Creative Lunch Club: creative encounters around the table

03.06.2025

What if networking wasn’t awkward but instead felt natural, personal, human? That’s the question that inspired Vienna-based digital marketer and community builder Klaus Heller to launch Creative Lunch Club in April 2023 — a global network of creatives who connect once a month over something as simple (and powerful) as lunch.

Since then, the platform has grown to connect over 15,000 creatives in 150+ cities worldwide. Barcelona has emerged as one of the most vibrant communities, with more than 400 active members. Graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, musicians, filmmakers, and all types of creative professionals come together to talk, share, collaborate — or simply connect beyond the business card.

The key to its magic? Monthly meetups in small groups of three, designed to foster meaningful, real conversations — from finding clients or avoiding burnout to talking about cats, anxiety, and everything in between.

In this exclusive interview for CC/magazine, founder Klaus Heller shares the spark behind the idea, why it resonates across cultures, and how sharing a meal can be the start of new friendships, collaborations — or even love stories.

Can you recall the moment or experience that sparked the idea for Creative Lunch Club?

I had the idea for Creative Lunch Club about 8 years ago. Back then, I was working as a freelancer, mostly from home. A few of my friends were freelancers too, and sometimes we’d meet up to work together at someone’s place and cook and eat lunch together. I always enjoyed that, but often I was eating lunch alone. So at some point, I thought: lunch is a fixed part of the working day for many people, so wouldn’t it be great to use that time to meet others?

“I thought: lunch is a fixed part of the working day for many people, so wouldn’t it be great to use that time to meet others?”

It took me a few years to bring this idea to life, but now I’m really happy I started this community.

What frustrated you the most about traditional networking events?

They’re often very superficial. You just exchange contacts, say what you do, who you’ve worked with, but you don’t really get to know the person behind it. I’m genuinely interested in the person sitting across from me. I also want to know more about their personal side, what excites them, what they’re afraid of, what their biggest challenges are. You only learn those things when you spend more time with someone. That’s when you can build a real connection.

How did your background in digital marketing and building online communities influence the concept?

It really helped me bring my idea to life and create a great digital experience for the Creative Lunch Club. I also knew from the beginning how to promote my concept through social media, which made a lot of things easier. I had spent years helping other people grow their brands, so I was happy that it was finally time to focus on my own.

Having a great idea is one thing, but knowing how to execute it and get people to hear about it is something else entirely.

“Having a great idea is one thing, but knowing how to execute it and get people to hear about it is something else entirely.”

I also knew from the start that I wanted to build something people could actively participate in and be a part of.

Creative Lunch Club has grown rapidly across 150+ cities. What do you think explains such fast global adoption?

We’re all spending so much time behind our digital screens these days that people are really longing for real connection, especially after the pandemic years. Many creatives work as freelancers, and many work from home. And as great as working from home can be, a day spent alone behind a screen can also feel pretty isolating. We’re social beings, and we all need to see other people from time to time, to engage and interact.

A lunch with other creatives can be a refreshing change of scenery and a great source of new inspiration. That’s why I think the Creative Lunch Club really struck a nerve in the creative scene.

Why do you think the small group lunch format resonates so strongly with creatives across cultures?

I think a lot of creatives feel more comfortable in smaller groups than in big ones, because many of us are introverts or at least a little introverted. Being around too many people at once can feel a bit overwhelming. Smaller groups also make it much easier to have in-depth, meaningful conversations instead of just superficial small talk, and to really get to know the other person.

Why do you think sharing a meal has such unique power to create genuine human connections?

Sharing a meal is probably one of the oldest social acts, and you can find it in all cultures around the world. Eating together is something deeply human. It gives meaning to spending time with someone else. It also makes things easier, because it creates a more casual atmosphere and gives you something to talk about.

Have you heard any particularly moving or unexpected stories that have come out of a Creative Lunch?

A story that really moved me happened recently. A woman messaged me on Instagram and told me that Creative Lunch Club helped her get out of depression after moving from buzzing Mexico City to very quiet Perth. It helped her meet new people and make new friends in a new city. She even created a yoga morning retreat with someone she met at a Creative Lunch Club. And another person she met through the club produced some promo videos for the event.

