Blog Post #9 - 10/20/2026
By Mentalist Rick Silver

Connection Is the Number One Event Priority. Here Is How to Deliver It.

Audience members laughing together during a Rick Silver mentalism show

Ask a planner what they want people to say on the way out the door, and it is rarely “great food” or “nice venue.” It is something closer to “I finally got to know people.”

Now there is data behind that instinct. Encore, the event production and technology company, surveyed event professionals for its Fall 2026 Reconnection Report. The headline finding was not close: connection is the number one priority.

Here is what the research says, why connection is so hard to actually schedule, and where an interactive act like mine fits.

What planners told Encore

When planners ranked connection, personalization and innovation by importance to the attendee experience, connection won by more than double.

59%of planners ranked connection as the most important event priority

27%ranked personalization first

15%ranked innovation first

The pressure behind that ranking shows up in the outside research the report cites. 56% of employees identify as “disconnected employees,” yet 98% of them want to feel more connected (Employee Connections Study via Ingenuity Design). And 84% of executives say in-person meetings build stronger business relationships (Forbes Insights).

So people want it, leaders believe in it, and planners have made it the job. The hard part is delivering it.

What “connection” actually means

The most useful part of the report is how planners defined the word. It was not one thing. They described:

Meaningful engagement and participation
Networking and relationship building
Belonging, inclusion and feeling valued
The kind of experiences people remember after the event ends

Encore summed it up well: connection happens when audiences “have reasons to engage, are offered ways to participate and receive opportunities to see themselves in the experience.”

Hold on to that phrase, “reasons to engage.” It is the whole game.

Why connection is so hard to put on an agenda

Planners are not short on effort. The report found they use at least six tactics per event to promote connection. The most common are panels (67%), unstructured peer networking like breakfasts and happy hours (59%), interactive sessions such as Q&A and live polls (56%), and smaller breakout groups (55%).

But the research is honest that adding tactics is not the same as creating connection. In the planners’ own words:

“Networking moments need the right environment. Interactive sessions need reasons for participants to participate.” — Encore, The Reconnection Report, Fall 2026

Anyone who has watched a happy hour knows this. Put people in a room with a drink and a name tag, and most of them talk to the three people they already know. “Unstructured networking” is exactly that: unstructured. Nothing gives a stranger a natural opening.

Then there are the limits. Asked about the biggest barriers to attendee connection, planners named cost and budget (57%), not enough time in the agenda (45%), getting people to engage with the event as a whole (28%) and getting people to engage with each other (27%).

In other words: connection is the top priority, but there is no budget for another big production, no room on the agenda for another session, and it is hard to get people talking. That is a tough brief.

Where a mentalist fits

Rick Silver performing mentalism for a small group during a corporate cocktail hour

I am obviously not neutral on this one, so weigh it accordingly. But mentalism happens to answer that brief almost point for point, and the reason is how the show is built.

It gives people a reason to engage. A mentalism show does not work without the audience in it. The thoughts being revealed belong to people in the room, not to me. When a colleague’s thought gets said out loud, nobody needs an icebreaker. The person next to them turns and says, “How did he know that?” and a conversation starts that keeps going long after I have moved on.

It makes guests the story. Encore says people want “opportunities to see themselves in the experience.” In my show, your guests are not watching a performer. They are in it. The moments people retell on Monday are about someone from accounting or the new VP, not about me.

It fixes unstructured networking without structuring it. Strolling mentalism moves through a cocktail hour group by group. Two people who have never met share something impossible together, and now they have something to talk about. The networking stays relaxed. It just stops being awkward.

Belonging, not spotlight pressure. Belonging and feeling valued were on the planners’ list. That only works if nobody is made the butt of the joke. I make the same three promises at every show: no stooges or secret helpers, nobody gets embarrassed, and it stays clean throughout. People volunteer because they feel safe doing it, and the person who gets read walks away feeling like the star of the night.

It does not need more agenda time. Time was the number two barrier. Strolling fits inside the cocktail hour or dinner you already have. A stage show fits the after-dinner slot you were going to fill with “entertainment” anyway.

It does not need a production budget. Cost was the number one barrier. I bring my own sound and my own table, need about six feet by six feet of floor, and set up in minutes. No stage build, no risers, no load-in crew, no technical rider. It works for eight guests and it works for two hundred. To be totally honest, I cannot speak for other mentalists, but that is accurate for my act.

“Kept our group of 16 executives locked in and fully entertained for the entire performance.” — Katie, Chief of Staff, major financial services firm

Personal, every time

Personalization came in second in Encore’s rankings, and the report describes it as tailoring the experience to the people in the room. A mentalism show is personal by design. No two shows are the same, because the material is the thoughts and choices of whoever is in front of me that night. Your team is not watching a generic act. They are watching something that could only have happened to them.

Start with the connection goal

The report’s best advice is simple: before adding another format, feature or tool, decide what kind of connection the event is meant to create. Relationship building? Belonging? Departments mixing? Clients meeting your team?

That answer tells you where entertainment belongs in the night:

If the goal is new relationships, put strolling mentalism in the cocktail hour, when people are still standing with the folks they came with.
If the goal is a shared moment for the whole room, put a stage show after dinner, when everyone is seated and facing the same way.
If you want both, do both. The stage show lands harder because the room already met me during the cocktail hour.

Not just for the office

Connection is not only a corporate goal. Milestone birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and holiday parties bring together family, old friends and new partners who have never met. Strolling mentalism through a wedding reception or cocktail hour does the same job there: it gives guests from different sides of the room a reason to talk, table by table.

The short version

Planners have spoken: connection matters more than anything else on the agenda. The hard part has never been wanting it. It is giving people a real reason to turn to the person next to them, without adding budget, agenda time or production.

That is the job an interactive mentalist is built for.

Tell me what kind of connection your event is meant to create, and I will tell you honestly where I would put the entertainment in your night — or whether you need me at all. Get in touch and tell me about your event.

Source: Encore, The Reconnection Report (PlannerPulse, Fall 2026). Employee and executive figures are as cited in that report.