Behavioural science is key to all aspects of life but within the professional world, essential. For example, Author of The Behaviour Business, Richard Chataway states “If you are in business – you are in the business of behaviour” (Chataway, R. 2020) – he shows that all business doesn’t really succeed without the buy in of the humans involved so their needs, desires and experiences need to be the centre of any and every strategy.
It was research like this that made me consider the area of Event Psychology. I graduated in 2009 with a degree in Psychology and although I worked in the field for a few years, the recession hit tough and my job became more about numbers than people and I left the field with an intention to return. Fifteen years later and I have found myself having an incredibly fulfilling events management career which has seen budgets squeezed, global growth and of course a pandemic to disrupt the entire industry overnight.
Like many people, the pandemic found me looking inward and being curious about my career and I found myself going full circle and wanting to read up more about events psychology. I started to notice pieces of psychological research that could be applied to attendees as well as event professionals themselves. However, I am the first to admit that reading long research papers isn’t a vibe and what I wanted and felt others might like is the fundamentals so I started to read and summarise research into bite sizable chunks and created the events psychologist Instagram around that as a free resource to use whenever. https://www.instagram.com/the.events.psychologist
There are wonderful nuggets of information and processes that Event Managers can use which involves psychological thinking such as the temperature of the room (Environmental Psychology), the way information is retained (Cognitive Psychology) and even the sounds your attendees are exposed to (Music Psychology).
Psychology can help Event Profs think more deeply about their attendees, more wisely about the design and environments they provide and to get a pat on the ack for factors they might already be naturally incorporating in their day to day. Other topics I cover include Psychological Income, The Paradox of Choice and the Role of Humour at Events.
I would love for you to join my session and hear about what I have found. Some of it might resonate, some might not and that is completely ok. Some might sound familiar and be something you can take back to your CEO’s, Clients, Teams to brag about how you are already considering the psychology of your events without realising.
My aim for the future is to hopefully look for areas where events research hasn’t travelled to yet but event professionals feel is needed so do feel free to feedback!
For the chance to see Kelly’s education session, please register to attend CHS Birmingham 2024 here. We look forward to welcoming you on October 29, 2024 at the ICC.