This year Nudgestock festival of behavioral science took place online, and became a unique opportunity for anyone interested to hear leading experts from behavioral science and psychology fields. Naturally, I could not miss that, and it didn’t disappoint: both from content and event planning perspective it was fascinating to experience. I did 3 posts highlighting most interesting sessions in my view, and detailing my takeaways for #eventprofs community. As they were published within a couple of weeks, I thought I’d put it together as a summary so that you don’t have to search them one by one. So here we go.
Post #1
I’m catching up on Nudgestock 2020 event (so expect more as it was absolutely awesome in every bit!) and the first thing I’d like to share is this session on Psychology of Happiness by Prof. Laurie Santos. In these times of stress and overwhelming everything, I feel it’s important to connect to yourself and try to understand how to be happy(ier).
Laurie shares 5 insights about what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to happiness; things like becoming wealthy in time, not money or that making social connections makes us happier (I’ve got a perfect opportunity to test it again, in virtual environment this time at #letsbreakyotribe party? )
I highly recommend this short video, eventprofs. The exciting part is that it’s science meaning all is tested and measured, so it’s really a good investment of 20 minutes of your time, and as bonus, at the end of the session @rorysutherland and @lauriesantos are discussing pros and cons of virtual event experience (around 30:00)! https://youtu.be/ORWSq36qFkQ?t=305
Bonus: Laurie’s Happiness Lab podcast
Post #2
This is video #2 from Nudgestock 2020 I’d like to share with you eventprofs, and this is super interesting and I guess controversial topic I’d love to discuss. Adam Ferrier is talking about why it is bad to listen to your customers, and what instead to focus on. I think we’ve been discussing customer-centric approach in events a lot, particularly because it’s something deemed logical thing to do – putting the customer first (and also something the industry had yet to catch up on?)
But what if we should not pursue that path at all? Science tells us (and this is what I personally believe in firmly) that customers are not good at articulating what they want. I love this quote from Adam’s presentation that illustrates the point: “People don’t think what they feel. They don’t say what they think, and don’t do what they say”. (Btw, this is partly the reason for why we should, for instance, re-consider our approach to collecting feedback to improve event experience).
Another reason for not adopting user-centric approach that Adam points to is that people want category, not brand, and in the context of events that means understanding what our audiences’ categories are/can be.
What do you think? Here is a link to the session: https://lnkd.in/gVWqnJu
Bonus: Adam’s book on the same subject.
Post #3
Video #3 is about Science of Experience by Jack Duddy. It is perhaps the most relevant presentation for event planners – so do make sure to watch it in full: https://youtu.be/ItKZiPrfWdo?t=157
Key points, very briefly:
- All elements of experience matter (paying attention to event details does pay off!)
- When creating experiences, appeal to both systems in the brain (rational and irrational)
- Make experience less effortful (make it simple!)
- Context is king.
- What people focus on is what they remember.
Bonus: lots of food for thought and ideas in Ogilvy Consulting Blog
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I share science-based tips and practices that can help event planners improve their events. If you are interested in event psychology approach, take my new online course, Event Psychology Lab.
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