Meet Your Attendees Where They Are: Event Design Advice from TED, Pinterest, and Forbes
Skift Take
Listening to your audience enables you to deliver the experiences they seek, and some they never would have expected.
Event leaders shared advice from the Skift Meetings Forum 2025 stage that impacts the design of their own events. TED Conference Chief Program and Strategy Officer Monique Ruff-Bell led a conversation with Pinterest’s Senior Director Global Brand Experiences Judy Lee and Forbes Vice President of Programming and Events Jessica Charles.
Delivering a Personalized Approach
TED delivers a personalized welcome for event attendees, with no cue lines and a personal greeting at registration. Attendees are told how much they’re appreciated. “The biggest compliment we get is, ‘You are always so thoughtful.’ We start with that foundation, that these are people, not cattle,” said Ruff-Bell.
At Forbes, Charles spends a lot of time researching consumer preferences on Pinterest, TikTok, and other platforms for the 100 events she plans, for C-level and entrepreneurs.
One area where she has learned from experience is gift-giving. Once, she tried giving gifts that had been popular with her CMO attendees to her CIOs. “They hated them. We realized that CIOs like customization.”
Inclusivity and Engagement
At TED, Ruff-Bell has put a lot of thought into how to make first-timers feel welcome. She holds Zoom calls before an event, covering everything from dress codes to food and beverage to logistics. She also makes sure staff are on hand to answer their questions.
One of her biggest successes was with a rock-paper-scissors competition involving hundreds of first-timers screaming and cheating each other on. “Those people became their friends throughout the entire event. You really have to think about the richness of belonging and community-building,” she said.
The creative culture of the Pinterest community inspires Lee’s event design. The Pinterest Manifestival at Cannes Lions started off with a personalized style reading, and then attendees sat down with each other to create.
“We needed a way to break down the walls. So we created workshops, where everyone had to sit around a table and do things together.”
