Nils Roemen, experience designer for the Experience Experts and plenary speaker at MPI’s 2025 EMEC in Istanbul on Feb. 24, asked if attendees would give him two of their most precious gifts: their time and their attention.
That’s all he needed. It makes sense because, after all, what else are we asking attendees to give when they come to an event? Nothing more is needed.
But the skill of the event planner is in making the most of their attendees’ time and attention. For that, according to Roemen, you need to aim for their heart. When you discover what they would like, the question becomes, “What would make your event an experience to remember?”
He took us on two journeys, one with a birthday party and a small group of friends, and the other with a Simon Sinek event featuring thousands of attendees.
In the first story, Roemen wove a magical theme around a child’s 16th birthday party. But this was no normal story—there were hidden coins of happiness to be found and shared. A local café was in on the act, a playground and a tower were also used as part of the experience. At the culmination, the birthday girl found all her friends waiting at the top of a tower. In this adventure, Roemen took the child from reading a scroll at the starting point to becoming an active participant.
This is something he encouraged the attendees in his audience to do for their events. While this may work for a birthday party, could the same approach be used for a business audience of many delegates? His emphatic answer was, “Yes, it can!”
Translating that engagement to a large event
He used the Simon Sinek story to demonstrate what could be done. This time there were no gold coins of happiness but there were moments when some delegates were given something—such as a token—and they needed to use whatever they were given. Not all delegates were given something though, just a few.
For the attendees that had been given a token it was the start of their journey, in which they had to complete tasks. But the additional beauty of this was the fact that if you didn’t receive a token, you could still take part, even unknowingly. The example he used was a phone ringing. The phone was in a wooden area in the middle of where attendees were mingling. It rang and rang. The curious folk would go and answer the phone and in doing so became part of the experience as they would be given instructions on what to do next.
From there they were on a journey of self-discovery, especially relevant as Sinek is known for being all about the “why.”
Again, this story illustrates how you can create little touches that will forever stay with people. But you need to put in the time to think about how you can create an experience to take people from passive to highly engaged participants.
As Roemen stated at the outset, “The best events are no longer about bigger and more. They are about being able to touch your guests in the heart; about creating genuine personal connections.”
By engaging his audience through two powerful stories, we were taken on a journey with a lasting message. By using wisdom and practical examples, attendees were left in no doubt they need to sprinkle a little magic onto every event. It was a strong message that left attendees thinking long after his talk was over. We were left in no doubt that we need to take clear aim at the heart.
Photos courtesy Butino
Plenary sponsored by Quintana Roo, the Mexican Caribbean
-(1).png?sfvrsn=b005355_1 "Mexican Caribbean color (1) (1)")
