Designing Events People Talk About for Years
The best community events aren't the ones with the biggest budgets — they're the ones designed around connection. A field guide from the team behind COMS.
Anyone can fill a room. The hard part — the part that turns an event into a story people retell years later — is designing for connection rather than content.
Here's how we think about event design at COMS.
Start with the feeling, not the agenda
Before you pick speakers or sessions, decide how you want people to feel when they leave. Energised? Seen? Reconnected? Every design decision flows from that answer. An agenda is a means, not the goal.
Engineer the first ten minutes
Arrivals are awkward. Most events leave attendees to fend for themselves at exactly the moment they're most uncertain.
- Greet people by name at the door.
- Give them something to do immediately — a prompt, a sticker, a question to answer.
- Make the first interaction easy and low-stakes.
Design the in-between
People remember the hallway conversations more than the keynotes. So design the hallway.
| Moment | Default | Better |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee break | "Help yourself" | A prompt that gives strangers a reason to talk |
| Lunch | Sit anywhere | Light structure that mixes people |
| After-party | Optional | A clear, warm invitation with a reason to stay |
Build in reflection
End with a moment that helps people consolidate what happened — a closing circle, a single question, a way to capture one takeaway. Reflection is what turns an experience into a memory.
People won't remember every talk. They'll remember who they met and how it felt.
Follow up while it's warm
The event isn't over when people leave. A thoughtful follow-up within 48 hours — photos, intros, a way to keep talking — extends the connection long after the lights go down.
Budgets help, but they're not the differentiator. Intention is. Design every moment around the people in the room, and you'll build something they talk about for years.
That's exactly what we try to do every year in Barcelona. Come see for yourself.
Keep reading
Five Rituals That Build Belonging
Belonging isn't an accident — it's engineered through repeated, intentional rituals. Here are five you can start using this week.
How to Run Member Onboarding That Actually Sticks
Most members decide whether they'll stay within their first week. Here's a practical onboarding sequence that turns sign-ups into regulars.
A Coworking Tour of Barcelona — After COMS 2026
After the Barcelona summit, we toured the city's best coworking spaces — Monday, Cloudworks, Aticco and MOB. A recap of why Barcelona is one of Europe's great coworking capitals.