Emotional Event Design. Made in Germany.
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Studying the theory and practice of being human is the most important groundwork for successful event marketing. There are social and human sciences, health sciences, cognitive sciences, philosophy and psychology – we have learned a lot about our species over the last 100 years. As your event agency, we apply scientific findings in our methods.
As an owner-managed, family-run event agency in Munich, Servicebroker has planned corporate events for 100 to 1,000 guests since 1999. Our toolkit holds ten methods drawn from more than 30 years of practice, research and recent studies. Together they make up Emotional Event Design.
Events meet basic needs first: air, food, water, movement, rest, safety. Good events create belonging; very good ones bring inspiration and well-being. The best win hearts!
Efficiency and cost control are a must. But it is far more important to win hearts – those of customers, employees and partners.
Dominik Markoč, founder and managing director of Servicebroker GmbH
AI is taking over more and more of the management of events. Read our manifesto at eventmanagementisdead.com.
Since 1999 we have designed events for business and cultural occasions. One insight stands out: it is all the little human interactions that create sensory, positive experiences. It is not the actual service (the beat) that is the star, but the quality of how it comes about (the offbeats). Successful Emotional Event Design puts the accent on the offbeat.
What are the touchpoints of the different services? Which sensory experiences are possible at these touchpoints? What exactly happens between the individual services (the beats)?
Walk through the running order of your event from every angle – guest, partner, artist, bus driver. Which touchpoints leave room for small, pleasant surprises? The effect is astonishing.
Dominik Markoč
The careful preparation of the bus transfer. Is heavy traffic expected? The good-humoured driver who greets passengers in their own language. The chef has chosen the aperitif on purpose, fresh and summery, for example. Shortly before the guests arrive, the service staff are already waiting with filled glasses – and smiling. The technicians laid and hid every cable long ago; the microphone for the address is already on. And of course it is already settled who will take the microphone from the speaker after the address, so that the speaker can shake hands with the guests.
As an event agency, we have learned to bring out these many human interactions on the offbeat (and sometimes, for design reasons, even to make them visible). We put a lot of effort and passion into designing them and making them work in harmony. The effect: the guests at your events have that strangely joyful, uplifting feeling that everything is somehow pleasantly in flow, in a very relaxed way.
We design event services in parallel and in symbiosis. Of course the wine has to be good. But it tastes even better when it is served with a smile. The Offbeat-Service© Method gets the left half of the brain to tell the right half which hidden emotions are still waiting to be discovered!
Our toolkit brings together what Servicebroker has learned since 1999. Where research supports a method, we name the study; all sources are listed at the end of the page. Our summer event at Burg Lichtenberg with 400 guests shows how the ten methods work together in one event.
The best ideas are not found in search engines. Once an idea has reached the internet, it is no longer fresh. Real innovation needs thinking and playing together. Sometimes the best ideas start as a flight of fancy!
Our most successful events began with a flight of fancy, a bit of nonsense or a spontaneous idea in conversation with the client.
Dominik Markoč
The event is not created by “the agency”, but by your team working closely with the event professionals. Dialogue and analysis come before event management and Emotional Event Design.
Solutions are not found on the internet; they are found in knowing the searcher. Before a solution can be found, you have to understand the needs of the people involved. Understanding takes empathy and imagination. We practise both in a playful way, right after the first briefing with our clients. This helps ideas grow, improves communication and speeds up problem solving.
Let's create a feeling of being picked up, taken along and discovering. Curiosity is part of human nature. Let's wake the explorer in your guests! Let's discover something new: local authenticity, handmade quality, art, culture, social projects. That is why we look for a wonderful place, not an off-the-shelf venue. Research proves curiosity right: people who are curious remember more, even incidental details (Gruber, Gelman & Ranganath 2014).
Surprise and innovation instead.
Standards are the valerian of event management. They may soothe the planner's conscience – but they are neither new nor one of a kind, and they bore the guests.
Dominik Markoč
Only an unexpected service, a pleasant surprise for example, will spark enthusiasm. Without our interest in people and their needs, Servicebroker would only be half as effective.
In 1984 Noriaki Kano and his colleagues sorted the features of a product or service into three groups: everyone expects the basic features, everyone compares the performance features, nobody expects the delighters. We plan for the third group and deliver the first two so well that nobody needs to mention them.
We see your corporate events as one of the most effective tools for this. As your event agency, we apply scientific findings – one of them comes from Noriaki Kano, the Kano model.
Emotions are the lifeblood of successful events. Kindle passion! Pass the flame on! If you want to win hearts, you have to reach for them – and sometimes give them a good shake. Be brave!
Social responsibility and sustainable thinking are the foundation of how we work.
The organic-egg dilemma asks: do I treat my guests like my family, or is second best good enough? Good events can no longer do without the “green thread”.
Examples: At the team event on the Rheininsel in 2022 with 350 employees, the compost became lavender oil – a Christmas present for the guests. For iPEK, we designed a sustainable dinner for 200 guests at IFAT 2024.
