3-day curriculum

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Clickable learning map

From Event Planning to Event Design

This page gives a visual overview of what the class will learn over three days: how to work with stakeholder value, behavior change, validation, facilitation, and prototyping to design more intentional and more effective event experiences.

Program overview

Day 1

Foundations of Event Design

Learn the core language of the Event Canvas™ and shift from thinking about activities to thinking about behavior change.

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Day 2

Validation and Design Authority

Test assumptions, strengthen narratives, and learn how to create the time and space needed for strategic design work.

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Day 3

Prototyping and System Thinking

Explore multiple concepts, refine stronger options, and connect one event to a wider and more sustainable journey.

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Foundations of Event Design

Day 1 introduces the core principles of the Event Canvas™. The focus is on understanding why events exist, what change they are meant to create, and how different stakeholders experience the same event in very different ways.

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General Program

Introduction to the Event Canvas™ and its building blocks.
Working with stakeholder alignment and stakeholder misalignment.
Using empathy-based exercises to understand different perspectives.
Defining the event delta: the intended change from entry to exit.
Exploring minimal viable event thinking to identify what is essential.
Practising facilitation and collaborative group work.

What opens up on this day

Participants begin to see events less as schedules and formats, and more as designed interventions. The emphasis moves from “what happens” to “what changes.” This day builds the conceptual base for the rest of the program: stakeholder empathy, purposeful design choices, and clarity around outcomes.

Key learning

Behavior change is the source of value

Events create value when people think, feel, decide, or act differently afterward. The goal is not spectacle for its own sake, but measurable movement.

Key learning

Start with the stakeholder, not the designer

Good design does not begin with assumptions about what people want. It begins by understanding how different stakeholders see the same situation from different angles.

Key learning

Facilitation is orchestration

Strong facilitation keeps the group in motion without taking over. It provides cadence, direction, and structure so the collective intelligence of the room can work.

Key learning

Design is often about removing

The process helps strip away what is unnecessary, so the essential purpose and the core behavior change become easier to see and easier to design for.

Key learning

Alignment needs a clear overarching aim

Stakeholder alignment only becomes useful when there is a clear and shared sense of what the event is ultimately trying to achieve.

Key learning

Learning types should be designed deliberately

Information, skill building, attitude change, and connection all matter. Strong event design intentionally combines these forms of learning.

Validation and Design Authority

Day 2 focuses on strengthening the work. Participants test assumptions, refine stakeholder narratives, and learn how to claim the time, team, and space needed to do design work properly.

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General Program

Refining stakeholder stories and event narratives.
Validating assumptions through stakeholder feedback.
Using the event delta as a design and decision filter.
Exploring time value: from wasted time to time well invested.
Learning how to claim design time with event owners.
Using the canvas as a common language for better decisions.

What opens up on this day

Day 2 makes the methodology more practical and more strategic. Participants learn that design assumptions must be tested, that owners care about outcomes rather than process, and that clear language creates better conversations and stronger decisions.

Key learning

Assumptions need validation

A well-crafted narrative is still only a hypothesis until the real stakeholder confirms, challenges, or sharpens it.

Key learning

Behavior change matters more than “wow”

Memorable moments can help, but temporary excitement is not enough. Sustainable value comes from deeper emotional and behavioral shifts.

Key learning

Time should feel invested, not consumed

The aim is not simply to fill time well, but to create outcomes that make the time spent feel more valuable than the time it replaced.

Key learning

Wants often point to deeper needs

Designers need to look below surface-level requests and uncover what stakeholders actually need in order to create value.

Key learning

Claiming time is a critical skill

Methodology alone is not enough. Designers must secure the trust, attention, and working conditions required to apply it effectively.

Key learning

The canvas becomes a universal language

When teams share one language for discussing events, conversations become clearer, less opinion-driven, and more anchored in purpose.

Prototyping and System Thinking

Day 3 turns the learning into action. Participants generate multiple prototype directions, compare options, and explore how one event can be designed as part of a broader journey rather than as a one-off moment.

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General Program

Rapid prototyping through divergent and convergent thinking.
Working in pairs and small groups to develop multiple concepts.
Comparing, combining, and refining promising directions.
Connecting the experience journey to the learning journey.
Testing ideas against specific deltas and intended outcomes.
Expanding from one event into a larger ecosystem perspective.

What opens up on this day

Participants experience how fast, collaborative prototyping creates range before refinement. The day also broadens the frame: strong event design continues before and after the event itself, creating continuity, sustained value, and stronger long-term outcomes.

Key learning

The process brings teams into strategy

People who usually only execute can become part of the thinking. That changes both the quality of the work and the level of alignment.

Key learning

Events are agents of change, not the final goal

An event is a means to something larger. The real question is always what organizational or stakeholder outcome it is meant to influence.

Key learning

The best ideas are often at the edges

Safe and familiar solutions are rarely the most powerful. Prototyping encourages teams to explore beyond the obvious.

Key learning

Let go of the first prototype

Strong design requires openness. The first idea is a starting point, not a possession that needs to be defended.

Key learning

Specific deltas make decisions easier

When the intended change is expressed clearly and simply, it becomes much easier to say yes, no, or not now to design choices.

Key learning

Design beyond the event days

Effective event design considers what happens before, during, and after the experience, building toward an ongoing system rather than a single moment.