Selected Work · Experiential Production, Dan Ligocký

Selected work

Real numbers, nothing rounded up.

Four projects that show how the difficult parts get solved, then some work that shows the range.

Flagship work

Captain Morgan, Port Royal

Concept & production, via The Element

2019

Client: Diageo

Nothing like it had been built before.

A pirate ship as a mobile bar and stage on a Tatra 815 8x8. 21 tonnes, 17.6 metres long, 13.7 metres tall. Road legal without exemptions, and a working venue once it stopped.

4 months: Contract to delivery
30+: Vendors
UK · AT · CZ: Sourced across

Make it legal. Make it safe. Make it work.

Mast height changed the wind calculation. The wind calculation changed the structure, and the structure changed what was road legal. Standing still with people on board, it had to hold wind, rigging, lighting and mud.

The call

One connected system, not a procurement exercise. More than thirty vendors worked against a single engineering picture, including military grade masts from the UK and projection screens from Austria. Where a legal or safety limit forced a change, the idea was protected and the solution found underneath it.

Delivered in four months, built in Ostrava with a hundred person crew.

A film and theatre set, not just a bar. The whole ship was built to be the stage.

Captain Morgan, Port Royal production imagery

Captain Morgan, Port Royal audience moment

Ethereum Day

Event Lead, Ethereum Foundation

Oct–Nov 2025

Seven weeks to build the opening of an entire week.

A 2,500-person opening event that had to set the tone for the whole of Devconnect Buenos Aires.

7 weeks: Lead time
2,500: Guests
Buenos Aires: Devconnect

No runway

A new team, collaborators across several time zones, and production partners, AV and talent agencies not all working in English. The space was still being shaped with the development team while the programme was being built.

The call

Decisions were made early and once, in the order the build needed them, so distributed people could work in parallel. Local partners were briefed on intent rather than instructions. The bandoneon and tango programme was commissioned in Buenos Aires, so the event belonged to the city instead of visiting it.

Opened on time, 2,500 people through the doors.

ETHPrague

Co-Founder

2021 – present

Building the organisation and the event at the same time.

A conference at a scale Prague had not hosted. No team, no vendors, no venue, no budget.

5: Editions
200+: Partners negotiated directly
500: Hackers

All at once

Every part depended on a part that did not exist yet. Difficult venues had to be talked into it, stakeholders kept aligned, and funding raised through a market cycle where sponsor budgets were being cut rather than allocated.

The approach

Build the organisation, not only each edition. Around two hundred partners were negotiated directly so the relationships stayed with the event, and the programme was widened to bring in people from outside the ecosystem, including students.

Five editions in. 1,000+ attendees, 500 hackers, four stages over three days.

Cinema Royal, Aerofilms

Fundraiser & Event Coordinator

2010 – 2012

When the venue isn't a venue.

Secret cinema in buildings that had never held an audience, launching the format in a country with no reference for it.

No precedent to point at

Owners had to open their buildings for the first time. Safety and access had to be established in spaces with no infrastructure, without sanding off the atmosphere that made them worth using.

Find the place first

The location became the idea rather than a container for one. The owner was treated as the first audience, persuaded by what the space would be for one night. Safety was designed into the staging, routes, sightlines and crowd flow, rather than bolted on as barriers.

A new format in the Czech market, including one of the first large-scale videomapping performances in the country with The Macula, later founders of SIGNAL Festival.

Cinema Royal, Aerofilms production imagery

More work

Pilsner Urquell

Concept & production, via The Element

2015

Three locations. One production standard.

A pop-up pub network for the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Vítkovice, Pilsen and Prague operated across 500 kilometres in just two weeks, requiring us to scale The Element’s production capability faster than it had grown before. Four pubs and 24 barrels, built and run within the same two-week window.

Pilsner Urquell
IIHF
3 cities

Festival Majak

Founder, first two editions

2016 – 2017

Client: Skoda Auto

Building an event that has to pay for itself.

A new public festival at Kosmonosy Castle for the Skoda Auto Endowment Fund. New geography, no local contacts, several sponsors and a requirement to break even in the first season, so it was designed to be self-sufficient from day one. Handed on after two editions.

Skoda Auto Endowment Fund
5,000+ attendees

Education Parties

Co-Founder, with Martin Rehacek

2010 – 2012

International talent at a price the room could afford.

An independent concert series at MeetFactory, with one edition at Karlovy Vary IFF. Mount Kimbie, Bibio, Jamie Woon, Kuedo, Slugabed and XXXY played to a Czech audience years before most of them were widely known. Several revenue streams and sponsors given a real role, rather than a higher door price, kept the programme the reason to come.

MeetFactory
Red Bull Music Academy

Aeroport, KVIFF

Fundraiser & Event Coordinator

2010 – 2012

Client: Aerofilms

Turning a historic building into a temporary world.

A historic building turned into a gallery, café and nightclub for the ten days of the festival. Permits, load, capacity and heritage limits set the terms, so sponsor presence went into what the audience actually used rather than onto the walls. Returned to its original state afterwards.

Karlovy Vary IFF
10 days

The Element

Founder & Managing Director

2014 – 2022

The brief was a category. The answer had to be a world.

A boutique experiential agency built from scratch, working with Pernod Ricard, Diageo, Red Bull, Skoda Auto and Heineken on brand worlds rather than repeated formats. Eight years, with budget ownership around 400k EUR a year.

Pernod Ricard
Diageo
Red Bull
Skoda Auto
Heineken

Paralelni Polis

Creative Producer

2021

Hackers Congress (HCPP21), a cypherpunk and privacy gathering with its own culture and its own rules of hospitality.

HCPP21

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Guest Services Coordinator

2008 – 2010

VIP and artist liaison for international film talent.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival production imagery

Radio 1 & VICE Magazine

Production & Promotion Assistant / Launch Producer

2006, 2009

Activations for Radio 1's 15th anniversary, and the launch party for VICE Magazine's arrival in the Czech Republic.

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