Have you ever found yourself talking to someone and noticed that your arms and legs were in the same position as theirs? Yep! Me too. This is a researched phenomenon. We humans mirror each other. We do it without thinking, and it helps us bond.

Vanessa Van Edwards is “The Science of People” person. In her TEDx talk, she shares how “we are contagious.” (Nope. We’re not talking about COVID🦠-contagious. This time we use “contagious” in the best sense of contagious!) We are contagious physically; i.e., we mirror each other. We are contagious verbally; we can hear each other’s happy micro-expressions🙂 in a phone call or on video and respond positively. And emotionally, my excitement or happiness can rub off on you.

Her video got me thinking again about creating community culture. Every time we get members together for an event, we have an opportunity to cultivate the community culture that is the most beneficial for attendees—for example, hosting a problem-solving event. The right community culture might be generous, open, supportive, kind, helpful, and creative. If people are contagious, as Vanessa says, then we event hosts can do a lot to create our desired culture.

But first, let’s imagine we didn’t intervene. Three thousand people fly from all over North America (or the world) to attend an annual conference. Traveling🛩️ is a hassle. Traveling to many conferences means getting up before the crack of dawn, fighting rush-hour traffic to the airport, then cruising the parking deck for a needle-in-a-haystack spot. Followed by a loooooooong TSA line, and another loooooong boarding line, then the worry of not being able to find a place for your luggage because there are more bags in the overhead compartments than there are people on the plane, and finally, the actual flight with a seat-kicking toddler thrown in, topped off by a taxi/Lyft/Uber, a la Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to the venue. Your attendees may not look it, but inside, they probably feel a little grumpy, tired, and harried. It is not hard to imagine that 3,000 slightly cranky😠 people might not do a lot to pick each other up.

Or!

Or what if we reset those feelings? Right there at registration or as they walk in the venue's doors, can we do something that puts them in a different frame of mind?

What if we were positively contagious? What if, with our actions, voices, body language, and facial expressions, we warmly welcomed these weary travelers, gave them a soft place to land, and ushered them into a carefully designed experience that switched off the grump and turned on the generous, open, supportive, kind, helpful, and creative feelings that everyone will benefit from?

Have you got an event coming up? Think about what you can do to model, cultivate, and create the community culture that will benefit your attendees the most.