Paul Botterill – 20th November 2025

Whether you’re sharing a new discovery or an important lesson learnt, catching up with colleagues from across the world, or making new connections closer to home, events can be the perfect platform to energise your community, find solutions, and amplify the effect on your cause. We know how powerful an engaging conference can be and the potential of a skillful stakeholder workshop to unlock tricky issues, which is why we love to deliver thoroughly meant events. Find the right people, the right place, the right purpose and magic can happen.

Unfortunately, we all know what it feels like when the magic isn’t quite there. Sandwiches so stale that they can’t have been made this year. Keynotes which doggedly try to discover how many words you can fit onto a PowerPoint slide. An agenda so confusing and incoherent that it must have been made for one specific niche attendee, who didn’t turn up anyway…

What’s the difference between events that are infuriating or insightful, boring or brilliant, depressing or delightful? Well, as one of the event specialists at Mindfully Wired, I help our clients host some of the most impactful events in sustainability, and I can reveal four of our top secrets. After all, our aim is to facilitate better conversations to encourage better collaborations and ultimately create better outcomes for our planet.

Before we jump in, why should you listen to me? Well, Mindfully Wired has a track record of delivery, just check out our case studies! From huge scientific conferences to highly specialised stakeholder meetings and workshops. No two events are the same. We’ve tackled international symposiums, facilitated high-profile online discussions, and shaped purposeful, community projects with values at the heart – all with a mission to impact our world for the better. The breadth of work we do is extraordinary, and is one of the most exciting parts of my role. 

So what are the key lessons to keep in mind, first of all:

Connections at the core

Forming a genuine connection with our clients is the key to bringing events to life. I feel privileged to be trusted with a client’s vision, knowing that I can guide them along the journey to make it a reality. A shared understanding of what will make an event a success is where all our journeys begin, co-creating a concise success statement which forms the guiding light throughout everything that is to come. From there, it’s easier to liaise with stakeholders, suppliers, and everyone involved to bring everything to fruition with a clear purpose in mind. We consult on or create agendas which go beyond the usual, brief speakers on logistics so they can nail the content, and keep on top of all the unexpected developments so that the project stays on track steadily bringing ideas to life with maximum impact (from the mildly unusual like Pecha Kucha Presentations, to the truly unique like dolphin necropsies). All of this is made easier by creating a unified vision at the start, which you can clearly communicate to everyone who gets involved.

An audience-first vision

The subjects and issues that we explore at our events can be incredibly complex, specialist, scientific, all three or more. For each event, we use our expertise to design an agenda for maximum engagement and impact. From interactive workshops to inspirational keynote speakers, all details are meticulously planned to ensure the event runs as smoothly as possible. Throughout everything we ask ourselves, “why would someone come to this event?” If you can’t clearly articulate the benefit to your audience, then why would they take time out of their schedule to come. Every item in an agenda has to earn its place. Sure, online interaction tools can be fun, but if they’re just there as a gimmick then your audience will see through it.

Thinking on your feet

OK, so the prep work is done, everything is in place, now just to deliver everything exactly as planned. Well, probably not. There’s no such thing as a perfect delivery in the world of events: caterers don’t turn up, the Wi-Fi makes us sweat, or speakers submit slides after the event has already started. That’s where troubleshooting skills really come into their own. We’ve always got a backup plan – or a trick or two – to keep things running smoothly, so it’s rare that something affects the attendee experience. Remember: nobody except you knows how things were supposed to go. If you can roll with the situation to buy yourself a little more time, you’ll often find a solution and get back on track. If you’re the calmest person in the room then nobody will bat an eye.

Crowdsourcing and conversations 

Doing an event well feels great, bringing a vision to life and creating a memorable experience for all involved is pretty satisfying. It’s not enough to just do it once though! If you’re going to create a track record of success, and keep moving the dial for your cause, then you’ve got to get some feedback. Whether it’s an online form that automatically lands in people’s inbox (our weapon of choice), or a sneaky form that was on the back of their nametag all along, you’ve got to find out what your audience were thinking. Try to mix up tick box responses with space for open comments. You want to extract the maximum information with the minimum effort from those filling it in. Sharing really is caring when it comes to feedback.

Working in the events team is an incredibly rewarding role at Mindfully Wired, and exemplifies the work we do as a purpose-led, cause-and-effect comms agency. Turning cryptic, half-baked ideas into tangible, meaningful experiences is a powerful driver. When you see people striving to make the world a better place, it encourages you to think bigger and better – not just for the next event, but for our tribe of people trying to save the planet.