The project became a great collaboration between members of our community, and for her, Creative Lunch Club was truly life-changing.

“Eating together is something deeply human.”

What kinds of conversations tend to come up most often during these meetups? Are there common themes across countries?

I can only speak from my own experience. I’ve already had lunches through Creative Lunch Club in Vienna, Berlin, Cape Town, London, and Barcelona, and each one was different and unique. Sometimes the conversations stay more on the business side, other times they get very personal. Some lunches only lasted an hour, while others turned into coffee, a walk, or even a visit to the other creative’s workspace, which I always find super interesting. It really depends on the people. Creative Lunch Club is what you make of it.

But in most cases, when you’re with other creatives, there’s some common ground. Whether you’re a graphic designer or a photographer, you’ve probably had similar experiences with clients or faced similar challenges in your career. And very often, you also share interests in things like art. So there’s always something to talk about. That’s also why I decided to focus on professional creatives in the first place.

Barcelona is one of your largest communities. What do you think makes it such a good fit for the spirit of the club?

I think Barcelona is a city with a lot of creative spirit. It’s not just local creatives, many international creatives are moving there too. And they’re often really looking to meet new people.

To me, Spanish people also seem very open, communicative, and social, which might be another reason why it works so well there.

Are there plans to grow or strengthen the presence in other Spanish cities like Madrid or Valencia?

Sure, we already have a lot of members in Madrid and a growing community in Valencia. I’d love to bring Creative Lunch Club to smaller cities as well, but it’s not always easy to keep a steady flow of new members signing up in those places.

Can you share any examples of creative projects or professional collaborations that started through Creative Lunch Club?

Just recently, Tanushkaa, a creative portrait photographer from Manchester, and Kintsuku, a music producer, vocalist, and songwriter, met through Creative Lunch Club. One coffee later, they were already doing a photoshoot together and creating new promo pics. I love seeing these kinds of collaborations between our members!

How do participants balance friendship and professional opportunity in these gatherings?

When I started building Creative Lunch Club, I clearly had this intersection of professional networking and personal connection in mind. Ideally, it’s both—a place where you can grow your career and make meaningful friendships. And I think for most people, the beauty lies in that overlap.

The creative industry is a people business, and work gets so much better when you feel a real human connection with the people you’re working with.

Where do you see Creative Lunch Club going in the next few years? Are you considering themed lunches, dinners, or retreats?

First, I want to bring Creative Lunch Club to many more cities. There are a lot of Asian cities with vibrant creative communities where we’d love to get active. Right now, we’re only in Seoul and Tokyo. South America is still a blank spot for us, and Africa is a continent with so much creative potential—I’d love to connect creatives there too.

I’m not so sure about doing retreats, since there’s already a lot happening in that space. But I do have other ideas for bringing creatives together, and I’m sure I’ll build more platforms in the future. Maybe also ones that don’t just connect creatives.

What personally keeps you motivated to keep growing and nurturing this community month after month?

Building your own platform or community is, for me, one of the most fulfilling things you can do in your work. It still feels surreal to know that people in places like Sydney or Los Angeles are meeting and becoming friends because I matched them, but it’s such a great feeling.

Creative Lunch Club isn’t and shouldn’t be a dating app, but honestly, it would be pretty cool if two people met at a lunch and fell in love. In that case, I definitely want an invite to the wedding. Or they at least have to name their firstborn Klaus. Hahaha

“I want to bring Creative Lunch Club to many more cities.”

What have you learned —both creatively and personally— since launching Creative Lunch Club?

I’ve learned a lot in these past 24 months, probably more than ever before, because I was building almost everything for Creative Lunch Club on my own. Building your own platform and your own business is one of the steepest learning curves you can have, but also one of the most rewarding. Luckily I love to learn new things and figure out how things work :D

If you could have lunch with any creative person, past or present, who would it be and why?

That would definitely be Virgil Abloh. He was such a great multidisciplinary creative mind, a pioneer in so many ways, and he had an incredible ability to balance between underground and mainstream culture.

He paved the way for so many other Black creatives, and I really admire how he saw his own success as a responsibility to uplift others.

That’s something I’d love to do as well: open doors for talented individuals who have been historically excluded or overlooked in the creative world.