Human Sustainability Starts With Seeing The Event Through The Participant’s Eyes

On 26 March, we kicked off a new project at Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, working with a newly formed Taskforce on human sustainability, participant experience and the foundations of a custom wellbeing toolkit for Jaarbeurs events.

It was a full and very practical day. From the start, the aim was not simply to deliver training to a room of passive participants. The aim was to build input together: to help the Taskforce look at the venue, the participant journey and the client conversation through a more conscious wellbeing lens.

Event Mental Wellbeing is not about adding a few isolated wellbeing moments to an existing programme. It is about designing the full event experience so people can participate with greater clarity, calm, choice and capacity. It is about how people feel during an event, whether they are supported to get what they came for, and whether the conditions around them help or hinder meaningful participation.

That is why the conversation cannot stay abstract for long. And at Jaarbeurs, it did not. What I appreciated straight away was how quickly the group moved from ideas into practical observations. We looked at the participant journey, the venue experience, the moments where people may feel rushed, lost, overloaded or unsure, and the small design choices that can reduce pressure without adding unnecessary complexity.

You do not improve the wellbeing of participants with big statements. You do it by noticing more, designing more carefully, asking better questions earlier, and being willing to see an event through other people’s eyes.

The first feedback from the training already points in that direction. All seven respondents identified the basic needs and 4 Cs framework as one of the most valuable parts of the day. Six out of seven also highlighted the discussion on wellness versus wellbeing, participant journey mapping, and the personas and inclusion lens. That is encouraging, because those are exactly the areas that help wellbeing move from good intention into practical event design.

For example: can a first-time participant find the entrance, registration and first session without asking for help? Where does stimulation build up? Where might people need clearer choices? Where could a break, transition, queue or movement pattern quietly drain people’s energy? Who might experience the event differently because of language, accessibility, sensory load, dietary needs, familiarity with the venue, or confidence in asking for help?

These are simple questions, but they are not small questions. They change what you notice.

One participant described the value as learning “to think outside the box, view things from a different perspective, and realise what truly matters”. Another said the training opened their eyes to look at events differently. That is an important shift, because once people begin to see the participant journey more consciously, they start spotting opportunities that were always there.

Some of the practical ideas from the feedback were very concrete: clearer communication on the website, more clarity in the programme, different types of seating and standing options, finding pressure points before the event starts, dimming lights, lowering sound levels, allowing more or longer breaks, communicating allergens and ingredients, making better use of spare spaces, improving signage, and making more text available in English.

None of these ideas needs to be dramatic to matter. That was one of the strongest themes of the day: less is more. Small, thoughtful choices can reduce pressure without adding complexity or cost. Sometimes the most useful improvement is not another feature, another space, or another intervention. Sometimes it is a clearer route, a better question, a calmer transition, a more inclusive briefing, or one decision made earlier in the process.

During the training, we also explored how Jaarbeurs can use this lens both for its own events and in conversations with clients. That includes practical areas such as communication, space, timing, food, signage, movement, recovery, support and follow-up. It also includes the client-facing language that helps position wellbeing as part of event quality, not as a soft extra.

Phrases such as “this improves the participant journey”, “this reduces friction around arrival, movement and breaks”, or “this supports inclusion without making the event more complicated” are useful because they make the value concrete. They move the conversation away from abstract wellbeing language and towards better event design.

The feedback also showed useful questions Jaarbeurs could ask clients earlier. What do participants need? Is the event accessible to every type of visitor? What information will be most useful before arrival? Who is the audience, and what might they need to participate well? Those questions are practical, but they are also strategic. They help a venue become a more proactive partner, not only a place where an event happens.

That feels especially fitting in Utrecht. It is a city that takes health and wellbeing seriously, and Jaarbeurs has that same energy to it. There is ambition there, but also openness, thoughtfulness and a real interest in doing things well.

For us, that connects very naturally with the work we do at Leladijo Consulting and through Event Mental Wellbeing. Human sustainability is not separate from event performance. It is part of what makes events clearer, healthier and more effective for the people who attend, host and deliver them.

One of the most encouraging parts of the day was hearing people say they were starting to look at their venue differently. Once you begin to notice how different people actually move through and experience an event, it becomes harder to design on autopilot. You start seeing the whole journey more clearly: arrival, wayfinding, registration, movement, sound, light, food, breaks, help points, quieter options, client responsibilities and the closing experience. You begin to notice where people are supported, and where friction has simply become normal.

The next step is to turn that learning into something usable. The training was designed to feed into the Jaarbeurs Participant Experience, Human Sustainability and Wellbeing Toolkit. The toolkit will draw on the Taskforce’s input and the feedback from the day, and is intended to become practical guidance for healthier, clearer and more engaging events.

The feedback also gave us useful direction for future support. The strongest area requested was inclusive event design and accessibility, followed by areas such as client-facing language, Mental Health First Aid for event professionals, participant journey mapping practice, and train-the-trainer or internal champion support. That tells us the appetite is not only for awareness, but for practical application.

It was also simply a very good group to work with. It was a hot day, but the Taskforce stayed sharp, engaged and generous throughout. There was good energy in the room, but also a willingness to think carefully about what this could mean in practice.

Thank you to everyone who took part so fully, and to Roland and the Jaarbeurs team for the collaboration and support around the day.

We are looking forward to seeing where this goes next: how the learning starts to show up in real client conversations, in venue review, in participant experience choices, and in the future events that Jaarbeurs helps bring to life. Because once a venue starts seeing wellbeing as part of event quality, the conversation changes. And once you start seeing the event through the participant’s eyes, you cannot really go back.