Vanessa Hastings - Creative team building facilitator.
- Isobel Arden
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
Develop your own profile, network, career, and/or business by joining us at The Arts and Culture Network as a full member.
From just £10 per month. Cancel any time.
Benefits are here. This profile is just one of them.
Meet Vanessa Hastings.
In this interview, Mark invited Vanessa Hastings to create her own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy her journey below.
Vanessa Hastings is the founder of Crafty Team Building, a business that helps colleagues put down their laptops, stop talking about spreadsheets for an hour, and remember they're actually human beings.
Based in Hertfordshire and working with organisations across the UK and internationally, Vanessa designs and delivers creative team-building experiences that bring people together through art, craft and shared creativity. Her workshops include acrylic pouring, origami, Zentangle®, mindful drawing and sustainable creative activities, all designed to help teams slow down, connect and recharge.
Before launching Crafty Team Building, Vanessa spent much of her career working at senior executive level within major organisations including Britvic, Burton's Biscuit Company, Cath Kidston, Mothercare and Edelman. Working closely with leadership teams gave her a front-row seat to the pressures, demands and sometimes slightly chaotic realities of modern working life. It also showed her just how much people benefit from having space to think differently, relax and connect beyond job titles and organisational charts.
The idea behind Crafty Team Building began after Vanessa delivered a creative workshop in a corporate environment and witnessed something unexpected. People who rarely spoke to one another started chatting. Teams became more relaxed. Stress levels visibly dropped. The room became more collaborative, more creative and considerably more colourful. That experience sparked a new direction and ultimately led to the creation of her business.
Today, Vanessa works with organisations ranging from global corporations to smaller businesses looking to improve employee wellbeing, strengthen team relationships and create memorable shared experiences. Her clients include Microsoft, AstraZeneca, Salesforce, Diageo, AT&T, ITV, SimCorp and Atlas Copco.
What makes Vanessa Hastings different is that she doesn't approach team building as forced fun. There are no embarrassing icebreakers, trust falls or awkward role-playing exercises. Instead, her workshops create an environment where people naturally engage with one another through making, learning and experimenting together. The focus is on inclusion, creativity and genuine connection.
Alongside her work as a facilitator, Vanessa is a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT®) and continues to explore the links between creativity, mindfulness, wellbeing and neurodiversity. Through her writing and workshops, she regularly highlights how creative activities can support focus, relaxation, confidence and workplace culture.
Whether she is guiding a leadership away day, facilitating a virtual workshop for a global team or helping colleagues fold what may be the world's most carefully constructed paper crane, Vanessa Hastings believes creativity has the power to bring people together in ways that meetings often cannot.
And if everyone leaves smiling, feeling calmer and carrying an artwork they didn't think they could make, that's usually a very good day.
Vanessa Hastings' Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
Mark introduced the idea of a “fantasy cultural year” - a way to get to know each new full member that's far more spontaneous than a traditional interview — allowing imagination, travel, culture and Vanessa Hastings' creative vision to collide.
This is a hyperthetical, global, fully funded creative journey where the two imagine a wealthy family foundation offers Vanessa the opportunity of a lifetime.
For a year, she will travel the world running art and craft workshops in government departments globally and improve communication and collaboration in public institutions.
Along the way there will be workshops, lectures, interviews, a television documentary, a book deal, a TED Talk and a global university speaking tour.
🎭 The Fantasy Cultural Year Begins
At her favourite building, Angela decides to go with a place rooted in her upbringing: Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong.
Mark places Vanessa at a bar at Happy Valley at 6pm: sunny, warm, race day about to begin.
📚 Beside her – the book
Vanessa chooses:
The Magic of Thinking Big (David J. Schwartz)
She likes its simple structure and “nuggets” of ideas. She also references modern equivalents like Atomic Habits (James Clear), but sticks with Schwartz as her pick.
🎧 In her headphones – the soundtrack
For music, she surprises Mark by going for:
Industrial metal
Specifically Nine Inch Nails
🌍 The Dream Mission
Angela chooses her starting point:
She arrives in London and is welcomed by arts facilitators and students into a loft overlooking Covent Garden.
That evening, she is offered a bespoke cultural experience.
💃 Dance performance
She chooses:
Cirque du Soleil
🍽️ Dinner
For food, she goes with her roots and preferences:
Sichuan cuisine
🇳🇿 Auckland – Sport Day
Next stop: Auckland, New Zealand.
Mark explains she can choose any sporting event, including artistic sports like breakdancing, dressage and ice dancing.
Vanessa lands on:
The Olympics (because it includes everything)
She also enjoys tennis, squash (which she used to play), gymnastics, and ultramarathons.
🏅 Trivia and conversation detours
The chat turns playful with rapid-fire questions:
Sports you can win travelling backwards:
Rowing
Backstroke
High jump (Fosbury flop)
Diving
Tug of war
One country with no snakes:
New Zealand
Two London tube stations with four-letter names:
Bank
Oval
🇯🇵 Tokyo – immersive art
In a futuristic Tokyo gallery where you can step inside artworks, Vanessa chooses:
Vincent van Gogh
She wants to physically enter his world of colour and emotion.
🎭 Cultural Week in London
Back in London, Mark builds a full week of cultural experiences:
🎸 Monday – Historic concert
Vanessa chooses AC/DC at Wembley Stadium
She also reflects on:
Queen as the band she never got to see live
🎭 Tuesday – Theatre
(No specific final pick recorded beyond open exploration of favourites)
🎶 Wednesday – Musical
She highlights:
MJ the Musical
Mrs Doubtfire
But ultimately chooses:
Jesus Christ Superstar (Broadway version, inspired by its music and impact)
🎼 Thursday – Opera / Ballet
She is not a regular opera fan, so Mark chooses:
Puccini’s Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
🎬 Friday – Film night
A double feature:
Dune (Parts One and Two)
She also references a personal memory from Mark:
A full-day Lord of the Rings trilogy marathon (“Trilogy Tuesday”)
🏛️ Hero Lunch
Vanessa is offered a final fantasy: lunch with anyone.
She chooses:
Her best friend Shelley
Shelley, in turn, would invite:
Her late mother, Tammy
They also discuss the idea of “okay people” (partners you’re hypothetically allowed to meet), with playful examples like Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, and Gal Gadot, plus Mark joking he’d choose Dawn French.
Would you like to be profiled and promoted this way?
This is just one of several benefits of full membership from just £10 per month (€13/$13 ish) and you may cancel any time.
Join us here.
Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
Join us as a full member for "done for you" profile, network, career, and/or business development support for just £10 per month. Cancel any time.
Here are some of our full member testimonials:
"Had to write and say a huge thank you for the networking sessions you are running. Met some great people today, thank you so much."
"Great speed networking session today - I really enjoyed it and got some really relevant and valuable connections!"
"I've just joined!! £10 a month for a 1:1 business growth session, free networking, and access to all the events (on top of everything else!)?! This is INSANE value for money Mark and I'm so grateful for everything you've done to build such a supportive network of likeminded creative professionals."
Mark Walmsley FRSA AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
Comments