Inside Out: How a classroom experiment sparked the vision for Wavetable

In 2015, I found myself preparing for a classroom session in East London. At the time, I was a music agent who'd recently sold my company to a bigger agency. A week before the talk, reality hit: I'd be facing 60+ teenagers who, if they were anything like I was at 17, would rather be anywhere else than listening to another industry person drone on about their career.

That weekend, I scrapped my carefully prepared slide deck and spent hours frantically pulling together something different - market data, festival economics, site layouts, the works. Materials that could make this real, not just theoretical.

When I walked into that classroom, I did something that felt both terrifying and obvious: I asked them to build a music festival from scratch.

Not just the lineup – everything. Ticket pricing strategy. Food vendor selection. Even the surprisingly complex logistics of portable toilet placement. They had two hours to create and pitch entire festival concepts.

The session was pure chaos (back then, I had no idea how to properly design this kind of experience). But watching these students transform from passive listeners into active creators was electric. Halfway through, one of the teachers nudged me and pointed to a student in the corner, head down, sketching an incredibly detailed site map. "He hardly ever pays attention," they whispered, "but he's been doing that for 20 minutes straight."

That's when it clicked: The most powerful learning doesn't happen through slides and lectures. It happens when people get their hands dirty with real challenges. When they're given the space to create, collaborate, and connect the dots themselves.

But this wasn't just about education. It was about something bigger: the untapped potential that exists inside every organization, every team, every individual. What if we could transform all those routine moments – classes, training sessions, leadership programs, team meetings and off-sites – into opportunities for genuine growth and connection?

What if, instead of bringing outside solutions in, we could help organizations bring their best ideas and capabilities out?

This question became Wavetable's founding principle: Growth begins from the inside out.

Today, we help forward-thinking organizations, entrepreneurs and teams transform their internal expertise and experiences into powerful engines for growth. Whether it's turning company training into addictive learning experiences, or helping leaders unlock the hidden potential in their teams – we're here to help you bring what's inside, out.

The chaos of that London classroom has evolved into something more refined, but the core insight remains: When you give people the right space to create, collaborate, and grow together, extraordinary things happen.

If this resonates with where you want to take your work, let's talk. The best growth stories always start from within.

Howard