Selected work
Stonehenge Summer Solstice 13,000+ attendees
NATO Exercise Support France
National Resilience Exercises Central Government
Event Experience Reviews

For organisers who want to see the event through an attendee's eyes.

People don't experience events on paper. They experience them through registration, emails, arrival, signage, queues and hundreds of small moments that shape how they feel.

I help event teams understand how theirs lands in practice, before it happens, during and after.

Talk about your event
20+
Years inside events where there was a lot happening and not much room for guesswork.
Government · NATO · Public Events · Healthcare · Technology
Crowd at illuminated venue
Over time I've always come back to the same question. How does this genuinely feel for the people taking part? Because what looks right on a plan doesn't always translate on the day.
Why this works

I notice what you might've stopped seeing.

I'm neurodivergent. I tend to notice patterns, gaps and inconsistencies in how information is genuinely experienced and it's become a useful part of how I work, especially in complex live environments.

I know what to look for, because I've spent years in environments where those gaps could've had real consequences.

Who this is for

You're an Event Director, Conference Manager or Head of Membership.

You've probably delivered this event before, or inherited it from someone who has. The logistics are under control, the plan's taking shape and the team knows what they're doing.

But you're still worried that there could be a gap between how it looks on paper and how people are going to experience it.

01Will people know what to expect?
02Are the emails as clear as we think they are?
03Where might confidence drop, especially for neurodivergent attendees?
04What will people ask when they arrive?
05What feels clear to us but not to them?

Most teams just need an outside view, some fresh eyes, from someone who isn't buried in the detail.

That's where I come in.

Ways to work together

What I do

Pre-Event Experience Review

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A focused review of your event before it goes live. I step through the experience as an attendee would and identify where things may not land as intended. Best four to six weeks before your event.

£950, fixed fee.

Includes a focused look at:
  • Registration and booking process
  • Confirmation emails and joining instructions
  • Event information and clarity
  • Websites and landing pages
  • Pre-event communications
I then identify:
  • What's working well
  • What's unclear or easy to miss
  • Where attendees might lose confidence
  • Simple improvements that make things easier and more reassuring
Want a sample review? I can share one.

Full Experience Review

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A review of the full participant experience from first contact through to post-event communication. Registration, pre-event communication, arrival, onsite experience and follow-up.

From £2,500+

Includes review of:
  • Registration and booking experience
  • Pre-event communication and expectations
  • Arrival and onsite experience
  • Event flow and participant journey
  • Post-event communication and follow-up
I focus on:
  • What works in practice
  • What creates confusion or uncertainty
  • How people experience the event
  • What could be improved next time
Want a sample review? I can share one.

Event Operations Support Limited Availability

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Sometimes teams need someone who has been inside live events at scale. Alongside my review work, I support a small number of organisations with on-the-ground delivery where extra experience is useful.

I only take on a small number of these.

This can include:
  • Planning and delivery support
  • On-the-day help
  • Logistics and coordination
  • Volunteer coordination
  • Stakeholder management
  • Risk and contingency planning
What you receive

A sample of the work

Every review is written as a clear, readable document. Not a spreadsheet or a form. Here's what one typically looks like.

Pre-Event Experience Review
Annual Staff Conference
Nicola Harrington
Pre-event review
This review covers the attendee experience from first contact through to the joining instructions. It reflects the perspective of someone attending for the first time with no internal context.
What's working well
Things worth looking at
  • The joining instructions don't mention where to go on arrival. For someone who hasn't been to this venue before, that creates an early moment of uncertainty.
  • There's no indication of what to bring or whether there's a registration desk. This is the kind of thing that feels settled internally but generates questions on the day.
  • The agenda page uses internal language for some sessions. It doesn't distinguish between sessions clearly enough for someone coming in fresh.
Request the full sample Sent by email, no obligation.
How it works
01
We talk

A conversation about your event and what you want to understand.

02
I review it

I step through it as an attendee would.

03
You get clarity

Clear, practical points on what's working and what isn't.

What I notice

It's usually the small things.

A lot of what I pick up isn't about big problems.

An email that makes sense internally but raises questions for the recipient.

A process that assumes some kind of prior knowledge.

A moment where people pause because they're not sure what they need to do next.

These are often the things that shape how an event is remembered.

Aerial crowd view
Large outdoor event crowd
Out in the wild

Different settings.
Same pattern.

STONEHENGE SUMMER SOLSTICE — 13,000+ ATTENDEES· NATO EXERCISE SUPPORT — FRANCE· NATIONAL RESILIENCE EXERCISES· HEALTHCARE CONFERENCES· TECHNOLOGY SUMMITS· PUBLIC SECTOR EVENTS· STONEHENGE SUMMER SOLSTICE — 13,000+ ATTENDEES· NATO EXERCISE SUPPORT — FRANCE· NATIONAL RESILIENCE EXERCISES· HEALTHCARE CONFERENCES· TECHNOLOGY SUMMITS· PUBLIC SECTOR EVENTS·
Nicola Harrington

Hi, I'm Nicola.

Most of my career has been spent working behind the scenes on projects and events where there are lots of moving parts and plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong.

Over the years I've worked on everything from Stonehenge Summer Solstice and large healthcare conferences to NATO exercises in France, Home Office exercises and technology projects in the care sector.

I enjoy understanding how things work, spotting opportunities to improve them and helping people have a better experience as a result.

When I'm not working, I'm usually running, at some kind of cycling event, or cheering on my son from the side of a muddy cyclocross race course.

in
LinkedIn
Let's talk.
Ready when you are

Talk about your event

If you'd like a fresh perspective on how your event is likely to feel for the people attending, or how it genuinely landed, I'd love to hear about it.

Get in touch