6 minute read
Cool, Calm & Collective
Michael Sagild, co-founder of Cloud Collective, joined us in Montenegro this year and contributed to our agenda. He explains how his low-impact, low-stress approach to resort creation is gaining ground.
WHAT IS NEW WITH CLOUD COLLECTIVE SINCE WE GATHERED SIX MONTHS AGO? CAN YOU SHARE ANY DETAILS OF NEW PROJECTS?
Our vision for Cloud Collective is to not just lead the market but help define it. With the ambition of showcasing that attractive financial returns can be achieved through the lens of a greater social and environmental purpose, we have been continuing to expand globally through a development strategy that focuses on exciting projects spanning a range of high barriers-to-entry markets, and growth of our business units:
Our project in the lush landscapes of the Thai islands is coming soon. Creating laidback places for kindred spirits, this 40-key low-impact resort is framed by the Gulf of Thailand and driven by our ethos of understanding the relationship between space and place. Operated under one of our portfolio brands, this project will truly be the first of its kind in the region.
We have been hard at work scaling our presence in strategic locations around the world and are excited to unveil new projects in unbeatable locations in Bali, Africa, and Saudi Arabia soon.
A true labour of love and passion project for our team, we have an upcoming new portfolio brand that we will be launching soon that is uniquely positioned to showcase a new way of looking at hospitality and conservation, and has been gaining tremendous momentum with impact investors.
With an intimate group of luxury tented suites, these camps will be located in some of the world’s most pristine wilderness areas with a commitment to safeguard the precious cultures, communities, and wildlife rooted there. Our “Collective” of experts is at the heart of what we do. We have recently onboarded an exciting new roster of strategic partners that we’re excited to work with to innovate and expand on our existing offering
Further development of our product lines; having started with a range of designed tented suite products that are shipped ready to assemble and include FF&E and OS&E, we have recently developed a suite of cabin products that allow for more optionality as well as enable us to work with all climate conditions and geographies
FOR READERS WHO DID NOT ATTEND MONTENEGRO, EXPLAIN WHY CLOUD COLLECTIVE WAS SET UP AND WHAT IT AIMS TO ACHIEVE FOR THOSE WISHING TO DEVELOP RESORTS ON THEIR LAND?
Cloud Collective is a global outdoor hospitality development and management company that was born out of an ambition for change. Our focus: a uniquely experiential approach to development grounded in story and soul.
We are a hospitality company that was started by a band of hoteliers with an intimate level of familiarity with the pitfalls that come with conventional resort development, and a belief that we are the custodians of the people we build with and the places we build in. We saw that resort development, particularly in far flung locations, had become extremely complicated and costly for both developers and owners, particularly when it came to control over timelines, budgets, stakeholders, and quality.
Having seen first-hand the challenges that came with this, we set out to create a solution that could deliver on resort development and management end-to-end in the most economic and efficient way possible, while also being purposedriven. What that resulted in was an integrated model that brought development and operations together in a way that we had yet to see in the market, and a platform that had the capabilities to not just build luxury resorts at a compelling cost and within a compelling timeframe, but to create destinations with impact.
On the product side, we work with our strategic partners to supply products that demonstrate quality engineering, design, and meaningful sustainability–and that most importantly, we’re confident we can stand behind proudly.
A sense of adventure inspires everything we create. On the management side, we have developed a portfolio of founder-built lifestyle brands, each brought to life with a distinctive purpose, concept, and creative story, but all connected through the Cloud Collective brand pillars. Taking our cues from how we live and why we travel, each of our projects is uniquely set in nature with an emphasis on creating immersive experiences and communities of like-minded individuals with a passion for experiential travel.
HOW IMPORTANT IS COLLABORATION IN YOUR FIELD OF WORK?
Collaboration is at the core of our DNA as a company and the inspiration behind our name. COVID-19 taught us that large and heavy corporate structures can be very dangerous, that we cannot be experts in all fields, but that we can put together the best minds and creators that allow us to challenge industry standards while remaining highly adaptable and flexible.
The “Collective” refers to our growing network of curated experts and strategic partners whom we bring in for specific projects in geographical, climactic, or fields in which they’re specialised. All of our Collective partners are selected carefully, and are aligned with our culture, standards and values.
WE ARE UNFORTUNATELY LIVING THROUGH A TIME OF GREAT GEOPOLITICAL UNCERTAINTY – HOW DOES THIS MAKE WHAT WE DO MORE RELEVANT AND IMPORTANT?
As the world is evolving, we find that developers who need to create value turn to cost effective solutions such as ours, where placemaking and destination creation can be achieved with relatively smaller investments and risk, and where projects can be executed sustainably. We are being considered for destinations where traditional hospitality can’t penetrate, which provides a very exciting opportunity for us and the wider sector.
WHAT DID YOU TAKE FROM THE ECO RESORT NETWORK EVENT? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF AT THE NEXT ECO RESORT NETWORK EVENT?
The ERN in Montenegro was a real eye-opener for me. With Cloud Collective, we had entered a very new segment of the hospitality market, but my experience with gatherings and networks in the traditional hospitality space was very different to what I found in Montenegro – a gathering of intensely passionate people and professionals from many walks of life that all shared this idea that nature should drive travel, choice of accommodation, and engagement with the environment and oneself.
There were entrepreneurs, concept thinkers, and creators. Because the size of the event was so manageable, the experience facilitated a sense that this really was the crème de la crème of this nascent but budding industry. Connections were formed, ideas exchanged, and a feeling of ‘let’s keep it to this size please’ permeated very quickly. It was truly transformative for me.