Game on! Let's play! Passive formats no longer work – people want hands-on experiences, subject experts and real exchange. In 51 studies with a control group, workshops, simulations and joint debriefs improved teamwork; lectures alone did not (McEwan et al. 2017).
Example: On the Rheininsel, everyone pitched in. At IFAT 2024, iPEK's guests played in teams with remote-controlled robots.
When guests can identify with an event's image – when their values match the event's purpose – they take part more actively. Meaningful events connect people with a larger purpose. The guest then feels: “I've been invited because I'm special!” A survey of 421 guests at a cultural festival shows this link (Meeprom & Fakfare 2021).
Events are not one-off transactions but investments in long-term relationships. Event series have a stronger effect; one-off sensations fizzle out. That is why, alongside return on investment, we measure Return on Relationships. Experiences demonstrably make people happier than things: they do not wear out, and they become part of our own story (Van Boven & Gilovich 2003).
More than 90 per cent of our clients are regular clients and have trusted us for over ten years.
In Emotional Event Design, more is better – as long as it fits together. Combining many positive sensory experiences strengthens the effect on the guests' emotions. A firm handshake, the scent of honey, mint and berries, or the hundred-year-old mustiness of a mysterious place, all manner of culinary delights, a warm, rolling bass, a blaze of colour.
Sensory stimuli that fit the theme make an event more authentic and stronger (Bolter & Stadler 2026). At a summer event in Mallorca, the sensory experience strengthened the image of the brand and, through it, the guests' willingness to recommend it (Gómez-Suárez & Yagüe 2021, 260 guests).
Example: At the LMU Munich Alumni Homecoming in 2019, 700 guests put on records themselves in the Lichthof atrium. This gave rise to the Social Kissa: our listening bar, where your guests play the vinyl themselves.
The Offbeat-Service© Method is Servicebroker's own development. It deliberately designs the seemingly minor moments between programme items: the bus driver who greets guests in their own language, the filled glass on arrival, the person who takes the microphone after the speech. These offbeats give an event its flow. Guests sense that someone is looking after them.
Servicebroker plans with the Kano model, which Noriaki Kano published in 1984. Basic features such as technical equipment, seating and punctuality have to be right, but they delight nobody. That is why the budget goes specifically into delighters: moments your guests did not expect and will talk about for a long time.
Sensory experiences shape how guests perceive and remember an event. Servicebroker matches light, sound, scent, food and materials to one another and to the occasion, because more is better as long as it fits together. Stimuli that match the theme of the event work best, as an interview study of four events shows (Bolter & Stadler 2026).
Every project at Servicebroker starts with a joint analysis and the question: what is it meant to achieve? Then follow 14 steps, from defining objectives through supplier selection, risk assessment and contracts to on-site support, invoicing and debriefing. Right after the first briefing, we play through ideas together with your team.
At Servicebroker, ideas come from conversation, not from search engines. Before you find the solution, find the people: we get to know the guests you are inviting and develop the idea together with your team. Sometimes the best idea starts as a flight of fancy – that is exactly how our most successful events began.
At Servicebroker, method makes room for spontaneity. Settle safety, running order and backup plans early, and you can respond to the mood and the guests on the night. At transport logistic 2025, a marquee stood ready for 400 guests by the lake, and a water rescue team counted the seconds between lightning and thunder. The rain came – and only added to the drama.
Servicebroker's methodology draws on practice since 1999 and on published research: the Kano model (Kano et al. 1984), meta-analyses on teamwork (McEwan et al. 2017), and studies on curiosity, experiences and sensory design at events (Bolter & Stadler 2026). We only cite sources we have read in the original.
It's slow cooking. Buy in a hurry and you buy whatever happens to be available. Smart event procurement has to be thought through carefully. Our route is always the same:
At the end of the current event, we take the first step towards the next one together.
Bolter, J. & Stadler, R. (2026). The role of sensory design in creating memorable event experiences. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 17(1), 45–64.
Gómez-Suárez, M. & Yagüe, M. J. (2021). Making Sense from Experience: How a Sustainable Multi-Sensory Event Spurs Word-of-Mouth Recommendation of a Destination Brand. Sustainability, 13(11), 5873.
Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D. & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit. Neuron, 84(2), 486–496.
Kano, N., Seraku, N., Takahashi, F. & Tsuji, S. (1984). Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality. Journal of the Japanese Society for Quality Control, 14(2), 147–156.
McEwan, D., Ruissen, G. R., Eys, M. A., Zumbo, B. D. & Beauchamp, M. R. (2017). The Effectiveness of Teamwork Training on Teamwork Behaviors and Team Performance. PLOS ONE, 12(1), e0169604.
Meeprom, S. & Fakfare, P. (2021). Unpacking the role of self-congruence, attendee engagement and emotional attachment in cultural events. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 12(4), 399–417.
Van Boven, L. & Gilovich, T. (2003). To Do or to Have? That Is the Question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(6), 1193–1202.
Servicebroker GmbH Metzstraße 14b 81667 München/Deutschland