There is a question worth asking at the start of every event planning process: if this could just as easily be a webinar, why are we asking people to travel?
The webinar works perfectly well for delivering information, updating members, or presenting research. If that is the ambition, the format already exists at a fraction of the cost. The case for meeting in person must rest on something else: creating an experience that cannot happen any other way.
What People Actually Remember
Attendees may not remember every speaker six months later, but they remember how the event made them feel. The conversation over coffee that led to an unexpected collaboration. The session that gave them space to think. The music, food, or atmosphere that felt exactly right. The unplanned twenty minutes when nothing was scheduled, and everything happened.
These are not accidental outcomes. They are design choices.
Everything Is the Experience
Experience-led design treats every element as part of a whole: session formats, room layout, catering, transitions, lighting, and the white space that allows conversation to take root. The temptation is to fill every moment. The discipline is knowing when not to.
Different partners shape that experience in different ways. Associations define the change they want attendees to experience. PCOs translate that intention into programme flow and delivery. Venues influence movement, atmosphere, and interaction. Destinations help create an experience rooted in place rather than adding generic entertainment.
One practical example was the ICCA congress in Abu Dhabi, where keynotes, sessions, lounges, and coffee breaks all took place within one connected space. The result was a festival-like atmosphere in which learning, networking, and chance encounters blended naturally. Major events such as SXSW and Dreamforce use similar principles, creating environments people move through rather than programmes they sit through.
AI Plays a Supporting Role
Technology can support this approach through smarter matchmaking, real-time audience feedback, and post-event synthesis. But it cannot decide what the experience should achieve. The tool may support the design; the intention still belongs to the organiser.
Three Questions to Ask
Before designing your next event, ask:
- What should attendees feel, do, or understand differently when they leave?
- Which parts of the programme genuinely require people to be together?
- What can we remove, change, or redesign to create more meaningful participation?
A well-designed event creates something that did not exist before: new relationships, new thinking, new possibilities, and a feeling people carry with them when they leave. If it achieves that, it has justified every journey made to attend it.
If it does not, there is always a webinar.
Ksenija Polla, CICE, CMP | Director, International Development | Talley Management Group
