What is the Good Life, and What’s it Got to Do with Us?

Introducing a framework for embedding wellness into live events

Since antiquity, humankind has struggled to identify and articulate exactly what makes people happy – the pursuit of pleasure, a meaningful life or an existence that lies somewhere in the middle. What was eventually agreed upon was that, whatever it may be, wellbeing and happiness are processes, not destinations. They can only be experienced subjectively, through lived experiences.

For those engaged in creating live events, congresses, conferences, brand activations and other lived experiences, this presents an interesting opportunity – some would say, an obligation. While event creators always strive to design experiences that are interesting, engaging, fun and useful, might they also look more closely at exactly what they are building, and how it might positively impact the lives of those who encounter it? Could they deliberately set out to identify what makes people happy, and seek to engineer a little of it into their events?

Carl Rogers, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, identified the good life as a process of self-actualisation, involving experiences that are ‘enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging and meaningful’. His system of ‘person-centred’ psychotherapy still dominates ideas of wellness, certainly in the West, but as a definition of wellbeing his list of adjectives is vague. For something more rigorous, specific and pragmatic, it is necessary to turn to a tool such as the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS), a validated and evidence-based scale for measuring overall wellbeing among people aged thirteen to seventy-four in the UK. The WEMWBS, in its complete form, consists of fourteen simple statements that respondents rate from one to five, according to how much they agree or disagree. By abbreviating these fourteen statements down to five key clusters, one can arrive at a set of actionable generalisations – a simple basis for embedding wellness into events and experiences. This is referred to (in a strategist’s fondness for acronyms) as the Wellness SHAPE Index:

1. Social capital (access to a genuine support system: family, real friends, a community)

2. Having a purpose (a role to play, a difference to make, a reason to get out of bed in the morning)

3. Altruism (good deeds: doing something that doesn’t necessarily offer a tangible return, charity etc.)

4. Positive outlook (feeling optimistic about the future, confident and energised)

5. Empowerment (having the capacity to solve problems and the ability to implement these solutions)

If events are designed to contain all five elements of the SHAPE index, one can be reasonably confident that the right boxes are being ticked. Regardless of what the event is actually about, qualities and activities are embedded that help participants feel fully well. To be clear, this is not about moving anything into delegates’ awareness, it is about creating an event that provides the best lived experience possible.

So, what SHAPE is the event in? Does it include opportunities for participants to feel part of something, to socialise, work together, feel connected? Does it actively engage participants, giving them a part to play or a goal to achieve? What legacy does it provide? What can delegates contribute that gives them the satisfaction of having done something useful, whether for someone else or for a greater good? What does the event offer that is physically and mentally energising, leading to a more positive outlook? And how much power is placed into the hands of delegates (including the power to choose not to do any of the above)?

The Wellness SHAPE Index is simple because it needs to be. Its simplicity is intended to be useful rather than reductive, offering a checklist of factors known to have a major impact on mental health and wellbeing, and reminding planners of the special ingredients that every event needs.

When designing a new live event, congress, conference or brand activation, it’s important to give it SHAPE. And explain to the client why.