Make a Scene! X Cosa Design & Decor

Elami was very happy to play a small role in uniting the amazing talents of Make a Scene! and Cosa Design & Decor for a special event.

Cosa creates incredible floral designs primarily for weddings in Bali and Jakarta and their work has been featured in Martha Stewart and Junebug Weddings. Despite not being Bali-centric in terms of design, they gamely agreed to combine with Make a Scene! to realize an incredible range of Bali-inspired table centerpieces and floral arrangements with woven coconut leaf components by Make a Scene!.

Using local Balinese flowers and the idea of a modern offering, they created three different centerpiece designs.

Make a Scene! also created a series of photo backdrops for guests to enjoy during the event, including incredibly alive dragons.

A pair of butterfly wings to embrace a couple.

And a fan paired with two woven umbrellas. All woven by hand and biodegradable!

Behind the Design: Attendee gift bags for TEDxUbud

Our attendee gift bags are one of our favorite things to put together for our guests. When we start the process of thinking about what we want to give our attendees we want to make it as practical, beautiful and durable as possible. The last thing we want is for the attendee to get home after the event and throw everything into the trash.  

Starting with the bag itself, we ensure it's something people will want to use again and again. Some of our 'frequent flyer' attendees still use all their editions on a weekly basis. This year we created a backpack style, perfect for both men and women and for people on motorbikes every day. We also design the bag itself to have minimal branding; no one wants to be a walking billboard. 

Then we turn our attention to curating the contents of the bag. Everything is chosen to be useful at the event itself or to be something the attendees can use at home to remember the day by. We are very lucky to be in Bali- home to some of the world's most talented artisans and creators. 

This year we had a mixed nut and dried fruit snack by Bali Buda, a health food institution in Bali; Utama Spice's all natural and highly effective bug spray for dusk; Krakakoa's amazing Indonesian sustainably grown and fair trade chocolate; a beautiful bangle by Aum Rudraksha; a traditional Indonesian ikat sachet of cloves and screen printed bookmark with a prayer of creation by Threads of Life; and a set of wooden reusable cutlery to use at the event and then during ongoing travels. 

We chose to create a set of cutlery because while we could buy bamboo disposable cutlery for the event, we thought it would be a good way to also remind attendees of their impact on the environment and the role 'single use' anything plays in that. 

A waste report for TEDxUbud 2018

We've always worked with Eco Bali Recycling to manage our waste from TEDxUbud and make a strong commitment to reducing use of plastic and single-use items. However, this year was special as Eco Bali co-founder Paola Cannucciari helped us to plan a more assertive waste sorting system for attendees.

For the first time, we had an organic and food waste bin and a goal to divert as much trash as possible into recycling and compost instead of adding to Bali's horrible landfill problem. 

Paola and her team took all our waste away after the event and promised to send us a full report after they sorted and weighed the waste. True to her word, we received some great data back from the team and a renewed commitment to beating the benchmarks set this year in the future. 

Over a period of 7 hours, 650 people produced over 400 kilograms of waste! Over 85% of that was recycled or composted by the Eco Bali team.  It was also very encouraging to see plastic only made up 2.6% of the total waste generated. 

Simple Ways to Make Your Event More Green

Living in Bali, every day we come face to face with the consequences of bad waste management. We've always made a huge effort to make our events as ‘trash free’ as possible. One of those ways is to make sure our attendees don't need to bring or buy the dreaded one-use plastic Aqua bottle. 

We do this by providing each guest something to drink from, like these glasses below from Bali Recycling, and free refills of water using Kopernik's Nazava water filters throughout the venue. 

For past events, we've also given each guest a metal water bottle...

...or provided them with a bamboo cup—freshly cut bamboo gently sanded so it was ‘lip friendly’. 

We've also teamed up with Jenggala Ceramics to do a limited-edition mug for each guest to use at the event and then take home. 

We recommend looking into the Avani line of products, including compostable paper cups for hot drinks and wooden spoons and forks. They go perfectly with the traditional Balinese ingke we use as plates, which are lined with fresh banana leaves. 

If you'd like to work with us to go even more ‘radically green’ for your next event and help save this beautiful island we call home, get in touch!