Hospitality, Belonging and Othering
Excerpt of pg. 81 from our KPI is Joy: How live events catalyze happiness, productivity and trust, available on Amazon March 21, 2025. In this, we delve into the beginning of what the belonging movement in events means and why it is so important.
Belonging is a wonderful concept. It is complex and messy because it involves humans. We are all different and we all mesh differently in the wide variety of situations, locations and moments we find ourselves in.
If you have ever felt on the outside, you’ve known discomfort.
If you have only ever felt like you belong, you are fortunate.
The world is struggling with diversity, equity and inclusion. Events bring together people with a common work, a shared interest or area of passion. Event participants might come from one country or one hundred. They can be of any age and they arrive with a wide variety of cultural expectations. We want them all to feel welcome.
Your parents taught you,
“Treat people how you would like to be treated.”
Hospitality and event professionals know this:
Treat people how THEY would like to be treated!
Over more than 30 years of designing events that have brought people together in groups from 14 to 15,000+, from nearly every country in the world, for finite amounts of time, I’ve learned how to create space for all. The early lessons came in 1996 at the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver. With delegates coming from 129 countries with a variety of cultural expectations, there were also more than 1,000 participants with AIDS coming at a time when antiretroviral medication was still new. Their needs meant designing spaces for napping, medical care and nutritious food. The harder part? Educating a community about the medical realities of being in the same place as, or touching the same items as, AIDS patients. Education on what was and what was not risky. The lessons in communication, empathy and patience were invaluable.
As a society, we have moved past our fear of patients with medical needs, returning quickly to travel after a pandemic. As event designers we can shift our focus to others with less visible needs both at work and at our events. We have recognized the positive results when we support neurodivergent learners across all aspects of their event participation. There is much to be explored.
This is just the beginning of the available design ideas and resources as we all embark on our belonging journey in intentional event design.
