Whether you’re planning a learning event, product launch, or strategy session, it’s imperative to design an experience that resonates with your audience and guides them through a journey of engagement, reflection, realization, and personal growth. Performance Experience Design (PXD) is one method for crafting experiences that inspire behavior change and achieve desired outcomes. This approach focuses on the whole person, considering their mindset and emotions throughout the event.

How can you ensure your event captivates and resonates with your audience enough to create lasting impact? Our 5Es Framework—Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, and Extend—considers the entire experience lifecycle, from the initial invitation to post-event follow-ups, to capture attention, maintain engagement, and reinforce key messages, ultimately leading to better outcomes and a more connected, motivated team.

To pull off a successful event, whether in person, virtual, or hybrid, consider these three key points:

• Align on your objectives. and stay true to your event goals throughout the planning process and execution.

• Consider the best format. that suits your attendees to maximize impact.

• Measure for success. by continuously evaluating and applying insights to ensure ongoing improvement.

Align on Your Objectives

Begin by defining your objectives for the event and understanding your audience’s needs. Objectives should be SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound—to provide insight into what’s needed to bring the experience to life and help you explore which format and measurement practices will best support your event.

Consider the Best Format

To decide whether an in-person, virtual, or hybrid format best supports and aligns with your event goals and your audience’s needs, consider these elements:

Live, In-Person Events:

• Build connections: Use in-person experiences to enhance culture and feelings of belonging.

• Introduce new products and tools: Incorporate hands-on demonstrations and Q&A sessions.

• Provide in-person engagement: Offer opportunities for team building, role-playing, and networking.

Virtual Events:

• Be flexible: Provide various options for language, timing, interaction levels, and monetization.

• Manage costs: Invest the money you’re saving on in-person event overhead costs (for example, travel, lodging, and food) in technology to ensure successful virtual engagement.

• Track results easily: Use online engagement data to evaluate impact.

Hybrid Events:

• Extend your reach: Attract attendees from multiple locations and coordinate shared experiences through virtual breakout sessions.

• Enhance safety: Allow participants to choose in-person or virtual attendance based on their comfort level, travel ability, and health status.

• Provide the best of both worlds: Combine in-person and virtual elements for broader engagement and connect diverse audiences.

Measure for Success

Clearly defined event objectives are the framework for measuring success. You must have a clear grasp of your event’s purpose and set specific criteria to measure against those objectives. Consider including these standard event measurements in your evaluation:

• Total registrations and check ins: Compare registrations against actual attendance to identify gaps.

• Attendee engagement: Measure participation and interest in the content through Q&A, polls, and surveys.

• Speaker and activity ratings: Assess attendee satisfaction and content relevance through survey ratings.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Evaluate whether your audience will recommend your event to others in post-event surveys.

• Website traffic: Track content access, downloads, and reviews to measure content engagement.

The 5 Es in Action

The 5Es framework enhances every aspect of an event by focusing on the experience before, during, and after.

• Entice: Attract participants with intentional invitations and build anticipation. Examples: teaser videos, pre-event mailers, themed itineraries, pre-meeting assignments.

• Enter: Set the stage with context, goals, and objectives. Examples: lobbies with music, greeters, fun polls, welcome messages, guiding principles for participation.

• Engage: Create an interactive experience that energizes and inspires. Examples: multiple perspectives, surprise elements, group and independent activities, breakout sessions, gamification.

• Exit: Make the conclusion memorable and build momentum for the future. Examples: voting apps, survey apps, summary drawing exercises, group photos, virtual boards for follow-up thoughts.

• Extend: Sustain engagement and make insights actionable post-event. Examples: peer pairings, 1:1 check ins, post-event emails, a microsite with follow-up content.

Are you ready to start planning memorable and effective event experiences? To put people at the center of your event design using the PXD framework, download our Virtual Meeting Design Canvas, which will guide you in setting clear objectives, designing engaging experiences, choosing the right format, and measuring success.