Event Mental Wellbeing x ICCA: Supporting Sustainable Performance in Association Events
We are proud to share that Event Mental Wellbeing, a project from Leladijo Consulting, has collaborated with ICCA to create the Event Mental Wellbeing Toolkit for Associations.
The toolkit was developed for association event teams who are navigating increasingly complex expectations: tighter timelines, ambitious programmes, global stakeholders, board pressure, changing member needs, and the constant expectation to deliver high-quality events without disruption.
Behind every successful association meeting is a team holding a great deal together.
They are managing logistics, relationships, visibility, reputation, governance, last-minute changes and often competing priorities. Yet too often, the wellbeing of the people delivering these events is treated as something separate from the event strategy itself.
We believe that needs to change.
Wellbeing is not an add-on
In the events industry, wellbeing is still sometimes misunderstood as something extra: a yoga session, a quiet room, a nice-to-have activity or a one-off moment of care.
Our approach is different.
For us, event mental wellbeing is about how work is designed, how decisions are made, how teams communicate, and how people recover after intense delivery periods.
It is about asking practical questions:
Are timelines realistic?
Are expectations clear?
Are teams able to raise workload concerns safely?
Is recovery planned after major events?
Are last-minute changes managed with visible trade-offs?
Do leaders understand the human capacity behind event delivery?
These questions are not separate from performance. They are part of it.
Why this matters for associations
Association events carry a particular kind of pressure. They are often highly visible, deeply connected to member value, and shaped by boards, committees, volunteers, leadership teams and global communities.
For many association event teams, peak delivery periods are predictable, but the pressure around them is not always managed intentionally.
This can lead to:
sustained overtime before major events
blurred boundaries during delivery
limited recovery afterwards
tension between teams and stakeholders
knowledge loss when people burn out or step away
The result is often a delivery model that works once, but is difficult to repeat sustainably.
The Event Mental Wellbeing Toolkit for Associations was created to help association teams move from awareness into practical action.
What the toolkit covers
The toolkit offers guidance across the full event lifecycle:
General working time
The day-to-day culture, communication habits and expectations that shape how teams experience pressure.
Pre-event
Planning rhythms, realistic timelines, workload visibility and the management of scope creep.
During the event
Onsite intensity, decision-making, conflict, communication and team support in high-pressure moments.
Post-event
Recovery, reflection, recognition and learning, so that teams do not simply move from one peak to the next.
A key message runs through the toolkit:
High-quality events do not require perfection. They require clarity, realism and care.
Sustainable teams deliver better meetings
This collaboration with ICCA is an important step in bringing mental wellbeing more firmly into the conversation around association events.
Because sustainable event delivery is not only about logistics, budgets and strategy. It is also about the people who make those things possible.
When association teams are supported well, they can think more clearly, communicate more effectively, make better decisions and continue delivering value over time.
That is not a wellbeing extra. It is a leadership responsibility.
Explore the toolkit
You can explore the ICCA Event Mental Wellbeing Toolkit for Associations here:
We are grateful to ICCA and the ICCA Association Community for the opportunity to contribute to this important work.
If your association, organisation or event team wants to go deeper, Event Mental Wellbeing supports teams through training, consulting, coaching and practical wellbeing integration across the event lifecycle.
Together, we can build events that are not only successful, but sustainable for the people who deliver them.
Want to go deeper?
Event Mental Wellbeing supports organisations with training, consulting and coaching to embed wellbeing into the way events are planned, delivered and recovered from.