Making room for joy again
What if we've got work and joy the wrong way around?
What if feeling good together isn't a distraction from our work in events, but one of the reasons it matters in the first place?
Our IMEX Talking Point, Design Matters, invites us to look more closely at the experiences we create. And this year, a group of IMEX America speakers is focusing on something many of us have quietly pushed down the priority list: joy.
At first glance, it feels like an odd topic. In many organizations both budgets and teams are stretched, and much of the world feels uncertain.
So maybe the question isn't whether joy deserves a place in our work but whether we can afford to leave it out?
Research suggests the cost of disconnection is high. One in six people worldwide experience ongoing loneliness, according to the World Health Organization. Yet events remain one of the few places where strangers become colleagues, collaborators and sometimes even lifelong friends.
And the benefits go beyond a momentary mood boost. Research from the Positive Emotions Lab at UNC found that joy helps us recover from stress, but only when it's tied to genuine human connection. In other words, feeling good together matters.
So how do you design for something as seemingly intangible as joy?
That's where this year's IMEX America speakers come in.
In Measuring Joy, Engagement and Trust and Why it Matters, Jenn Whitmer, author of Joyosity, argues that burnout is a symptom of too much grind and not enough joy. She’ll join moderator David Adler of gatheringpoint.news, Mark Maydon of Crowd Connected and Panos Moutafis of Zenus to discuss tools that measure movement, energy and facial expressions at events. These tools use facial analysis to help us understand how attendees respond to their environment, an approach that’s ethically distinct from facial recognition.
The Power of Fun and its Role in Building Creativity brings together Kelsey Connors of Firefly Team Events, JT Long of Smart Meetings and Shelley Williams, whose experience includes F1 Arcade, Hilton, Caesars and Hard Rock. Together, they’ll examine why play helps build teams, how shared fun moves people and why fun can be a serious business strategy.
In Mindset Shakeup: The Power of Positivity, author and TED speaker Cornell Thomas will share how he learned to turn disadvantage into strength. Angela Gargano, a six-time American Ninja Warrior and former biochemist, will explore “the hallway in between,” the uncomfortable stretch between who you were and what comes next. Joining them is Rachel Benedick, Chief Revenue Officer at MPI.
Elsewhere in the program, former police detective and performance coach Andrea Parker explores why fun is a performance strategy. MPI keynote speaker Caitlin Krause, author of Digital Well-being, focuses on one question: “What do we want people to feel?” And Jenny Sauer-Klein, founder of The Culture Conference, shares how intentional play can strengthen workplace culture and help people thrive.
As behavioral engagement expert Ben Moorsom explains in our Why Design Matters report, designing for joy isn’t about adding more stimulation. It’s about knowing the difference between creating energy and simply adding noise.
In our always-on, digitally overloaded world, doesn’t that sound inviting?
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