‘Human connection over phones’: Offline club pop up to open in Adelaide CBD

Phone-free cafes are big in Amsterdam, and the Dutch trio who kicked off the trend are opening a spot in July in South Australia.

SA Weekend. Illuminate Adelaide 2025. Ilya Kneppelhout, Jordy van Bennekom and Valentijn Klok, founders of the Offline Club, from the Netherlands. Picture: Supplied

It may seem ironic that one of the new highlights of this year’s Illuminate Adelaide program – a festival which explores the intersection of art and technology – is about switching off and disconnecting from our screen devices.

“I think it’s ironic that Illuminate Adelaide found us on Instagram,” laughs Ilya Kneppelhout, one of Netherlands phenomenon the Offline Club’s three co-founders. “It may seem a bit out of place, but I think what Illuminate Adelaide has properly realised is that there are two movements going on in the world, that happen at the same time.

“One is technological advancement and interconnectedness, especially now that AI is booming. On the other hand, as that is growing, people will forever more want to disconnect from it. That’s the movement that we hope to create. These two are together at play … they are not separate from each other.

“That’s why I think it’s actually super fitting that the Offline Club will be at a festival which focuses on technology.”

Kneppelhout and co-founder Jordy van Bennekom first met as students at a sustainable start-up company in Amsterdam. “We did an internship there during our masters – that was in 2021. Then we started working there together.”

Initially, Kneppelhout and van Bennekom successfully challenged themselves to go offline for four days, after which they decided to expand the idea for other people.

In late 2022, the duo held its first “reading weekend” at a remote house two hours from Amsterdam, surrounded by nature, with nine people including some of their friends.

“That was when Valentijn (Klok, who was based in the city of Utrecht) joined the team, because he’s a professional chef. Jordy and I are really bad cooks, so we needed someone to prep high quality food for the participants,” Kneppelhout says.

“It was like a pilot … just like a tryout. It was super nice. Two people afterwards quit their jobs, because they finally had the mental space to think about their lives, which we tend to not take the time for as a society these days.

“So we really saw the impact of what we were doing and we got a lot of fulfilment out of it ourselves. Then it just went on like that, as a side project for fun, and because we really believed in the mission.”

The Offline Club has been thriving in the Netherlands. Picture: Supplied

The success of the events led to the formation of the Offline Club, to accommodate the demand to host shorter sessions in cities for those not able to get away for a full weekend.

“Valentijn was like, ‘I love the idea – can I become the third man?’ So he joined at the right time.” The trio initially considered running an offline cafe, “but we were still students, so we had no money for that”.

Instead, they approached existing venues to see if they could “recreate an offline cafe setting for shorter periods of time” so that it was not only financially viable but also more accessible for participants “in terms of time investment”.

In turn, the shorter cafe “digital detox” format has become a successful tool for marketing the longer weekend events, which are still held, under the name The Offline Getaway.

“Our tagline in Dutch means ‘A weekend away from your f--king busy life.’ The whole idea was that there was no program – and we also didn’t want to advertise it as a retreat. The idea was that people can do as they want, when they want,” Kneppelhout says.

“Most people read, they took walks in nature, when they wanted to play board games with others they could. It was really to actually take a break from technology and reconnect with yourself, by getting rid of all distractions, all responsibilities and schedules, so you can focus on your own needs.” Demand to join the Offline Club has grown at a phenomenal rate, with regular events now held in Amsterdam, London, Milan, Barcelona and Paris, and openings scheduled in Berlin and Copenhagen.

“Then we are adding more cities as the year continues. It was quite crazy … we only hosted one event in Amsterdam, then a couple of weeks later our videos went viral, and people from all over the world were already asking us when the Offline Club is coming to their city.

“Now we’ve really turned it into a business and laid the foundation for a more structured organisation, to be able to replicate the Offline Club and regular community hangouts in different cities in Europe, and hopefully soon across the world.”

It is also developing its online presence to deliver more digital detox tips and offline lifestyle hacks to incorporate in their daily lives.

