Hands-on experiences rooted in Portuguese craft and culture, bringing teams together beyond screens and familiar roles.

For a team afternoon, a leadership gathering or time together during an offsite, we can explore a Manual Break around your group.

Let’s talk about your team.

When working days are filled with meetings, messages and decisions, making something with your hands offers a welcome change of rhythm.

An artist introduces a material, a technique and a way of seeing. Your team gets to try something unfamiliar, share a table and enjoy conversations that unfold along the way.

No creative experience needed.

Just curiosity to step into an artist’s world, without the pressure to be good at it.

Local artists and makers are at the heart of a Manual Break.

Their skills, stories and creative practices offer fresh perspectives on how we work, learn and spend our attention.

Alongside a hands-on session, we can explore a conversation or roundtable with artists, leaders and members of your team.

Depending on your interests, themes could include:

Creativity and uncertainty
Starting without all the answers, working through blocks and learning through practice.

Sustainable leadership
Making room for ambition, care and a working rhythm people can sustain.

Work in an AI-driven world
Where technology helps, what deserves our attention and how we make intentional choices.

The value of making
What working with materials might reveal about patience, judgement and the urge to optimise.

The conversation can be a central part of the gathering or you can simply make and enjoy the time together.

An afternoon together

A guided making session with a local artist or maker, with space for conversation and refreshments.

Part of your offsite

A hands-on experience woven into your existing programme, offering a change of pace between other sessions.

A longer gathering

Time to explore making, local culture and shared meals, with room for reflection and unstructured time.

These are starting points. The format will depend on your group, location and the availability of artists and hosts.

We’ll start with a conversation about who’s coming, what brings you together and what you’d like to make room for.

From there, we can explore the right format, artists, setting and balance between making, conversation and time to yourselves.

We’re Sal and Tiago. Having spent over a decade working in big tech in Dublin, we know the pace of international working life and why stepping outside it can feel valuable.

What would you like to make room for?

Tell us a little about your team and the gathering you have in mind. It’s fine if the idea is still taking shape.

Let’s talk about your team

Or email hello@themanualbreak.com.