Neuroscience Hacks for Unforgettable Event Experiences
Think back to the most memorable event you’ve attended. What was it that made it unforgettable? It likely invoked positive emotions, drew you in, and kept you engaged. That’s not a fluke — it’s science.
The human brain works in mysterious and magical ways. For an event to succeed, it must leave a lasting impact on attendees' memories. To do that, you need to understand how the brain functions. Brain knowledge can help you avoid an event-planning disaster, and ensure you deliver an experience to remember.
5 Ways to Leverage Brain Knowledge for Events Management
1. Prepare Your Audience’s Brains
The frontal and temporal lobes are responsible for digesting information and generating knowledge. If someone feels stressed, anxious, or unsafe, these areas of the brain remain closed, making it harder to learn new concepts and stay engaged.
To help, eliminate stress triggers. Give clear travel directions and arrival timings, create a smooth checking-in process, and provide maps of the venue. If attendees are relaxed, they’ll be ready to engage once they arrive.
2. Spark Positive Emotions
Think of ways to engage attendees, whether an unusual dance performance, dramatised speaker, or an attention-grabbing video.
When we're focused and engaged, our brains release dopamine, which sparks positive emotions and feelings of happiness. This creates neurological pathways to the frontal cortex, stimulating creativity and better information retention. Not only will your attendees feel happy, but they’ll contribute better, too.
3. Deliver a Multi-Sensory Experience
One smell can take you back to a two-second childhood memory. This is why multi-sensory experiences are so effective. Encouraging attendees to use some (if not all) of their five senses helps to encourage engagement, reduce stress, and foster better learning. Using multiple senses at once improves memory, allowing attendees to better recall learned information.
4. Create Space for Communication
It’s common to feel on edge and anxious around new people. However, active communication with strangers stimulates dopamine production, encouraging people to feel relaxed and engaged. It elevates the mood and gives a feeling of social acceptance.
To get attendees into this state, create space for regular communication through group discussions, icebreakers, one-to-one activities, and games.
5. Facilitate Speaker Storytelling
Storytelling is a technique that creates greater learning and understanding of new information. Speakers that deliver stories based on past experiences, learning outcomes, and overcoming challenges trigger a feeling of relatedness. Attendees will naturally find ways to relate to the speaker’s experiences, applying them to their own lives and situations they’ve been in.
By drawing on past experiences, attendees will feel a greater connection to what the speaker is saying. Relatability is key for deepening knowledge and cognitive memory.
A Successful Event: It's All in Your Mind
It might seem unusual to pair science and events together. Yet, the brain is where we store all memories, learning, and knowledge. It makes sense to use brain knowledge to plan events that build on our neurological pathways. By understanding how the brain functions, you can better tap into attendees’ frontal lobes, helping them engage, learn new concepts, and build their knowledge.
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