Illuminate Adelaide will mark its first venture to Australia, although Kneppelhout says a large percentage of its online follower base is already from here, and he is aware of at least one Australian having attended a retreat in the Netherlands.

In the space of about 40 years, people have gone from fixed line telephones, limited broadcast TV channels and occasional access to very basic video games or computer consoles, to a world dominated by screen and communications culture.

“I read somewhere that the internet used to be an escape from our lives, and now it is actually the other way around, where being offline is an escape from the metaverse,” Kneppelhout says. ‘We’ve become so interdependent on all the tech tools and being online that we actually are afraid to live without it – people find it a frightening idea, something they cannot even fathom.”

This has consequences which Kneppelhout says are becoming more widespread, including the impact on physical and mental health.

“Right now, this offline movement is starting to take off, where people are realising that, maybe in the end, all the heightened efficiency and productivity and interconnectedness is not as good as we thought it would be.”

Instead of reading about life onscreen, the Offline Club is about actually rediscovering and connecting with what our humanity is.

“We are not against technology, and not against social media, but we do believe it has come to a point where the most beautiful and unique bits of being a human – and being of humanity – are slowly going away. Like looking each other in the eye, and actually having a conversation with others, or looking around you when you are sitting on a train and noticing the small things around us. Or just being by yourself and reading a book.”

Kneppelhout says feedback from the Offline Club’s participants is that they found its sessions “liberating”. “I actually talked to one of our club members last week and she said: ‘Every time I’m at the Offline Club it feels like I am in my 20s again in the 1990s, when there was not a single distraction that had people looking down at their phones during a dinner or a conversation.’ The interaction she experiences, for her, felt like being back in time.

“On these weekends, you have no distractions, and that’s when creativity sparks. Other participants said ‘I want to bring this back … I don’t only want to do this at a house in nature, I want to do this on a day-to-day basis and incorporate it into my lifestyle.’”

While its South Australian events will have a local spin in terms of locations and menus, Kneppelhout says the “concepts are very global”. “They are very innate human needs to connect with others, to connect with yourself, so our concept is quite simple.”

The Offline Club’s core trio, who are now in their late 20s, will all come to Adelaide to host its Illuminate program, which includes Hangouts sessions at The Pear Cafe, Queens Theatre and McGregors, and a Papershell Farm lunch at Willunga South. The bigger XL event at Adelaide University’s Lumen Bar will feature multiple activity zones including reading nooks, interactive art spaces, facilitated discussions and some “surprise elements”.

“It all has to do with human connection … through different sorts of silent and non-silent games and activities, creative expression, also collaborative art and reflection: slowing down and connecting with yourself.”

However, there are rules that must be followed. “The first thing we do is we literally lock people’s phones up, in our Phone Hotel as we call it. Out of sight, out of mind.

“It’s also the reason that people come – they expect it, they know it. Quite often, they actually don’t want their phones back … they are anxious because they know all the notifications that are awaiting them.”

Kneppelhout says modern life has got to the point where people often need to be guided through that detox process.

“Of course, some people are totally conscious of their own phone use, or being behind screens and how it affects them, and are taking measures on what to do against it. But I think most of us grab our phones and we have arrived in an Instagram app before we even realise it.”

Such apps are designed to keep us engaged, and we can lose track of time, he says.

“Everything is on our phone, right, so it’s very normal to be so attached to it, because our entire social life and connectivity is also in there. It’s one of the most human needs, to feel like you belong to another group.

“With all these features that are so addictive, people need to be guided through how to take distance from your phone, and to relearn how to be without it, because it is like an extension of our bodies at this point.”

He also says people don’t come to the events only to disconnect from their phones. “The phones are a means to get somewhere else they want to be … which is meeting people, making new friends, or having more time for themselves and offline hobbies, without distractions.

“It’s not phone addicts who come to our events. Loneliness is a very big problem these days, and at the Offline Club we aim to create a space where talking to strangers is the norm.”

Offline Club events run from July 5 to 13. Tickets at illuminateadelaide.com