How event planners can best manage the impact of mass social trauma

The pandemic, global conflicts, racism, injustice, inflation, climate-related disasters - all of these are weighing on people’s collective consciousness, creating a minefield for event planners. Increasingly, they need to become better equipped to handle physical and psychological threats and recognise the nuances to consider when determining the best logistical measures. PCMA’s recent webinar, entitled Navigating Mass Social Trauma at Events, explored the far-reaching consequences of mass social trauma, stemming from incidents like shootings, protests, and political injustice and the extent to which they can cast a profound shadow on business events.

Types of trauma

The panel, drawn from sectors including workforce development, law enforcement, legal and marketing, identified different types of trauma. There is trauma which comes from a distinct event that has happened; ‘complex trauma’, meanwhile, is not from a single distinct event, but from a series of events or circumstances over the course of a longer period of time. ‘Collective’ or ‘mass’ trauma is experienced by a large group of people - a country even, rather than a single person.

Participants were challenged to think about the different types of collective trauma that exist, such as global war, terrorism, systemic racism, and healthcare pandemics.

“Collective or mass social trauma is also the kind that can be disproportionately, differently or more severely experienced by people within specific identity groups, people with a shared social identity,” said Rhonda Payne, a meetings and events professional and the founder of workforce development agency Flock Theory. “It also can.”

Collective or mass social trauma is also the kind that can be disproportionately, differently or more severely experienced by people within specific identity groups, people with a shared social identity.

Rhonda Payne, the founder of workforce development agency Flock Theory

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She added that such trauma can also be transmitted over generations within such communities. It can be witnessed firsthand, or be passed along within that community without firsthand experience.

Collaborative co-creation

The panel also examined whether some communities or social groups are more vulnerable to mass social trauma than others and what event planners can do to manage these emerging concerns, by anticipating and co-creating experiences that take these elements into consideration.

Sylvie Long-Tolbert, principal at Know More Marketing said: “It's such a paradigm shift. It's about cultural competencies. Who do we talk to that helps us to better prepare for hosting an event catering to a group of minority teenagers in the current environment? We don’t want to drift, by not understanding what their needs are. Managing collective trauma has to be centred through a lens of empathy.”

Understanding needs thoroughly

A big opportunity, she added, is co-creating an experience based on what people tell you about their vulnerabilities and their concerns. Part of the co-creation process is also about being vigilant and understanding the given threats for a particular group of people. Every threat is different and understanding the target at its core will determine event planners’ responses and the contingencies they put in place. The panel concluded this is a dynamic and moving target - successful co-creation needs to question people 90 days, then 30 days before an event, to see if their concerns have changed, for example.

Tailored training

Long-Tolbert said that for incidents such as hate crimes, training is desperately needed so that event planners can gain a better understanding.

“What constitutes a crime? We're a little fuzzy on that - we're socialised and we're de-sensitised,” she said. “We need to do some basic training around things that are a physical and emotional threat. So that we don't make assumptions in the planning or in the recovery process, if a person feels unsafe, we have to understand what that experience looks like. For an event planner and a conference agenda, it means giving people a space to have a voice before they leave the event.”

The panel also shared tips on how to support recovery and resilience. Bryant touched on creating peer groups where people can gather and speak to like-minded individuals that had experienced similar things, offering people the chance to talk and share their experiences. The webinar also explored how event organisers can lay the groundwork to better collaborate before, during, or even after social trauma incidents have occurred.