What would Dalí do with AI?
We have a feeling he wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about whether it could copy his moustache.
Salvador Dalí didn’t just make art. He created a surreal world, a voice, a vision, a very
successful business… And a personal brand so unmistakably Dalí that we’re still talking about it decades later.
And this got us thinking: in a world where AI can create almost anything in seconds, what makes YOU impossible to copy?
That’s the question at the heart of our next Inking Abroad Retreat. And we couldn’t think of a better place to explore it than Cadaqués, the tiny, slightly surreal village on the Spanish coast where Dalí lived, worked and built much of his extraordinary legacy.
Our creative challenge in the age of AI
With so much AI-generatec content around, and with so many people (including our clients) using gen-AI, the stakes for creatives have never been higher. So for this latest retreat, we’re not coming just to draw. We’re coming to think about our very future as creatives:
- What do you want to be known for?
- What gives you energy, and what are you ready to leave behind?
- Where do you want to take your creative work in the next 5–10 years?
- What makes your work unmistakably yours?
And where does AI fit into all of that? Not as the enemy, and not as the answer to everything, but as both a tool and a way of working that we can choose to use on our own terms.
Over three days, we’ll explore four big themes:
- Be bold
- Find your North Star
- Design your next move
- Make AI your ally
BE BOLD
Step into Dalí’s world and explore what we can learn from his unapologetic creativity, thinking and business instinct. We’ll be visiting the Dalí Theatre-Museum for an unrivalled immersion into his mind and his works, as well as his house (now also a museum) in Cataqués.
FIND YOUR NORTH STAR
Dig into your why. What drives you? What matters most to you, and why? What kind of creator do you want to become next? In a ‘global conversation’ of voices in various forms, what is your voice? And what do you want to say?
You will craft a vision that captures the connection between your purpose and your voice.
DESIGN YOUR NEXT MOVE
Turn that vision into a bold strategy for your creative work and business. How will your voice show up in a new way? What form(s) will it take? Who is it for?
And something else that makes us both thrilled and scared at the same time when we apply it to ourselves: where have you been negotiating with yourself and ‘playing small’ to fit in?
MAKE AI YOUR ALLY
Explore where various AI tools, platforms and ways of working can strengthen your thinking, creativity and strategy, without diluting what makes you you. We’ll go beyond the usual conversations we’ve all been having, roll up our sleeves, and use a variety of tools and processes to experience what a mix of these ingredients can do for you and your business.
Your creative (and strategic) hosts
Ben Crothers and Axelle Vanquaillie will be your hosts, facilitators, guides and occasional troublemakers throughout the three days… Oh, and we are bringing someone along to stir things up.
Meet Jeroen De Flander.
Jeroen is one of the world’s leading experts on strategy execution and AI strategy. He’ll join us in Cadaqués to challenge our thinking, ask uncomfortable questions, make complicated things surprisingly simple and help us look at AI from a very different angle.
Expect experiments, conversations, drawing, wandering, thinking, playing, good food, unexpected places, nooks and crannies, and probably a few things we haven’t invented yet!
Our ambition is that you will leave Cadaqués with your head buzzing, your batteries recharged and a much clearer idea of where you want to go next. Not with a 48-page strategy document, but with a stronger sense of purpose, a bolder direction and some very concrete next moves.
Join us
The future of creative work is uncertain. But we’re creators. We get to create it.
Join us for this absolutely unique creative getaway in Figueres and Cadaqués, 14-17 May 2027.