If you think that flashy production elements and other technology are the only solution to grabbing and holding the attention of today’s meeting attendees, you’d be wrong, according to two veteran event designers.
“The era of [social media] ‘doom scrolling’ and brain rot has set the stage for a renaissance of storytelling," said Jess Weickert, vice president of strategy for XD Agency, in a session at 2025 IMEX America titled “Designing Transformative Experiences Through Storytelling.”
Mat Duerden, author of event-planning book Designing Experiences, added that in business settings, “stories should revolve around a main character having some type of need along with complications that hinder the character from fulfilling that need. The insight that comes from how the character handles those complications is the crux of the story.”
The most critical element of storytelling: “Taking the audience out of their own reality while making them feel the same emotions as the character,” Weickert noted. “For instance, we can’t climb the tallest mountains, but we can feel the same doubt and fear and resolve as the climber.”
“That combination of novelty and intentional friction makes a story stick in people’s minds,” Duerden added.
Driving the Message Home
After the audience hears such a story, the event planner can maximize its impact by putting attendees into an interactive environment. “You strengthen their memory by using the power of reflection,” Weickert said.
By providing opportunities for attendees to discuss their perspectives and emotions about the story, their memory of it becomes ingrained, Duerden said. “Let people talk about how the story relates to them; this broadens everyone’s perspective while confirming the lesson in their minds.”
Lastly, Duerden noted that events using this approach tend to generate higher net promoter scores.
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