Great events aren’t remembered for how they look. They’re remembered for how intentionally they’re designed – the belief that sits at the heart of everything we do at Peanut Productions. I didn’t arrive at it through events, though. I arrived at it through film.
In the last piece in this series, I wrote about the discipline of removing an idea I loved because it no longer served the story. That discipline didn’t start with events either. It started here, in a different creative life altogether.
Why I Started in Film, Not Events
Long before I designed an event, my dream was to become a filmmaker. I was fascinated by storytelling – not just the stories themselves, but the ability to shape emotion through pacing, lighting, music, movement and composition. Every scene existed for a reason. Every decision moved the audience toward an intended emotional outcome.
It wasn’t an easy path. Eventually, tired of being a struggling artist, I took a role in the fashion industry – and not long after, found myself helping produce fashion parades.
How Fashion Week Taught Me Environments Could Tell Stories
Those opportunities grew into conceptualising and producing runway shows for Mercedes Australian Fashion Week and Melbourne Fashion Week. It was creative, fast-paced and collaborative, and it was the first time I realised an environment itself could become part of the story.
My thinking at the time was different, though. I was constantly asking how to make things bigger, more theatrical, more exciting, more memorable. This was before social media existed to reward that instinct, but I was already chasing it instinctively. Looking back, I was chasing spectacle.
How Luxury Brand Events Turned Spectacle Into Purpose
As my career evolved, so did the work. Corporate brands sponsoring those runway shows started asking me to design their own events – beginning in the luxury goods sector. I closed part of Castlereagh Street in Sydney for the opening of OMEGA’s boutique: a two-storey marquee, a 300-guest black tie cocktail party, Cirque du Soleil performers, and Cindy Crawford as OMEGA’s global ambassador. For the Commonwealth Games, we converted a luxury yacht into an OMEGA and Bond-styled space over two weeks. For TAG Heuer’s King Street boutique opening, we projected video and lighting across the Commonwealth Bank building and onto the street itself.
At first, I saw this shift into corporate work as a departure from what I loved. It was the opposite. The creativity didn’t become less important – it became more purposeful. The lighting, staging, styling and theming still mattered, but none of them were the reason we were there anymore. The real purpose was helping organisations communicate something: a strategy, a cultural shift, a shared ambition.
That changed everything. Instead of asking how to make something bigger, I started asking what the audience needed to understand, how we’d help them believe it, and how we’d help them remember it. Creativity stopped being the destination. It became the vehicle.
What Makes an Event Feel Intentional, Even When You Can’t See It
That’s probably the biggest misconception about our industry. People notice the visible elements – the venue, the stage, the technology, the styling. What they rarely see are the hundreds of quiet decisions connecting every moment together: the invitation, the arrival, the first conversation, the transition between sessions, the timing of a break, the order of speakers, the final takeaway. Individually, each looks insignificant. Together, they determine whether an event feels seamless or disjointed – whether people simply attend, or genuinely experience it.
I’ve become less interested in individual moments and more interested in the flow between them. Every decision influences the next; every interaction shapes the overall journey. Not because there’s a formula – every audience is different – but because every decision deserves to be challenged with one question: why is this the right decision?
How Film, Fashion and Events Became One Philosophy
For years, my career felt like a series of disconnected chapters – film, fashion, events. Looking back, I see one continuous line. Film taught me storytelling. Fashion taught me that an environment could carry that story physically, not just narratively. Events gave both of them a purpose bigger than spectacle.
Together, they’ve become what I now call Intentional Experience Design.
Before your next event, three questions worth asking: what do we want people to understand, how do we want them to feel as they move through the experience, and what do we want them to do differently because they were there?
Great events aren’t built around impressive moments. They’re built around meaningful journeys.
About Michael Mastrodimos
Michael Mastrodimos is the Founder and Creative Director of Peanut Productions and the creator of Intentional Experience Design – a way of thinking shaped by more than 25 years of designing live experiences. Since founding Peanut Productions in 2011, he has helped grow the business into a full-service experience agency trusted by leading organisations across Australia.
Michael continues to lead the creative and strategic direction of the company’s most significant projects, bringing together storytelling, creativity and strategy to create experiences that connect people, communicate with purpose and inspire action. Through The Intentional Series, he shares the experiences and lessons that have shaped his belief that every decision should serve a purpose and every element of an experience should earn its place.
