Event Recap: Sense Making at Events
Events introduce people to new ideas, but the strongest events go further. They help people understand what those ideas mean, connect them to the challenges in front of them, and carry new thinking back into their organizations. That distinction shaped the Smithbucklin webinar Sense Making at Events, hosted by Beth Surmont, Head of Strategy & Design at 360 Live Media. Beth was joined by Denise Roosendaal, Executive Director of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.), and Katie Scott, I.C.E.'s Associate Executive Director, for this important conversation about how events cultivate understanding and how they can help a profession prepare for change rather than simply react to it.
“Sense making” is the work between information and action
Association audiences do not lack information. They are surrounded by research, reports, newsletters, webinars, podcasts, social posts, and rapid updates from across their fields. The challenge is deciding what deserves attention and what it means for the future.
This is where events can provide distinctive value. By bringing people together around emerging issues, an event can help a community recognize patterns, challenge assumptions, and interpret change collectively.
Sense making happens in the space between hearing an idea and deciding what to do with it. It requires more than a strong speaker or a polished presentation. Attendees need opportunities to discuss what they heard, compare perspectives, test its relevance, and connect it to their own work. As events evolve, the speaker role moves from presenters of information to facilitator of connection: to ah-ha's, takeaways, and insight.
When that process is intentionally designed, the event becomes more than a place to receive content. It becomes a setting where a field begins building shared understanding.
Beth Surmont: Design for interpretation, not just information
Beth's perspective centered on the responsibility event leaders have to design what happens around the content, not only the content itself.
A keynote can expose an audience to a provocative idea. But exposure alone does not guarantee understanding, and understanding does not automatically lead to action. The program must help attendees make the connection.
That could mean pairing a presentation with facilitated discussion, giving attendees prompts that relate the idea to their organizations, or creating time for participants to identify what they want to explore next. These are not optional additions to the learning experience. They are the mechanisms that make the learning useful, and the value apparent.
Beth also emphasized the value of looking beyond an industry's familiar voices. Experts from adjacent fields can reveal forces that insiders may not see clearly. They can introduce different perspective, different assumptions, and different ways of framing a challenge. That productive distance can help attendees reconsider what they believe is fixed and see what might be possible in ways they have not considered.
For event leaders, the design question becomes less about how much content can fit into the agenda and more about what attendees need to understand together, and how the program is shaped to get them there.
Denise Roosendaal: Foresight creates room to prepare
Denise brought the perspective of an association leader helping a profession navigate forces that may significantly change how it operates. In credentialing, developments in technology, education, workforce mobility, skills measurement, and employer expectations are already reshaping the environment.
Foresight offers a structured way to engage with that uncertainty. It is not about predicting one inevitable future. It is about identifying signals, considering multiple possibilities, and discussing how an organization or field could proactively respond.
For I.C.E., the Future of Credentialing work created a foundation for those conversations. The research helps credentialing leaders scan the environment, recognize important trends, and build a culture of foresight. The event experience then gives people a place to examine those ideas together.
Denise's perspective highlighted an important role for associations. They do not need to arrive with every answer. They can convene the right voices, surface the right questions, and help their communities develop greater confidence in navigating what comes next.
That work is especially important when change feels abstract or overwhelming. A well-designed event makes the future more tangible by allowing attendees to explore it with peers who understand their context.
Katie Scott: The format must support the outcome
Katie's perspective connected the strategic ambition of sense making to the practical choices that shape the agenda.
If the goal is to help attendees absorb complex ideas and form new perspectives, a conventional sequence of presentations may not be enough. The program needs a rhythm that allows people to encounter new information, pause, process it, and revisit it from different angles.
This can include speakers from outside the profession, facilitated conversations, small-group work, structured reflection, synthesis sessions, and direct interaction with presenters. Each element plays a different role. External experts expand the frame. Facilitators help attendees connect ideas. Peers provide context. Synthesis turns a series of sessions into a coherent experience.
Katie's viewpoint reinforced that format is not simply a production decision. It is part of the strategy. The way people participate determines whether they leave with a collection of notes or with a perspective they are ready to use.
The Future of Credentialing Summit puts the approach into practice
I.C.E.'s Future of Credentialing Summit served as the central example throughout the conversation. The immersive workshop was rooted in I.C.E.'s Future of Credentialing Report and strategic scenarios work. It brought credentialing leaders together to explore external forces transforming learning, work, assessment, and the ways workforce skills are recognized and communicated.
The summit intentionally featured perspectives from outside credentialing. Topics included lifelong learning, durable human skills, alternative education and assessment tools, labor-market demand, non-degree credentials, higher education pathways, and the role of credentialing in talent strategy.
Just as important, the agenda created space for attendees to digest what they heard. Facilitated synthesis was built into the day, including time to connect morning content, discuss implications with peers, and wrap the experience into a more complete view.
That structure reflects the difference between presenting trends and helping a field respond to them. The summit did not ask attendees to passively absorb predictions. It asked them to consider how external developments could influence credentialing, what new questions their organizations should be asking, and which possibilities deserved continued attention.
In other words, the summit was designed so the learning would not remain in the room, but that the participants would take it forward to their organizations and their own work.
How event leaders can begin
An entire program does not need to be rebuilt as a foresight summit to create more sense making. Event leaders can begin by examining a few strategic choices:
1.) Start with the shared challenge. Identify the change, uncertainty, or emerging issue your community needs to understand, not simply the topic it needs to hear about.
2.) Bring in an outside view. Look beyond the usual speaker pool for people who can reveal adjacent trends, challenge assumptions, or offer a different frame.
3.) Protect time for synthesis. Build discussion and reflection into the agenda instead of expecting attendees to process everything between sessions or after the event.
4.) Use prompts that move toward application. Ask attendees what the idea changes, what it could mean for their organization, and what conversation should continue when they return.
5.) Plan for the ideas to travel. Give attendees language, tools, or questions they can bring into staff meetings, board discussions, strategic planning, and future programs.
The real value appears after the event
Events often measure success by what happens onsite: attendance, engagement, session ratings, connections, and satisfaction. Those indicators matter, but the webinar offered a wider view of impact.
A sense-making event creates value that continues to unfold. An attendee raises a new question with their leadership team. A board begins discussing a trend it had not considered. A program director experiments with a different approach. A profession develops stronger language for the forces changing its work.
That is what it means for an event to go forward.
The best events do not end when the final session closes. They are a catalyst for thinking that moves into the conversations, choices, and strategies that follow. By combining foresight with intentional program design, associations can create events that do more than reflect the current state of a field. They can help shape where it goes next.
