Spreading Joy at Events

In her book Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, Ingrid Fetell Lee “challenges the popular notion that true joy can only come from within” and explores how the seemingly every day spaces and objects around us can have surprising and powerful effect on our mood. In her keynote presentation, Lee identifies ten aesthetics of joy that can be found all around us…if we just look. People truly enjoyed her presentation and that could very well been the end of it.

But what if we took advantage of the next two days at the conference to reinforce as many of those aesthetics as possible? What if we applied some of these same aesthetics to the event theme? And people experienced them even before they arrived onsite for the conference without realizing it? Why not apply some of these aesthetics all throughout the conference? How many ways could we incorporate her teachings during the event?

Play

Recent studies not only show that play is important for reasons ranging from promoting flexible thinking and problem solving to learning empathy and fairness. One study revealed that curvilinear movements seem to unlock a more flexible thought pattern, thus heightening creativity. We looked for ways to incorporate circles, spheres and bubbly forms throughout the conference.

• The event logo was a circle. In fact, there were six to eight variations of that logo and all of them circular.
• Round luggage tags representing four of the event logos were provided among other giveaways.
• The coffee break immediately following her keynote presentation incorporated every round food imaginable set on round tables on round trays. Mini cupcakes, donuts, donuts covered in Cheerios, mini tarts and more.

Surprise

In her book, Lee talks about how joyful surprises bring our attention away from ourselves and prompt us to engage with others more. That joyful surprises incite curiosity and encourage exploration. How did we surprise our attendees?

• Each conference bag had a small retro toy inside. These ranged from spinning tops and bubble blowers to mini Lite Brites, magnetic gyro wheels, yo-yo’s and balloon animal kits. Why? No reason other than just for the fun of it. A surprise waiting to be discovered.
• Synchronized swimmers welcomed the group to one evening reception.
• Attendees in an afternoon session at one location got to add their own art to a graffiti wall behind the venue.
• Attendees in a session at an old movie theatre got movie popcorn for their break from the concession stand.

Energy and Abundance

Ingrid Fetell Lee tells us that color is energy made visible and she, herself, displays that by wearing bold colors and even with her fingernails – each painted a different color of the rainbow. In her book, she quotes Mae West, “too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” We added energy through the use of color and abundance in a variety (and lots) of ways.

• Professional bubble blowers blowing large and small bubbles as people were lined up to catch the bus to an evening’s event.
• We offered different candy each day at our registration desk. Sour cherries, Lemon heads, M&Ms and Skittles. And yes, not just in abundance and colorful, but round shapes.
• Those same mini cupcakes from the coffee break weren’t just round, but colorful! Pink, yellow, purple, red, and even blue (yes, I know, blue food)!

And now for the important part. Why did we bother? The simple answer could be to bring joy to our attendees. That alone is a pretty darn good reason. But there was more to it. We wanted to reinforce what they heard on Monday morning until they left Wednesday midday so attendees absorbed it without necessarily being aware of it. Hopefully, increasing the chances they would apply it to their own events in turn. Because don’t all our events deserve some joy? And while being back together – in person – is already pretty amazing, there’s no reason not to add more joy to our events!