy with spray paint on four canvases, with the eBay logo as a recurring element, visible to everyone who passed by.

A stage contribution on a topic like this is over after ten minutes and then competes with the buffet. A piece that grows over the whole day, by contrast, a guest sees several times, each time in a different state, and this reunion makes the message durable. For you as the planner that means: you do not get a programme element you have to slot into the agenda and defend against other items, but a constant that runs alongside the agenda. At the mini easels everything from abstract structures to wild graffiti paintings took shape in parallel, so the topic did not only appear on the large surfaces.

What happens after the event to the pieces that were made there?

They stayed with the client: the four canvases from eBay Open were stretched on frames after the event and exhibited at the client's. The mini pieces from the 450 easels the guests took with them, each their own.

That is the part an event budget rarely counts. Catering is used up by the evening, a band has left after two hours, and a framed piece afterwards hangs in a room where people work and receive visitors. If you have to justify internally why a programme item cost money, an object you can point to is the strongest argument you get, and it lasts longer than any photo series. At an event with more than 1,000 guests this object also comes about before their eyes, over twelve hours. That makes it a shared memory and not wall decoration someone eventually takes down.