PAUL COOK EXAMINES THE BACKGROUND NOISE AND MUCH MORE BESIDES THAT CREATE OUR CONFERENCE ENVIRONMENT REALITY AND GETS SOME EXPERT ADVICE ON HOW TO REALLY FEED THE BRAIN TO IMPROVE EVENT OUTCOMES

meetings across the globe haven’ t changed much. They’ re generally based on ancient but reliable formats. But does that mean opportunities for attendees and stakeholders are being missed by event designers? Neuroscience and psychology provide tools for a reality check and suggest improvements that could affect the ROI and success of events.

Let’ s start with networking, that common staple of conferences. How well is it working?

Andy Williamson, founder of Welcome Brain, believes that networking is one of the primary areas where a big difference can be made. According to their ABPCO + Welcome Brain Neuroinclusive Networking at Events survey, 94 % of neurodivergent people experience anxiety around networking. But, just as importantly, 74 % of neurotypical people said the same.

It’ s clear this isn’ t a niche access issue. As Williamson says:“ It’ s a near-universal experience that the industry has an enormous opportunity to address.”

Some networking events start with low-level background music, but unfortunately, it doesn’ t last long before

the band or DJ increases the volume. It’ s a mystery how this is supposed to help. How can you network if you can’ t hear yourself speak? Williamson sums it up nicely,“ We wouldn ' t design a conference session where half the audience couldn’ t hear the speaker, so why do we accept that as standard for networking?”

A packed agenda is another staple of many conferences. And this is where friction comes in for planners with clients, sponsors, and stakeholders demanding content and activities that don’ t always drive attendee engagement.

As Victoria Matey, event psychology advisor, points out:“ Packed agendas serve as justification of value for money. Space for reflection isn’ t a nice-to-have. It’ s the mechanism through which insight becomes action. When people are given time to process, to talk to someone who helps them translate what they ' ve just heard into their own context, to make a decision about what they ' ll do differently, that’ s when the event starts to earn its budget back.”

Her overriding view is that the programme needs to be treated as a behavioural journey, rather than a content delivery schedule.

Bogdan Manta, organisational neuroscientist and founder of the Brain Academy, delves deeper into what’ s happening with our brains and packed conference programmes.“ The most important thing to understand is that the brain is a prediction machine,” he says.“ It constantly uses past experience to guess what will happen next and tries to minimise prediction errors( the mismatch between what it expected and what actually happens) partly to conserve metabolic energy.”

“ We wouldn ' t design a conference session where half the audience couldn’ t hear the speaker, so why do we accept that as standard for networking?”

Top right:

Andy Williamson

Middle right:

Victoria Matey

Bottom right:

Bogdan Manta

This means that if an event follows a fully standard, predictable script( intro, long keynote, coffee break, panel, repeat) the brain quickly recognises the pattern and down‐regulates attention to save energy. Which is why you can have excellent content on stage and