The olfactory factor… uniting people through common scents

The common-sense neuroscience elements noted in the Headset article can help attendees feel more comfortable, connected, and prepared for an exceptional learning experience. There are also related event planning techniques – like common scents, literally – to pique attendees’ engagement levels – right through their noses, in this case.

My recent stay at The Westin for a conference highlights a great example of this. Noticing a distinct scent in their lobby, I discovered that they employ sensory branding to engage their guests. This involves strategically placing and releasing their signature White Tea fragrance throughout their worldwide properties in order to help deliver a consistent guest experience.

There are many other considerations for tapping into attendees’ sense of smell during events. According to July’s Parade Magazine Amazing Facts About Your Senses article, most people can recall a scent with 65 percent accuracy even after one year. This part of the brain, the temporal lobe, also manages emotions and memories, so you might find effective ways to connect specific smells to a specific activity or information at your event in order to evoke or reinforce a reaction.

Selecting the right scent requires other considerations as well.

• Audience. Keep in mind that different smells, like citrus which promotes concentration and mental awareness, can have different impacts depending on what you’re trying to communicate.
• Individuality. Smell varies considerably by individual. This scent sensitivity is due to peoples’ genetic make-up as well as a range of daily physiological factors, from the environment to food and medications.
• Placement/release. Like The Westin’s sensory branding strategy, there are considerations around the “what, when, and why” with scent selection. Maybe it can accompany a presentation that reinforces information. Maybe it involves your food selection or design/decoration features.
• Other senses. Parade Magazine’s article also indicates that the use of multiple senses concurrently often inhibit each other. Vision, for example, consumes significant brain power to process, will may drain and distract one’s ability to fully use their other senses.

These are just a few examples of how you might leverage attendees’ senses – smell, as well as see, touch, taste and hear – throughout your planning efforts. So, maybe there’s a “method to your madness” after all in stacking the afternoon buffet table at your next event with oranges instead of Oreos?