How can planners design an event so perfectly tailored to their attendees that they feel like you’ve been reading their diaries? In this episode of What One Thing?, JT Long, vice president and content director of Smart Meetings, chats with David Allison, a human values expert and founder of the Valuegraphics Research Company, to explore how planners can leverage insights into human behavior to better understand their attendees and create truly engaging, values-driven events.
Editor’s note: This episode of What One Thing? was transcribed by Otter.ai and edited lightly.
JT Long Welcome back to What One Thing?, a Smart Meetings podcast that provides you with a shortcut to the top of the events world by asking successful people what made the difference in their lives and careers. I’m JT Long, vice president and content director of Smart Meetings, and this conversation could be the start of a whole new, more human-centric chapter in your life—yay!
David Allison is a human values expert, global researcher, and two-time bestselling author. He’s the founder of the Valuegraphics Project, an organization devoted to what sounds like a simple goal: influencing outcomes through shared human values. Easy, right? Welcome, David!
David Allison Thank you for having me here. I’m very happy to be here and super excited for this conversation, so thank you.
JL Also, we—and the Smart Meetings community—want to know: How do you become a values expert? Were you asking people about their lives and engaging and motivating them as a kid? How did you do this?
DA No, that is not how this happened.
I come from a marketing background, and I got frustrated because every time we looked at a group of people and tried to understand what makes them tick so we could market stuff to them, we only had two tools. One was demographics—things like age, gender, income, marital status, all those labels we’re familiar with. The other was a big bucket of psychographics—how people behaved in the past.
In a meetings context, did they attend my conference last year? If they came, did they buy the platinum ticket, or did they show up for just one day? This is all interesting information, but it has flaws.
First, demographics don’t tell you anything about who people are on the inside. It just tells you who they are on the outside. If you think demographics reveal who people truly are, you’re wrong. You’re relying on stereotypes.
Here’s an example: Let’s say 73% of the people coming to your next event are female. What are you going to do with that? Start assuming what “women like”? That’s stereotyping. What will you do—make everything pink? Of course not. It’s ridiculous. Demographics leave you making assumptions about people based on labels.
Then there are psychographics, which are all about what happened yesterday. Did they attend last year? How much did they spend? Were they exhibitors? Did they speak on a panel? This is all past behavior. It’s like trying to plan the future while driving a car and looking only in the rearview mirror. You might get there, but you’ll hit a telephone pole and end up in a ditch because you’re not looking forward.
What we’re missing is a way to understand how to get people engaged, inspired, and motivated. How do we get them to do something next? To do that, you need to look at behavioral science. You have to know what they value because humans make thousands of decisions every day based on what aligns with their values. If you know what people value, you know how they’re going to behave, and you can plan experiences they’ll feel are “the one for us.” They’ll engage like a school of fish swimming in the same direction.
JL You’ve been talking about this for years. What’s the reception from meeting professionals? Do they say, “Oh, that’s one more thing I have to do,” or do they say, “Yes, I’ve been waiting for this all my life”?
DA You get both of those. But mostly, it’s like, “Wow, this is so obvious. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?”
What helps people embrace this idea is that it’s all based on data. It’s not me saying, “Values are nice and fuzzy, let’s talk about our values.” No. We’ve done a million surveys around the world in 152 languages across 180 countries, building the world’s first global inventory of human values.
When I speak to meeting planners at events like IMEX, COMIR in Mexico, or MPI, I can say, “Here’s exactly what your audience values.” The data is more accurate than what you’d need for a Ph.D. Once you know what people value, you can create events that feel like they’ve been designed just for them. They’ll feel like you’ve been reading their diary.
It’s like suddenly knowing your audience as if they’re your best friends—and who couldn’t plan a great event for their best friends?
JL Does that change across different parts of the world, or over time? Will my grandkids value something different than I do?
DA Two very different questions.
First, does it change across different parts of the world? Absolutely. Values vary across regions, industries, and seniority levels. But here’s the good news: There are only 56 core human values. That’s it. There are 88 keys on a piano, so it’s more complicated to play “Happy Birthday” on the piano than to understand the core values driving every decision we make.
Second, does it change over time? Yes, but very slowly. Values shift generation by generation, so your grandkids’ values will differ slightly from yours. Over many generations, values evolve significantly. But within your lifetime, values rarely change.
There’s a big controversy in behavioral science about whether “short, sharp shocks” can change values—like a sudden, unexpected event such as witnessing a plane crash. After 9/11, for example, we saw temporary shifts in values for some people. But over time, those values often reverted to what they were before.
So the short answer is: Your great-grandkids will have very different values, but between you, your kids, and your grandkids, there’s only a little shift. Your values are constant for your lifetime—just like diamonds, they don’t change.
