Defining Intentional event design is the end-to-end creation of an experience to deliver maximum impact for stakeholders, event after event. It is also referred to as “mindful” or “purposeful” design.
Our Professional Opportunity
To fulfill the growing need in our society for human-to-human contact and to deliver measurable results for our organizations, we design events worth attending. We do this by using our unique knowledge of human nature, strategy and logistics, strengthened by our partnerships with like-minded colleagues and vendor partners committed to delivering excellence. Events are judged one at a time, and each time we must show our value to stakeholders, sponsors and participants through measurement. This is the basis of intentional event design, where we consistently prove an event to be the best use of resources for all stakeholders.
Defining Our Professional Value
As we first define and then use data to prove the importance of face-to-face meetings in continued business success we prove our professional roles as strategic business managers, no longer just providers of meeting logistics. This is the foundation for the Meetings Mean Business® movement and underpins the work our key industry associations have focused on to prove the value of an industry that contributes billions of dollars to the global economy, connecting people, businesses and communities inextricably and in unique, human ways.
Create from Trust
To use an event to deliver on objectives in a purposeful and innovative manner starts with true creative ideas rooted in collaboration, trust, an understanding of culture and appetite for experience creation. When we hire interior designers or architects, we look at a portfolio of previous work. We ask questions about what makes them tick, and find a person or organization that has a perceived best fit with us to meet our style and needs. Usually, the decision to work with them is made before you begin your design. We need to apply this to events. When the requirement is for a transformational experience using an event, you need to design from a place of deep understanding on both sides. The clients need to know they have the “right” team in place for the task. As we know from experience, each event requires its own team, an assembly of collaboration experts with specific skills and a passion for the project.
Our Professional Opportunity
When you validate assumptions about your event’s business impact with hard data, you earn your invitation to broader business conversations. We say “I want a seat at the executive table” and we earn this when we have hard data stakeholders can use to inform their decisions. Events are an important part of any business or association, data will prove it.
Technology Is Beautiful
Technology of course is only as good as its users and designers. At its best, it is either beautiful, well designed and useful, or invisible, helping us without interference. It is everywhere, and we must learn how to integrate it.
Do you Really Need Data?
Yes! At its best, data will validate your assumptions. Any time we host, sponsor or participate in an event we are looking for attention for our organization, event or our brand. We are seeking the engagement of our participants with sponsors, exhibitors, presenters and each other; we are building trust in our event as a premier place to do all the above. We still need to prove it, to ourselves and our stakeholders.
When it comes to using data to our advantage, catch up or be left behind!
What does being left behind look like? It could be your event, destination, hotel or venue not being selected because you are not on the radar. The reality is we all have many competitors with a high level of sophistication and deep digital reach. It is time to ensure your organization / event is optimized across channels for search engines, including being mobile-friendly.
There are technologies we rely on, plus fascinating new technology we can access to add interest to our events. Some may be new to you, some familiar, some already in use and perhaps even taken for granted. We need to understand the opportunities for positive impacts, so we explore everything from AI to Wearables!
We create events worth attending.
It is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
This applies to sponsors, exhibitors and participants. Are there sponsors who have participated over the course of time you expect will always support you? Don’t get comfortable! You must track and show results for them in terms of brand reputation and engagement by looking at survey results, social engagement and movement through the show. Technology built into most smart phones can track both movement and dwell time, letting you see long participants spent in sessions, at certain events or even in booth spaces. You can be sure your sponsor’s teams will be tracking direct leads but this is only one small measure of overall success in a show. How are you working with your partners to create shared success? What will compel them to renew for a multi-year arrangement?
Do you have a sold-out show? Do you have exhibitors who have dropped off? Particularly if they have participated for multiple years, do you know why? Do you need to evolve your show to remain attractive? Data analyzed can tell you the first; the second is where design thinking comes into play.
Are participants marking this on their calendar as a must-attend or a maybe-attend? Are you able to offer registration at the close of your event for the following year? Are you building a repeat audience from your fan base?
Of course, the trickiest “sell” of all is those who are paying to attend, and who need strong evidence to justify the necessary resources required to return – time and money. What will tip the scale for any of the above will be the sense of community and connection they anticipate, the emotional reason(s) to attend, and once at the event, the return that comes from becoming truly engaged.
From data to digital tools to social media, influencers, advocates and community building to success, it’s all here!
Our Professional Opportunity
With so much on our plates already, why is it important to understand how the recent research on behavioral science and the neuroscience behind learning and connection impacts our event participants? If you want to create transformational experiences, understanding how individuals respond to live event environments is a key first step. Having participants, sponsors and stakeholders depart knowing this event had a positive impact suggests there will be future events created together.
Factors for Optimal Brain Performance
Many factors allow brains to be at their optimum performance, particularly over multiple days, often including early and late events. A key area where we can have an impact is in crafting appropriate environments and shared experiences. But when it comes to experience creation, we are often distracted by details such as history – how the meeting has always been done; what we are being told the meeting host wants; what we believe should happen based on our own realm of experience. Consider how you can enable these ideas by using thoughtful food and beverage planning, happiness and positive surprise and see the learning and connections amplify.
