High Satisfaction, Zero Impact?

Why Event Organizers Are Optimizing the Wrong Metrics

At IMEX26 Inspiration Hub, Orange Gibbon's Mike Van der Vijver engaged his session participants with a provocation: the meetings industry talks a lot about sustainability - but what if we are optimising the wrong things?

The waste you can see and the waste you can't

Walk the IMEX show floor when the show is over and you'll find discarded carpets, dismantled booths, and mountains of single-use materials almost big enough for skiing. The physical waste is visible. But there's another kind in meetings and events we rarely talk about: wasted attention, wasted energy, and wasted time - the immaterial resources every participant brings into the room.

On the material side, our sister company Asia Concentrate specialises in sustainable event materials and production - pioneering the use of banana leaves and water-based inks as event backdrop alternatives. Proof that circular thinking can eliminate waste altogether, not just reduce it. But at Orange Gibbon, our core focus is the other kind of waste: the kind you can't sweep off the floor.

We obsess over the wrong things

The meetings industry obsesses over stage design, catering, attendee numbers, and satisfaction scores. Meanwhile, participants spend two or three days overstimulated, exhausted and struggling to have meaningful conversations.

Most networking formats work mainly for extroverts. Gala dinners are beautifully produced - and socially uncomfortable. And too many organisers measure satisfaction instead of change.

As Mike put it: "Participant's time is a more valuable resource than the budget." That line resonated with the room. Because everyone there knew exactly what he meant.

Go Circular - beyond materials

The circular economy gives us the right framework - but only if we apply it fully. Not just to carpets and catering. But to the things that actually drive impact:

Knowledge. Connections. Energy. Attention.

At Orange Gibbon, we call this: Go Circular. Because the purpose of meetings is to create impact that continues after people leave the room. Otherwise, we're just producing temporary experiences with temporary value.

Or as Mike put it: "If we focus only on the material side, meetings become a form of sea sailing. And the definition of sea sailing is tearing up €1,000 notes while standing under a cold shower."

The industry representatives in the session laughed. 

Serious fun is a design principle, not a mood

One of our favourite moments at IMEX wasn't on stage - it was playing Mahjong with hosted buyers at the Taiwanese booth: social, strategic, competitive, joyful. That's what we mean by #Seriousfun. Play is fun but not only. Done for a purpose, it's one of the most powerful tools for creating conditions where real learning and connections happen.

This is where Meeting Design diverges from event planning. Event planning asks: what needs to be in place? Meeting Design asks: what needs to change and how do we design to make that happen?

The hospitality mindset is holding us back

The hospitality industry's instinct is to make people comfortable. But comfort and growth are not the same thing. When we prioritise satisfaction over outcomes, we design for applause rather than impact.

What we're calling for

Treat participant time and brain power as the scarcest resources in the room - more valuable than the AV budget, the venue, or the keynote fee. Design with clear behavioural objectives. Measure tangible change over satisfaction scores. And collaborate across organisations - such as IMEX and beyond - to build shared standards for what "good meetings" actually look like.

This is what Meeting Design is for. And it's what Orange Gibbon does.

About Orange Gibbon Orange Gibbon is a Meeting Design consultancy. We help organisations design meetings that create lasting impact - through consultancy, our Go Circular framework, and professional development courses. We teach the Art & Science of meetings that make people move. Based in Asia, working globally.

About Asia Concentrate Asia Concentrate specialises in sustainable event materials and production, helping event organisers eliminate physical waste through circular material solutions including banana leaf backdrops and similar innovations from outside the meetings industry.

If you would like to know more about the session, here is the summary:

2026.5.26