5 Career-Defining Moments That Sparked My Commitment To Inclusive Event Design.

Neil Hudson-Basing shares lessons and insights from his events career which feature in his new WCS | Masterclass.

Working in event management wasn’t planned. As a kid, through my teens, university and beyond, I flitted between what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted to be. I didn’t have any role models or big aspirations. I accidentally fell into the world of events and the fast paced nature of it appealed to me. Suddenly, without even realising for quite a while, it became my career.

The roles I’ve had have been incredibly varied - from fundraising officer to project manager, to my role today at We Create Space as Community & Events Director (with many more in between). My career has spanned a broad range of sectors too - charity voluntary, political, education and media. What started off as roles primarily centred around operations and logistics has shifted to one focusing on content creation, communication and community building. In recent years, I’ve also flexed into hosting and facilitation.

Having been in the Events Industry over the last 20 years, I’ve been responsible for creating meaningful experiences for attendees, speakers and stakeholders - and so much of the impact I’ve seen comes back to whether or not those individuals feel a part of it. I didn’t quite grasp that in my early career in the same way I do now through the lens of Inclusive Event Design.

Inclusive Event Design is like a second language to me now. It’s embedded and flows through my approach, behaviours and actions. A fair bit of it feels intrinsic, stemming from my insistence, since childhood, on fairness, kindness and respect. Yet much of it is learned and has been shaped by interactions, experiences and lessons throughout my career (some of which I’ve learned the hard way).

I have been able to transfer the skills I’ve developed and learned throughout my career into so many other facets of my life. It probably goes without saying that organisational skills have supported me in project management and delivery in both my professional and personal outputs. However, there are two areas in which I’ve found the most value as a result of being an events professional: communication & relationship building. These have become fundamental in how I show up in the world in how I collaborate, support and advocate for others.

We’ve just launched our brand new WCS Masterclass in Inclusive Event Design - designed and delivered by yours truly - to help you embed inclusion & belonging into every stage of the event planning journey. Now that it's live I’ve been reflecting a lot on how I got to where I am today. With those reflections in mind, here are 5 career defining moments that have stayed with me, taught me a ton and influenced the decisions I make when creating events.

1. The Power of Storytelling

In my early career as Campaigns & Public Affairs Assistant at the UK’s leading cancer charity, I supported the production of a Financial Toolkit for People Affected by Cancer. This culminated in a roundtable discussion consisting of medical professionals, policy makers and most importantly, service users. Whether talking about car parking fees, benefits or caring allowances, hearing service users talk about their lived experience of navigating life with cancer brought the toolkit to life. What’s more, it raised awareness, educated key decision makers and changed processes. It was an impactful example of using an event to launch a product and create change through real life storytelling.

2. The Spirit of Collaboration & Co-Production

My first big break into the world of events was landing the role of ‘Project Coordinator’ for a membership organisation made up of trade associations, regulatory bodies and charities. Our main purpose was to support the curation and delivery of a programme of events during the three main political party conferences through fringe events, flagship activities and an exhibition.

One of my tasks was to find commonalities amongst the 50 members, group them together - across three organisations - and have them collaborate on a joint event. This event would ultimately aim to shape overarching policy in key areas relevant to their individual organisation and communicate their work.

Seeing incredibly different organisations with specific remits come together, and working with them, in such an creative, innovative and unified way instilled in me the importance of collaboration and co-production. Later down the line, this massively shaped the way I worked with ERGs in terms of cross-collaborative ventures and today as I speak about impact within Inclusive Event Design.

3. Logistics That Work For Everyone

As a Corporate Events Manager working in an academic institution, I would work across and support different departments. One event that came my way was a celebration of 100 years of our learning disability nursing department which would be attended by academics, nursing professionals and people with learning disabilities.

Until that point in my role, everything required of me had been incredibly corporate E.G. audiences, catering, technical requirements. Yet delivering an event for people with learning disabilities required extra levels of thought and attention to ensure the experience for them was equitable and comfortable. I worked closely with the Learning Disability Nursing team on all things logistics from shaping the programme to lighting and they taught me new skills - producing easy read signage. This instance highlighted how logistics can be handled more considerately and creatively when considering the attendee experience for everyone.