Our Professional Opportunity
Building talent is a cornerstone of success. In a world with less loyalty, organizations can use events to future-proof and-build stronger teams. We can use thoughtful meeting design to create the best opportunities for “idea flow” – bringing the right people together at the right time to come up with the best solutions to any variety of problems, and to not limit this to just who or what we already know but to use the power of the greater community.
Keys for Visual Learners
Visual cues are a cornerstone of learning. As media has evolved and our world has become digital, our brains are being rewired. Our primary visual mediums have rapidly evolved, and how we process visual information has changed. How we deliver content now must respond to this shift. Simply put, we digest and process information differently than we did before technology became ever-present in our daily lives.
Using the power of storytelling is also a core skill.
A great story starts with intention. The storyteller has an end in mind, a desired outcome that creates an emotional response in the listener, laughter or tears, chills or a sigh of relief, or a gasp as you weave and arc through a tale. It includes conflict, surpassing an enemy, and builds curiosity in your audience–they want more! But, we are often working with non-professional speakers for our events, who bring expertise, but may be less familiar with building powerful story-based presentations. Providing a slide template with your organization’s logo on every slide is not going to suddenly improve their presentations. To dig deeper in providing support is where the energy and commitment to the process come into play.
ASK: What information are we sharing which will connect the dots for participants between the event and their real lives? What are the steps we want them to take on leaving the event behind? Tell your presenters. How we create better learning retention is explored throughout this intention.
Create Advocates through Play
Adding good game design to a conference can enhance learning and connections. No matter who you ask “education and networking” remain the primary drivers to attend an event face to face. When you add an element that enhances the sensory levels and creates more feeling of satisfaction in the learning and connections made to real-world scenarios you have a better chance to retain that attendee. Satisfied participants can become your advocates and you can more easily grow your event when you have raving fans telling others about it.
Our Professional Opportunity
Creating a flow through your event space which provides both logistically sound and safe movements combined with opportunities for serendipitous meetings for your participants and appropriate visibility for your sponsors and stakeholders is part art, part science. This is a core skill the intentional event designer must master and be able to apply to any venue or event.
Congregating, Networking or Socializing – What Does Your Space Inspire?
Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking are what we come to meetings for. Yet we set our rooms in ways that do the opposite. There are a few keys to ensuring seating works best for the participants to engage with the learning. First, comfort. But when you want people to interact, you need to break out of the standard setups for meeting sessions and mix it up in ways that get people talking. To each other. They came to the meeting to meet, allow this to happen. This intention offers dozens of ideas to try.
Afraid having your content delivered digitally will cannibalize your live audience and make them less interested in attending? It won’t. Several studies have shown the opposite is true, that attending virtually creates a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and can be one of your best marketing tools for future events. I often attend events virtually and you always see comments in the chat rooms with virtual attendees planning to be there next year, taken in by watching others connecting and sharing.
Our Professional Opportunity
Science shows how important it is to consider the whole brain in a learning environment, including sound, scent, texture, and visual cues. The newest buzzword is immersive design which you build by engaging all the senses interactively, intentionally creating a flow through the time and space of your event. Using these tools to bring a brand – association, cause, corporate, a couple’s love – to life with five senses décor is the visible, visceral part of intentional event design. It is what creates the ‘wow’! We also have guests who arrive with a wide variety of expectations, and real needs to be more comfortable in an event space, from a reception to a trade show! When we achieve this and create safety, comfort and ease of access, your event becomes the must-return to, and here is where your ideas and experience can provide you with clients who cannot imagine working with anyone else!
Use details of scent, texture and visual elements to set the stage for overall memorable moments. When we approach an event, we feel a sense of anticipation built from the time we considered the purchase through the ongoing marketing, social and sharing with our friends and colleagues.
Developing a sense of intrigue is an art, the frisson of excitement in the anticipation sets the stage in creating an openness of mind and spirit towards the event and what it may bring. As guests enter they are at their most aware and there is nothing more satisfying than a gasp of delight from arriving guests to a space we have created! A great designer welcomes participants arriving with a sense of exploration and engagement with event elements. Intention Six offers many ideas to implement touching all five senses, building your event’s “umami” and considers how to produce events which support a number of accessibility issues your guests may experience, from anxiety to mobility, nursing mothers to those in need of quiet space, and those sometimes tough VIP guests.
Our Professional Opportunities
Being human, we wear our lack of sleep, limited meals, long days and late nights as badges of honour. Wellness initiatives matter because meetings and events are both deeply anticipated and notoriously hard on humans.
As a priority in event design, wellness just makes sense. We know our brains and bodies need fuel and movement for success. When you are taken care of as a participant, make connections and leave a meeting or event feeling richer for the experience, you want to share your positive experiences and return the next year.
Making wellness and wellbeing a priority in our own businesses, well that’s just smart business. When your team is healthy, it is more productive. When it is more productive, the events you are part of will be stronger. When your team is taken care of, you have greater loyalty, and as they gain experience and longevity, this results in higher client retention. Happy, healthy, fabulous!
This intention looks at practical ways you can build wellness into your meetings. Many will cost nothing, while others may take investment. Some are easy adds anytime, while others may fit only specific events. Like any type of sustainable activity, any small steps you can take on the journey to wellness will be beneficial.