When Culture Meets Corporate: Event Lessons from Live Music and Theatre

As the lines between conferences, cultural programming and live entertainment continue to blur, three event managers at Aviva Studios in Manchester, home of Factory International, the UK’s most significant producer of new art and performance, share why belonging, atmosphere and emotional connection now matter more than ever.

A Ferris wheel isn’t something you expect to find at a conference.

Yet, during an Adidas event at Aviva Studios, a traditional business gathering was transformed into a Wonderland-inspired experience, complete with fairground rides, immersive design and theatrical spectacle.

“It felt like some weird fever dream,” laughs Katie Bruce, senior events manager at Factory International, who is part of the venue’s live music team. “It was brilliant and bizarre at the same time.”

It’s the kind of event that would have felt unusual in the corporate world a decade ago. Today, it’s increasingly representative of a wider shift taking place across the industry.

The most memorable business events borrow ideas from live culture – theatre, concerts, exhibitions, festivals, and community programming – with organisers looking beyond traditional conference formats to create experiences that feel more immersive, emotionally engaging, and audience-focused.

Across the industry, organisers are now drawing on different strands of creative talent and thinking to design events. And venues that operate across multiple event disciplines are becoming creative partners in their own right, with ideas moving fluidly between cultural and commercial formats and teams.

At Aviva Studios, the Factory International event teams behind a year-round programme of brand activations, gigs, exhibitions, theatre, public programming and corporate events work side by side. Their creative expertise spans different event worlds, with ideas and approaches shared across audience flow, emotional design, behavioural psychology and the subtle details that shape how people experience events.

Increasingly, the worlds of live culture and corporate events are colliding – not as a sudden shift, but as an evolution that has been building for years and is now being taken to a new level. What began as a push for ‘better experiences’ has become a full creative glow-up of business events.

Here’s how.

The Conference Glow-Up

For event manager Lucy Hill, who leads a diverse programme of business events held at Aviva Studios, one of the biggest shifts is an acceleration and refinement of something organisers have been working towards for some time: far more experience-led, visually ambitious and emotionally engaging events.

That expectation is now being matched by execution. It’s more embedded, more intentional and audiences are far less tolerant of environments that feel functional or uninspired.

“Audiences still expect high production values and memorable experiences, but event design is moving beyond what people see to how they feel. Clients are arriving with themes, creative concepts and clear ideas about the emotional impact they want to create,” Lucy says.

“There’s a clear difference between placing a conference in a hotel meeting room and taking people somewhere with scale, creativity and atmosphere.”

She adds: “It’s about making people feel valued. Considered. It’s the human touch, genuine impact and a legacy beyond the event itself, creating experiences that shape and stay with them.”

That philosophy is reflected across the venue’s events. A music activation linked to a major international awards moment used its platform to champion grassroots talent and widen access, while a leadership summit incorporated a visit to Aviva’s David Hockney Lightroom production, demonstrating how culture and creativity can enrich the delegate experience and help deliver more memorable events.

Belonging Becomes the Brief

Beyond multi-layered experience design and spectacle, a deeper shift is emerging: organisers are increasingly being judged on whether audiences feel welcomed, connected, and part of something larger than the event itself.

For Katie, that’s where corporate events can learn most from live music and cultural programming – disciplines that have long understood the importance of emotional connection, now being applied more deliberately in business settings.

“Audiences are much more alert to whether an event has been designed with them in mind,” she says. “It’s not just about who’s on stage or how impressive the production is. People want to feel welcome, safe and considered.

“Live music is really good at creating belonging and energy, but it’s hugely relevant in a corporate context too.”

This type of thinking runs through everything from format and room layout to emotional pacing, audience psychology and flow.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about the audience journey – the build-up, the atmosphere, how people feel when they leave and how they talk about it afterwards,” she says. “We apply that thinking in close collaboration with business event organisers, shaping the experience together so it connects at every stage.”

Designing for Welcome

Working with such a diverse mix of audiences, accessibility and inclusion are designed in from the start. For Subu Shrivastava, who leads much of the venue’s public realm programming, the sense of belonging and welcome at events often comes down to the smallest details.

“Creating a space that feels comfortable and welcoming comes down to everything from signage and seating to lighting, audience flow and front-of-house communication,” says Subu. “Sometimes it’s the simplest things that matter most – a smile from somebody welcoming you in, or answering a question enthusiastically, rather than treating it like a chore. It’s about putting people at ease.”

Wraparound events

Subu also points to the value of “wraparound” programming – activity that sits alongside exhibitions and performances to open the building up to wider audiences.

“For example, an exhibition by a Chinese artist may feature Chinese tea-making sessions or calligraphy workshops in the venue’s public spaces,” she says. “It’s about giving people different ways to engage – making it more accessible, more open, more inclusive.”

That approach, she adds, often helps audiences connect with each other as much as with the work itself – creating moments of organic interaction that feel increasingly relevant in corporate events, where the space between sessions is becoming just as important as the agenda.

For organisers, the wider lesson is that conferences no longer need to sit neatly within traditional industry boundaries.

“Ideas often move between different types of events. For example, concepts like the Ferris wheel have found their way into business events because our teams are constantly sharing creative inspiration,” Katie adds. “When something works well in one environment, we’re able to share that thinking across the venue and adapt it for different audiences and formats.”

Whether it’s an avant-garde art exhibition, a 4,500-capacity rave, an awards ceremony or a keynote, expectations are converging. Audiences want to feel welcomed, inspired and part of something bigger than the agenda itself.

As the boundaries between conferences, cultural programming and live entertainment continue to blur, the bar for memorable events keeps rising. And venues operating at this intersection of culture, entertainment and corporate events are now shaping what audiences expect next.

Author: Sam Hyland

Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email features@eventindustrynews.com