I spend a lot of time thinking about community. Running global events means debating every choice that shapes the experience. The venue. The agenda. The speakers. The moments people don't expect. My team and I obsess over it.
Last week I was at Xchange Europe in Amsterdam. This weekend I was at Capital's Summer Time Ball at Wembley. And I couldn't stop drawing comparisons.
Here's what I keep coming back to.
The line-up won't appeal to everyone. That's the point. The best programmes are someone's everything, not everyone's something. In Amsterdam, the keynotes from global brands were what people talked about most. At Wembley, I was singing Joy at the top of my voice next to my son RayRay, watching Raye perform live. She's been my most played artist for 18 months. That moment was one of my highlights of the year.
No algorithm predicted that.
There's a term from sociology called collective effervescence. Émile Durkheim coined it to describe the energy that forms when a group of people share an intense experience together. Research confirms it: higher emotional arousal in group settings increases feelings of connection and commitment to the people around you. You feel it in a packed stadium. You feel it in a conference room when a speaker lands something true.
The venue matters more than people admit. In Amsterdam we found a five-star space on a three-star budget. But that space gave the day a sense of importance. Grandeur changes how people hold themselves. I'm increasingly having those moments at Wembley too. The environment signals to your nervous system that something worth showing up for is happening. People put up with real sacrifice to attend live events. Distances, cost, time, queuing. They do it because they want to experience something with other people who feel the same way.
That shared intention is what creates the energy. And the journey of emotions, thoughts, and conversations that unfold are unique to that exact day, that room, what's going on in the world and in your world. It can't be scheduled. It can't be replicated.
I've run events across four continents. I've been in thousands of conversations about what makes community work. And every time I'm stood in a room with people who chose to show up, I feel it again.
Nothing replaces being in the room or in the stadium.
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