Behavior is the only thing event design should try to influence.

principle — attributed to Ruud Janssen

Janssen's framing of event design is clinical. Behavior is the only thing he tries to influence; that is what he wants to isolate. He defines behavior as everything you can observe with a camera: what someone says and does. The objective behavior is nothing more, nothing less, than that. If you design experiences that change behavior to a degree you would not expect, that is the finest example of event design. The reframe sharpens every design decision. Decoration that does not move behavior is overhead. Programming that does not move behavior is filler. The discipline is operationally rare and produces events that justify their budgets in terms an executive can defend.

For event designers, corporate event leads, and meeting professionals thinking about what their events are actually for. The principle is most useful as a corrective when events have become ritual rather than instrument.

behavior-change, isolation, event-design, objective