These founders and CEOs are developing spaces where people can connect with each other
Authors of highly anticipated festivals and parties in the region such as Wonderfruit and the Djakarta Warehouse Project, the cultural leaders of Asia’s Most Influential are creating spaces where revellers can enjoy music, art, food, wellness and more, making it possible for people to celebrate what they have in common as a collective. Each year, they launch spectacular events, inviting global acts to the region and including a host of leisure activities for partygoers. But beyond the invitation to have fun, they also emphasise the important values of sustainability, diversity and creativity and how, ultimately, everyone and everything is interconnected.
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Pranitan Phornprapha, CEO, Scratch First, Bangkok Komatsu (Thailand)
“I wanted to find a way to use the things we love, like art and culture, to create dialogue on the environmental issues that we’re experiencing,” said Pranitan Phornprapha to Tatler about the beginnings of Wonderfruit. In 2014 the CEO co-founded the cultural celebration that has now become one of the most anticipated festivals in the world. Apart from musical acts, retail and food, its latest edition, held in December 2023 in Thailand, featured activities such as a crystal bowl sound bath journey, a screening of Sharon Lockhart’s Eventide and art performances like Sarah Trouche’s Force of the Sweeping Dune, where the French visual artist highlights the relationship of living things and nature.
Phornprapha also underscores his commitment to the environment, with Wonderfruit setting sustainability milestones for itself. In 2022, the event diverted 100 per cent of waste away from landfills, switched from tetra packs to recyclable aluminium cans and planted 20,000 new trees to create a pocket of forest in its venue. “[T]he thing that keeps us going, is that our intention has always been pure. And that intention has always been to do things for a greater purpose beyond ourselves…,” he said.
Read Pranitan Phornprapha’s full profile on Asia’s Most Influential
