In Conversation with Tahira Endean, Head of Program, IMEX
Podcast (the-trade-show-podcast): Play in new window
Tahira Endean is the Author of Intentional Event Design, “Our Professional Opportunity”, and Our KPI is Joy, Using Live Events to Catalyse, Happiness, Productivity and Trust. She is also the Co-founder of Strategy Table – helping companies Transform Team Dynamics Through Expert Meeting Facilitation.
Tahira is a curious event designer and education curator for the MICE industry. She is passionate about global travel, intentional event design and the integration of technology into our lives and events to enhance the human experience. Tahira wore her “Association Hat” as Head of Events for SITE from 2019 through the pandemic and until we returned to events fully in 2023. Change is inevitable, and in 2023, Tahira put her passion for lifelong learning into practice by earning an MSc in Creativity and Change Leadership. Tahira continues to educate the next generation, teaching Event Strategy and Design at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Deeply committed to the industry, Tahira has been recognised for a range of contributions, including 2022 Influencers with Northstar Meetings, SmartMeetings – Women in Meetings Visionary (2021), MeetingsToday Top 20 Trendsetter (2018), a MeetingsNet Changemaker (2016), the MPI BC Chapter Mentor of the Year (2018), amongst others. In 2015, Tahira was inducted into the Meetings Canada Hall of Fame in the Big Idea category.

Driven by a fascination with what we are learning about neuroscience and the power of the five senses to enhance memory, knowledge retention, and improve connections, she is continually seeking appropriate ways to design the most relevant incentives. meeting and event environments.
Tahira also loves travel, cooking, time with her family, and anything with bubbles!
- Tahira speaks to Subhanjan about why humans connect, and the experience of attendees and participants at events should be the paramount criterion on which to base the design of events. Ultimately, people want to connect and experience empathy and joy at such gatherings.
- Events are costly, and when organisers plan them, they typically look at factors such as display effectiveness, website functionality, technological efficiency and a host of other such criteria. But they ought to spend at least a tiny amount of their resources on thinking about the human experience.
- The customer journey starts with the anticipation phase, when they start packing for the journey to the event. Great events should make the arrival, the registration, and the welcome- all of these memorable experiences for the attendee. After all, out of three or four-day events, most people tend to remember only six minutes of the entire engagement after a while.
Run time – 01:03:07
Links for Subhanjan