4. Representation Matters

I’m transparent about where I’ve made mistakes in my career and truly believe mistakes set us up for success - and hopefully avoid making them again!

When I began working on virtual events, I spearheaded an online, three-part Sustainability & Climate Action Series, which took part across a whopping 11 days with speakers from around the world. No easy feat! I snapped into action to source speakers. It wasn't until part two of the series that I stopped, looked at the makeup of the speakers and realised there was limited representation when it came to Black individuals & POC.

With climate change impacting global majority communities more than anyone else, I realised this was something I needed to fix - not out of ticking the boxes but because representation matters and the integrity of the event demanded it.

It was a lesson learned the hard way and it’s something that is now at the forefront of my mind when crafting events. Sometimes it means digging that bit deeper to source a speaker that is right for the role but one that also brings a diverse, intersectional perspective.

5. Bringing your Audience on a Journey

How you engage with your audience is a core part of our Masterclass in Inclusive Event Design and provides an opportunity for you to be creative, challenge yourself AND your audience. Working within a university, things were pretty traditional and I revelled in disrupting that fairly often.

Repositioning my role from one centred around logistics to one driving content and messaging, I organised an International Women’s Day evening entitled ‘Casual Misogyny & Sexism - Banter or Oppression?’ BOOM. A title to grab people’s attention. We even had postcards distributed around campus featuring somewhat tongue-in-cheek but thought-provoking phrases women often hear from men to promote the event.

The next step was creating a format for the evening. I bypassed the usual options and instead booked a well-known comedian to kickstart the evening. This was followed by a student who spoke frankly and freely about the casual sexism they’d encountered on campus and the impact of this on their studies. A panel discussion made up of professionals, students and our comedian provided the audience with a range of viewpoints and take-aways, including what male allyship looks like in these scenarios. I even hosted the evening - overcoming my fear of public speaking - to put this into action.

The event was a sellout. We had a packed out audience and it was talked about for weeks afterwards. It shaped future events and attracted new attendees from within the university and local community too. It demonstrated the need to mix things up a bit in order to effectively communicate a message and inspire new ways of thinking.

To sum up this article, I did an online search for a definition of ‘Inclusive Event Design’ and here’s what came up: the proactive, comprehensive process of planning events that ensure all participants—attendees, speakers, and staff—feel welcome, safe, and respected, regardless of their background, ability, or identity.

It’s a decent definition and hits the nail on the head but ultimately, as event planners - whether in your professional role, in your free time, as a community organiser, etc… the definition you create exists in you and how you do things.

It isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s fundamental to meeting organisational goals, encouraging strong stakeholder engagement, building communities and creating positive change.

So it makes sense for event planners and their organisations to dedicate the time to adopt an inclusive events approach that is accessible, actionable and sustainable as well as being effective.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it either.

Actually, I’ll rephrase that, there is no one-way to do it.

There are in fact many wrong ways to do it and I’ve done them… and got the t-shirt.

I hope that this Masterclass supports you in navigating (even avoiding) some of the pitfalls and mistakes I’ve encountered as well as supports you in your learning and development when it comes to your own organisation, communication and relationship building skills & techniques.

As I state in the Masterclass, creating inclusive events is not a linear process and you won’t always get it right. It’s a holistic process that will shape you, your choices and your career. The blips will shape you and your future events. You’ll learn and grow and your events will flourish as a result.

Neil Hudson-Basing (he/him) is We Create Space's Community & Events Director based in London. With almost 20 years experience in the events industry, Neil has a real passion for bringing audiences together. He's the Co-Founder of The House of Happiness, a queer led & delivered sober clubbing event, to help address the lack of LGBTQ+ sober spaces. He's also the producer & host of his podcast 'Pause. And Rewind...' which focuses on inclusion heroes & their origin stories. He's a passionate advocate for volunteering too - he's the Events Director for Trans+ History Week & regularly supports multiple charities, non-profits & initiatives.

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