Forty-nine percent ask for connection; eight percent design for it.
observation — attributed to Julius Solaris
The 2026 Boldpush and Encore Experience Design Report, built on 447 event professionals across corporate, agency, association, and independent planning roles, surfaces the largest single disconnect in events-industry research this year. Forty-nine percent of attendees say connection is the biggest reason they show up to an event. Eight percent of planners design programming for it. The gap is structural, not accidental. Gatherings have been built for the people who were already going to come, not for the people who needed them most. Solaris has been writing for the second group while serving the first for two decades. The data has finally caught up to him. The industry has been building for the wrong personality type for thirty years.
For event programmers, association executives, and trade-show operators reading their own audience research. The finding is most useful as a budget-reallocation argument when programming has been weighted toward content delivery at the expense of designed connection.
connection-gap, research, experience-design-report, personality-type