EWM Foundations Workshop 6: Designing Event Spaces

The way we design an event space has a huge impact on how people experience it.

Busy exhibition floors, crowded conference areas, competing sound sources, unclear routes, limited seating and visually overwhelming environments can all increase sensory and cognitive load — particularly for neurodivergent and sensory-sensitive attendees.

But creating a more neuroinclusive environment doesn't mean removing the energy, atmosphere or creativity that makes events exciting.

In this practical workshop, we'll explore how thoughtful spatial design can make conferences and exhibitions easier to navigate, more comfortable to spend time in and more accessible to different brains.

We'll look at the event environment through a neuroinclusive lens — considering layout, movement, noise, lighting, seating, zoning, signage, transition spaces and opportunities for pause and recovery.

✅ How floorplans and spatial design influence attendee experience

✅ Understanding crowd density, movement and pinch points

✅ Managing competing noise and sensory stimulation

✅ Creating clearer routes and intuitive navigation

✅ Using zoning to separate different types of activity

✅ Seating, rest points and giving people permission to sit

✅ Creating transition spaces between busy and quieter environments

✅ Building white space into the physical event experience

✅ Considering lighting, visual clutter and environmental stimulation

✅ Designing exhibition stands and conference spaces with neuroinclusion in mind

✅ Practical low-cost and no-cost changes that can improve existing spaces

• A better understanding of how physical environments affect sensory and cognitive load

• A practical way to review exhibition and conference floorplans through a neuroinclusive lens

• Ideas for reducing unnecessary crowding, noise and visual overwhelm

• Strategies for introducing rest, choice and opportunities for regulation

• Practical improvements that can be incorporated during the planning stage

• Clear actions to take into your next event

This session is grounded in lived experience and EventWell's real-world delivery across conferences, exhibitions and live events, looking not only at what an event space looks like on a floorplan, but what it actually feels like to move through it as an attendee.

Because good event design isn't simply about fitting everything into the available space.

It's about creating space for people, too.

Workshop Series Programme: