How to Innovate Events Year After Year with (Tahira Endean from IMEX) | Ep. 5

EVENTASTIC Conference registration is now OPEN! The world's largest event about EVENTS!

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MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Cvent!!

Cvent is an event marketing and management platform designed to help you plan, promote, and measure your events all in one place - whether they’re virtual, in-person, or hybrid.

Regardless of your size, check out Cvent today to get the tools you need to run smarter, more effective events.

Check out more at cvent.com/Jay

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🔗 Links / Resources Mentioned

1. Tahira Endean LinkedIn
2. Accessible Disruption (Podcast)

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Sharon Washington from The P3 Solution asks the big question: How do event professionals innovate year after year when the competition is fierce, and innovation feels impossible?

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Host Kristin Nagle discusses this challenge with Tahira Endean, Head of Program at IMEX Group. Tahira explains why "innovation" may be the wrong goal if you aren't first anchoring your event in what people actually need right now. She explains that attendees don't just show up as professionals; they bring their families, work stress, and cultural norms. The conversation covers how to design for different ages and learning stages by iterating rather than reinventing the wheel each time.

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👤 Guest Bio

Tahira Endean is the Head of Program at IMEX Group, where she curates educational content for IMEX Frankfurt and IMEX America. A leader in "intentional design," she focuses on how neuroscience and human behavior impact event experiences. She is also the author of Intentional Event Design and her latest book, Our KPI is Joy.

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✅ The Event Question

Sharon Washington (The P3 Solution): How do event professionals innovate year after year when innovation seems totally difficult to maintain against so much competition?

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📌 What You’ll Learn

1. Anchor in human needs: Focus on what your attendees need now (post-digital, post-COVID) rather than chasing trends.
2. Iterate constantly: You do not need to invent a new event every year, but you must evolve based on participant feedback.
3. Respect cultural norms: Adjust your design based on the location and the cultural expectations of the majority of your attendees.
4. Acknowledge the whole person: Attendees bring their personal lives, family issues, and office stress to the venue. Create space for them to manage these outside pressures.
5. Design for variety: Build learning environments that cater to different ages, career stages, and preferred learning styles.

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🎭 The Ridiculous Question

Question: What celebrity would you want to sit next to on a plane?

Answer: Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. Tahira wants to ask them how they review their own show tapes every night to refine their craft and refuse mediocrity.