Corporate events have a friction problem - it’s time to add some back
M&IT editor Paul Harvey explores the new trend for friction-maxxing - and asks whether it could help event organisers make experiences more meaningful.
For decades, our industry has been in a quiet arms race against friction.
Registration should be one-click. Check-in should take seconds. Networking should be “facilitated” through apps, AI matchmaking, and pre-programmed serendipity. The ideal event, it often seems, is seamless - so smooth that nothing interrupts the delegate experience.
But what if that’s exactly the problem? A growing cultural idea known as friction-maxxing - coined by Kathryn Jezer-Morton earlier this year - argues that the discomforts we design out of life are often the very things that make experiences meaningful. Think ordering a takeaway rather than cooking from scratch. Following a satnav rather than reading a map. Messaging on WhatsApp instead of making the effort to meet friends in person.
The friction-maxxing ethos is essentially that taking the harder option is more rewarding than taking a short cut. Awkwardness, effort, unpredictability: these aren’t bugs in the system to be eliminated – they're essential to giving the system meaning.
Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash
Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash
The tyranny of seamlessness
Our industry’s obsession with ease mirrors what law professor Tim Wu calls the “tyranny of convenience”. We’ve trained delegates to expect everything instantly: information, introductions, even inspiration.
But the friction-maxxers argue that frictionless experiences tend to be beige, forgettable ones.
The theory goes that when everything is pre-curated and optimised, there’s little room for discovery - or for the small moments of human negotiation that create real connection. You don’t need to talk to anyone at registration if your badge prints automatically. You don’t need to ask for directions if an app guides your every step. You just glide through.
Why friction creates meaning
Sociologist Hartmut Rosa talks about “uncontrollability” as essential to meaningful experiences - the idea that we connect more deeply with things we can’t fully optimise or predict.
Events, at their best, are exactly that: messy, human, slightly chaotic gatherings where something unexpected happens.
There’s also a psychological case. The “IKEA effect” states that people value things more when they’ve had to work for them. Basically, because you’ve constructed your bookcase yourself, you’re more likely to feel an attachment to it. The same principle applies to experiences: if you’ve made an effort - initiated a conversation, navigated a new environment, endured a slightly inconvenient journey - you’re more invested in the outcome.
You can already see friction creeping back in around our industry, whether by accident or design. We’re seeing fam trips that swap short-haul flights for train or ferry journeys. Education sessions that force people to take part, not just passively listen.
It hints at a broader opportunity: what if we stopped treating friction as a failure, and started treating it as a feature?
What friction-maxxed events could look like
A friction-maxxed event doesn’t mean making events deliberately painful or disorganised. It means strategic friction - introducing just enough resistance to trigger human behaviour.
Some possibilities include:
Analogue registration experiences
Instead of fully automated check-in, you create moments that require interaction. A staffed welcome desk where delegates must ask a question, exchange a few words. Not a queue for its own sake - but a more social experience.
Deliberate networking constraints
Remove the crutches. No apps for the first hour. No pre-arranged meetings. Just people, in a room, figuring it out. Maybe even get them to pour their own drinks. It may feel awkward - but that’s where real conversations begin.
Slower, shared journeys
Lean into transport as part of the experience. Trains over planes. Group transfers that encourage conversation. The journey becomes the first networking session, not dead time to eliminate. Delegates arrive slightly later, but also more present - having shared a journey rather than teleported to a destination.
Participation over consumption
Workshops where delegates must contribute, not just listen. Sessions that require preparation or follow-up. Make people co-create the experience, not just passively absorb it.
Designed unpredictability
Leave some elements unprogrammed. Throw in some surprise speakers. Change up your formats. Create spaces where delegates have to explore rather than follow a rigid schedule.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels
The risks
Of course, friction isn’t neutral. Inconvenience can quickly become exclusion. Not everyone has the time, energy, or resources to embrace slower travel or more effortful participation. As professor André Spicer, and expert on organisational behaviour, has noted, friction can become a kind of status symbol - something only certain groups can afford.
Event organisers need to be careful: friction-maxxing should deepen inclusion, not limit it. The goal isn’t to make things harder, it’s to make them more human.
The question isn’t whether events should be frictionless or friction-filled - it’s where friction belongs within the event. Right now, we remove it almost everywhere by default. But the future may belong to organisers who understand how to design for it intentionally, who know when to smooth the path, and when to let it get a little uneven.