IMEX Smart Monday Takeaways: How Intentional Event Design Creates More Meaningful Meeting Experiences

A closer look at the intention, imagination and collaboration behind transformative experiences at Disney

What makes a meeting truly matter?

It is not simply the size of the venue, the scale of the production or the number of elements on an agenda. It is how thoughtfully every detail supports the people in the room and the purpose that brought them together.

At Smart Monday during IMEX 2026, a few of our Disney Event Architects shared a look inside the creative approach Disney Meetings & Events uses to design purposeful experiences. The session, Magic in the Details: How Disney Designs Meetings That Matter, explored how teams across creative, culinary, entertainment, floral, technical production, operations and more work together to transform a client’s message into a transformational experience for attendees.

Looking Beyond the Event Brief

Beyond the event brief or request for proposal, our Disney Event Architects like to begin with a deeper question: What does the client truly want attendees to experience?

Understanding that wish requires curiosity and empathy. It means learning about the organization, its goals and its attendees, then looking beyond the initial theme to uncover the need at the heart of the gathering.

A request for growth, celebration or connection may point to something deeper, such as helping different teams feel united, showing employees that they are valued or creating a shared experience during a time of change. When planners and creative partners understand that underlying purpose, individual event elements can become part of one cohesive story rather than a collection of separate moments.

Designing for More Than the Moment

At Disney Meetings & Events, the goal is not simply to plan an event. It is to design an experience that stays with attendees after they return home.

That means considering both return on investment and Return on Experience. What should attendees understand? How should they feel? What will they remember? And how can that experience make a difference in their work, their relationships or the organization’s larger goals?

Emotion is not left to chance. It is considered throughout the creative process, from the central story to the smallest sensory and operational details. When every participating team understands the heart of that story, the client’s message can guide the full experience.

Creativity Is a Practice

People often associate Disney with creativity and imagination. But creativity does not happen simply because talented people are gathered in a room.

It takes practice, shared language and an environment where people across disciplines can contribute ideas. The Disney Creative Studio brings together team members with varied perspectives, including sales, operations, services and creative disciplines, to exercise their creative thinking and inspire one another.

That collaboration is especially valuable when an idea presents unfamiliar territory, logistical constraints or competing points of view. Instead of allowing those challenges to narrow the possibilities too quickly, the team uses an intentional process to explore what the experience could become.

The presentation offered attendees a closer look at that process, including the creative agreements and activities that help Disney Event Architects build on ideas, find unexpected connections and move from possibility to purposeful design.

Walking the Attendee’s Path

Even the strongest creative concept must work from the attendee’s point of view.

Disney Event Architects consider the physical path guests will take through an experience, but they also examine the emotional path. What will attendees encounter first? Where should the experience build energy? When should there be space for reflection? How should they feel when the event concludes?

Looking at both paths helps connect creative intention with operational expertise. It gives teams an opportunity to consider what attendees will see, hear and feel from beginning to end, whether the event is an immersive experience in a theme park or a meeting moving from a general session into breakouts.

Design Matters to Meetings of All Sizes

Transformative design is not reserved for the largest productions.

The same principles can shape a major park event, a ballroom general session or a more intimate gathering. What matters is starting with purpose, connecting every element to the story and remaining intentional about the attendee experience at each step.

Meeting design becomes especially powerful when planners and creative partners move beyond asking, “What should we include?” and begin asking, “What should this make possible?”

That is where the magic in the details begins.

At Disney Meetings & Events, our Disney Event Architects bring storytelling, imagination, operational knowledge and a wide range of creative disciplines together around your organization’s message and goals. The result is not a one-size-fits-all event, but an experience designed for your attendees, your purpose and your story.

We would love to discover your wish and explore what your next meeting could become.

Connect with Disney Meetings & Events to begin planning. Let’s Create Magic.

—The Disney Meetings & Events Team