JL Would Covid be considered a shock?
DA No. Covid didn’t change people’s values. It just changed behaviors. For example, if you value family, during Covid, you might have doubled down—checking on your great-aunt, teaching your mom to use Zoom, or ensuring your family was safe. Someone else who values ambition might have used Covid to work even harder, calling their boss every day and delivering projects ahead of schedule.
Values drive behavior, but the values themselves stay constant. After Covid, people returned to their regular routines, but their values remained the same.
JL So it just intensified what was already your value?
DA Exactly. Your behaviors change all the time, which is why I get frustrated when I see studies measuring behavior at an event and using that to plan the next one. Behaviors are unpredictable—they depend on so many factors. Are you in a good mood? Did you have coffee this morning? Did you get enough sleep?
We put way too much weight on behaviors and assume they predict future actions. Instead, we should look at why people behave a certain way—the values driving their decisions. Values don’t change, so if you know your attendees’ values, you can plan future events that resonate more deeply. You’ll have happier, more engaged attendees who feel like the event was designed just for them.
In fact, my research company works with large-scale events, profiling attendees’ values and helping organizers tweak every aspect of the experience—from registration to catering, programming, and post-event communication. We align everything with the values of their audience. When we do that, attendees leave saying, “This was the best event I’ve ever been to.”
JL It’s nuanced. It gives you a feeling, but it’s not always an obvious change. Is that what you’re saying?
DA It can be an obvious change. Let me give you an example.
Let’s say health and well-being shows up as a top value for your audience. Traditionally, networking at events means a big room with bars on each side, a DJ, and everyone mingling with a drink in hand. But if health and well-being is important, why not reimagine networking?
You could organize activities like group walks, yoga sessions, or mindfulness workshops. Networking happens naturally within those experiences, but it’s aligned with the audience’s values. They’ll love it.
On the other hand, if health and well-being isn’t a shared value, trying to force those activities would feel out of place. The key is understanding the values of your attendees so you can plan experiences that align with what matters to them.
For example, if personal growth is a top value, focus on speakers and sessions that inspire development. If family is important, make it easy for attendees to bring their families or include family-friendly options.
Everything—from programming to catering—can be adjusted to resonate with their values. Once you align your event with attendees’ values, they’ll engage, feel inspired, and leave with a sense of connection.
JL That’s what planners are so good at—getting that direction and figuring out what works for their groups, right?
DA Exactly. Planners are brilliant at this. The more I’ve gotten involved with the events industry—particularly during Covid—the more respect I have for what planners do.
When Covid hit, I wanted to give back. As a keynote speaker, the events industry has been very good to me. So I started offering free research and data to help planners understand what attendees cared about—whether for virtual, hybrid, or in-person events.
Through that process, I’ve learned how incredibly hard planners work. They’re responsible for events that take a year to plan but culminate in two or three days of high pressure. Yet, they glide through it all like swans—calm on the surface while working furiously behind the scenes.
The C-suite doesn’t always recognize how important planners are, but they should. In a world where we’re more disconnected than ever, meetings and events provide critical opportunities for human connection.
JL You wrote a great article for Smart Meetings about the dangers of generational stereotyping. But how can planners identify attendees’ values without asking them to take a test?
DA First, let me address the generational issue. There’s a lot of noise right now about understanding Gen Z. But when we analyze groups like Gen Z, boomers, men, women, or any demographic label, we find that people in those groups only resemble each other about 10.5% of the time.
That means generational stereotypes are wildly inaccurate. You can’t say “Gen Z is all about X” or “Millennials love Y.” It’s nonsense. There are tens of millions of Gen Zers—how could they all be the same?
Instead, look at shared values that cut across demographics. Some attendees, regardless of age, might care deeply about health and well-being. Others might prioritize personal growth, family, or financial security.
As for how planners can identify values, I recommend three options:
1. Hire my company—we can provide a data-driven report with incredible precision.
2. Use my book—it includes a 15-question quiz you can send to attendees. Based on their answers, you’ll identify which of the 15 major archetypes in our database align with their values. Each archetype has insights about what motivates them and how to engage them effectively.
3. Ask the Three Telltale Questions. These are simple, conversational questions you can use to uncover people’s values:
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- Why do you go to work?
- You just won the lottery—why would you give away half?
- If you could say one thing to yourself from 10 years ago, what would it be and why?
If you listen carefully to the answers, people’s values will bubble to the surface. Use those insights to plan events that resonate with their priorities.
JL Fabulous questions—and the bottle of wine is optional, right?
DA Absolutely. But the questions work even better over a relaxed dinner with friends!
JL This has been such a thoughtful conversation, David. You’ve shared so many actionable insights. Thank you for being part of the Smart Meetings community and for joining us here today.
DA Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure!
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