The Missed Opportunities in Corporate Events
- Nick Jankel
- Sep 30
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Organizations are investing staggering amounts of money in corporate events—leadership summits, executive retreats, function meet-ups, and large-scale conferences. Yet too often, these gatherings squander their greatest potential: to drive genuine, lasting change in people, teams, and culture.
Instead, millions are spent on spectacle, comfort, and logistics, while the opportunity for transformation is left untapped. The ROI of these events is usually measured in smooth production, good feedback scores, and glossy photos, but it could be measured in lasting shifts in mindsets, behaviors, and results.
The competing demands of corporate events
Most events are designed by committee, with every stakeholder tugging in a slightly different direction:
Senior leaders may want to drive change cognitively but often fear it emotionally, creating incoherence in the brief, direction, and budget
Internal comms wants clear and clean messaging but professionals in this function are often not sure how communication turns into action
HR may want to reward hard-working employees and fit in some “training” but usually do not have a coherent leadership development model
Sales directors and revenue officers want happy customers and motivated sales teams but are unsure how to go beyond motivation
Event production companies are judged for a flawless, seamless show, but as change, transformation, and innovation are experimental this creates a tension
Strategy consultants want the top dog position and their frameworks be dominant but this is more for their own agenda
Well-being teams want restoration but might be scheduled before or after the late-night party
The result is a confused throughline and jarring contradictions: reflection followed by heavy drinking; calls for innovation alongside anxiety-creating messages of cost-cutting and redundancy; wellbeing sessions in agendas so overstuffed that people leave more depleted than when they joined.
Instead of transformation, events often reinforce cynicism. Instead of unlocking energy, they can unwittingly drain it.
The mistakes made in event design
Without expertise in the neuroscience, psychology, and biology of human development and collective change, event design tends to default to:
Glitzy experiences and stage dressings that impress the eye but don’t touch the heart
Executive addresses that inform but don’t inspire, and can even lead to incoherence
Packed agendas that give the impression of depth but tend to overwhelm
Panels and expert talks that share knowledge but don’t shift behavior
Talking shops where the same conversations happen over and over again
Rousing motivational keynotes whose energy dissipates as soon as people pick up their emails
Swag bags that inspire for a moment and are then left on a plane or in a bin
Vendor presentations that seem exciting but often leave attendees confused
Moments of cohesion and a sense of togetherness that evaporate before people have left the building
THE COSTS OF poor design
Without a transformational design paradigm, events often look successful but deliver little lasting change. The true costs of underperforming events is enormous:
Lost work hours of scores of attendees
Expensive flights (business class has become extortionate) and hotels
Food and beverage
Vendor on-costs
High-profile speakers and entertainment costs
Brand assets and material
Celebrity-level production values
Employee disappointment, exhaustion, and overwhelm
The ROI is too often reduced to tick-boxes: the CEO presented, the comms team got their message out, the AV was flawless, the keynote was “inspiring.” Tick, tick, tick. But the bigger opportunity—the one that would justify these vast investments—is missed.
event DESIGN TO transcend INFORMATION TO DRIVE TRANSFORMATION
This loss of impact and the reduced ROI on corporate events are due to the outdated paradigm within which events are usually designed. Most events are designed using a fusion of the theater performance paradigm and the knowledge acquisition or educational paradigm. The former creates immersive spectacles, at best. The latter creates informed participants.
However, if leaders and team members could transform by reading a book, watching a TED talk, attending a Broadway show, or participating in a typical training course, there would be astonishing culture change, innovation, and transformation outcomes across every organization.
And there are not.
When events are designed around the science of human change, the ROI changes entirely.
Leaders and employees leave not just informed and entertained, but with shifting mindsets and new behaviors arising.
Cynicism gives way to optimism. Inspiration can be turned into action. Energy carries forward into stronger relationships and so increased transactions. Ideas and insights can be transformed into new habits and lasting cultural changes.
This is what events can do when designed and facilitated for transformation, not just information and entertainment. This kind of event can deliver the ROI that clients—whether internal stakeholders or external sponsors—are truly seeking, even if they don't realize it is possible!
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