Water Resource East’s (WRE) highly interactive event not only engaged attendees, it secured their commitment to help create a more sustainable future.   Eastern England faces potentially catastrophic effects in the future if risks to its water supply are left unchecked. Tasked with exploring these challenges, WRE needed to raise awareness of its work amongst stakeholders and drive up engagement and investment in the organisation.  To meet these objectives, WRE and design agency Spring twisted guests’ expectations at the ‘Future of Water’ event. Attended by stakeholders including councils and water companies, the immersive event used progressive design thinking to unlock psychological impacts. Catapulting guests into a dystopia depicting a stark future where no action has been taken to safeguard water supply, it then showed them how this scenario can be mitigated through pro-active measures. By shocking participants out of complacency, 44% of stakeholders attending pledged financial and practical support for the organisation (against an expectation of 30%) helping to secure the future of WRE and its work. Reach and engagement jumped via social media and press coverage, and with its increased profile WRE is now influencing national water resource policy.