Ending events in a way that honours the experience and leaves the audience with good memories
Happy new year ! 🍾 Are we still allowed to say that? As it’s my first post of 2026 I’m going to go with it, although the holidays do feel like quite a long time ago now. I hope you did some feel-good gathering over the festive period and that you have refilled your cup.
How was New Year’s Eve (or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland) for you? Growing up it was a big deal. My Granda told me Christmas wasn’t even a public holiday when he started working, but they got 2 days off for Hogmanay. Since moving to England I’ve struggled a bit with their less celebratory attitude to the turn of the year. Because I think the Scots have got it right, and IKEA thinks so too (bear with me).
The start sets the tone, the end seals the memory
Ending well is psychologically important. It colours our whole memory of the experience that went before. We honour the year by celebrating its end, just like we honour someone’s life with a memorial service. Ending events well honours the time and effort that went into creating them.
Have you ever been to one of those events or conferences that seem to run out of steam? It’s meant to go on till 5pm, but people start drifting away at 3pm because there’s nothing inspiring on the schedule. How you start an event sets the tone, but how you end it will stick longer in people’s memories.
End on a high (or a hot-dog)
Ending an event well doesn’t have to be anything fancy – you don’t need confetti cannons (unless you want them 🎉). Ending well just needs some thought. You might save the highest profile speaker till last, give out awards at the end, or have a big photo opportunity.
So why did I mention IKEA? Have you ever wondered why they sell hot-dogs and ice-cream after the checkouts? 🌭🍦 Ah, well it’s their version of ending well and sending you off with a good memory. It’s a very deliberate ploy (known in marketing a psychology as ‘peak end’ or the ‘recency bias’) to give you something to look forward to after what can be a stressful and overwhelming experience. Even a divorce-threatening trip to buy and man-handle budget Scandinavian furniture can be made better with a good ending.
Photo by Marisol Benitez on Unsplash
