Every year teaches us something different about how people come together. Some years feel like subtle course corrections. Others mark a shift in how events truly work. Looking back, 2025 sits firmly in the second category. Across the projects we have shaped this year, a clear pattern has emerged. People want experiences that feel honest and intentional. They want clarity in a crowded world, and connection that feels genuine rather than manufactured. Above all, they want to feel considered.
This has been a year of rediscovering what matters and of laying foundations for what comes next. Many of the shifts we have seen in 2025 have also begun to point towards the future outlined in our 2026 perspective. Here, we reflect on the themes that defined this year and how they continue to influence what is coming.
Design that begins with understanding
Some of our strongest work this year began not with creative direction, but with simple conversations. Before sketches or storyboards, we found ourselves returning to the same questions. What does this audience need? How should the experience help them feel? What would make the day easier, clearer or more inspiring?
Taking the time to explore these questions early on has shaped the entire design process. It affects how we use space, how we pace content and how we create moments that feel natural instead of engineered. This human-centered approach has become a defining feature of 2025. It is also one of the themes that carries directly into the thinking behind our 2026 outlook, where the focus continues to move toward experiences shaped by the needs of the people within them.
Hybrid becoming a living, breathing part of the experience
Hybrid has continued its steady evolution. In earlier years it was a solution. This year, it became a dynamic part of the story.
Hybrid in 2025 has meant shaping experiences that extend across different moments and platforms. Pre-event digital touchpoints that ease people in. Reflection spaces that remain open after the day has ended. Moments designed to feel just as relevant online as they do in the room.
The most successful hybrid work this year has not been about mirroring the live experience. It has been about creating gentle continuity. This shift is closely aligned with what we expect to see in 2026, where hybrid takes on a more fluid and continuous role across the entire event journey.
Narrative guiding the experience from within
Every event contains hundreds of decisions. What gives those decisions coherence is the story that sits underneath them.
In 2025, narrative has become one of the most important tools in the design and production process. When the story is clear, everything else becomes easier to define. It guides transitions, informs the visual language, shapes the mood in the room and helps people feel anchored.
Narrative continues to be a stabilising force as the industry grows more complex. It allows events to feel grounded even as they evolve, and it continues to shape the direction we see emerging for 2026.
The importance of quiet, precise delivery
If 2025 has highlighted anything, it is the value of the work people never see. Backstage teams, technicians, producers and stage managers have shaped this year’s events through quiet precision.
The way a cue is timed. The way presenters move between spaces. The way transitions happen without breaking the energy in the room. None of this draws attention to itself, and yet it defines the experience.
This blend of technical skill and human intuition remains one of the strongest anchors of live events. It is also a reminder that as formats evolve, the craft of delivery holds its place at the centre.
What 2025 has taught us while we look ahead
Reflecting on 2025, several principles stand out. They are not trends. They are constants that will continue to guide the industry into 2026 and well beyond.
- Begin with people
- Use story as a guide, not an ornament
- Build formats that make participation feel easy
- Treat technology as a support, not a spectacle
- Deliver with care and quiet precision
- Pause to learn after every experience
These ideas give events their depth. They also connect directly to the shifts we expect to see develop further in 2026. If this year has laid the groundwork, the next will continue the progression toward experiences that feel gentler, more grounded and more considered. 2025 has shown us what people respond to. 2026 will build on it.
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