New Year Planning Moves That Turn Events Into Strategic Levers (Not Just Calendar Fillers) Design your New Year with intention using proven strategies from top thought leaders & transform your 2026 events from calendar fillers into meaningful moments.

December 2, 2025

When Did Your New Year Really Get Decided?

Here’s a question that might sting a little: when you look at your calendar for 2026, are you seeing a designed experience or just a series of dates that somehow got filled in?

If you’re like most meeting professionals and event planners I talk to, December rolls around with everyone buzzing about fresh starts and big plans for the new year. Meanwhile, your calendar already looks like a high-stakes game of Tetris—event holds, contract negotiations, budget reviews, travel logistics, and family commitments stacking up faster than you can process them. By the time January actually arrives, half your year is already locked in, and you’re left wondering where your strategic thinking time went.

This is the uncomfortable truth about new year planning: most of us aren’t designing our years. We’re surviving them.

I’ve spent the better part of my career helping organizations transform their events from “another thing on the calendar” into genuine moments that shift how people think, feel, and act. What I’ve learned is that the difference between a forgettable year and a transformational one isn’t about working harder or booking bigger names. It’s about approaching your new year with the kind of intentionality that most people reserve for their biggest client pitches.

In this post, I’m going to share a field guide for building 2026 on purpose, not autopilot. We’ll explore insights from some of the biggest thinkers in neuroscience, behavioral change, and organizational design. Then I’ll give you a curated playlist of conversations from The Keynote Curators Podcast that function as design partners for your year. Finally, you’ll get simple, actionable moves you can implement this week to turn your events from reactive calendar fillers into strategic levers for real change.

Because here’s what I believe: your events, meetings, and big moments aren’t just dates. They’re design tools for how your people think, feel, and behave all year long.

The Science Behind Designing Your New Year (Not Just Hoping It Works Out)

Before we dive into the tactical stuff, let’s talk about why intentional new year planning actually matters from a neurological and behavioral standpoint.

If you’ve been paying attention to thought leaders like Andrew Huberman, Joe Dispenza, Mel Robbins, James Clear, Mark Manson, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, Ryan Holiday, and Brené Brown, you’ve probably noticed they’re all circling the same core idea from different angles. The brain is plastic—it literally rewires based on what you repeat. Environment and systems usually beat willpower in the long run. Tiny, consistent actions quietly design your life and your leadership.

Here’s what that means for you as an event professional: if you don’t decide what matters, the world will happily decide for you.

Let me break down what some of these thinkers keep reminding us, specifically through the lens of event design and new year planning.

Andrew Huberman talks extensively about how our brains wire around repeated cues and routines. Translation for us? If your year is a blur of reactive meetings and copy-paste events, your team’s nervous system is literally learning “react, don’t create.” You’re training people to be passive participants in their own experience, not active designers of it.

James Clear reminds us we don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems. This hits hard when you’re planning your new year events. Saying “we’ll be more strategic next year” doesn’t mean much if your calendar still looks identical to last year’s. Your systems—the way you book speakers, design agendas, and measure success—are what actually determine your outcomes, not your hopes.

Mel Robbins pushes you to act before your brain talks you out of it. That speaker you keep meaning to bring to your next event? That different format you’ve been thinking about trying? At some point you just have to say “we’re doing it” and put it on the calendar. Otherwise, you’re not planning—you’re procrastinating with extra steps.

Simon Sinek starts with why, which should fundamentally reshape how you approach every event on your new year calendar. If you can’t answer “what is this event for in 2026?” then you’re not designing a meaningful moment. You’re designing a really expensive habit that happens to involve AV and catering.

Adam Grant is all about rethinking assumptions. Just because you’ve always done your kickoff, sales meeting, or annual conference a certain way doesn’t mean it deserves another line on the budget. Your new year is the perfect time to ask: what if we approached this completely differently?

Ryan Holiday and the Stoics remind us that stillness and reflection aren’t luxuries—they’re necessities. If you don’t build quiet thinking time into your year, both personally and collectively, your calendar will be loud, busy, and ultimately shallow. The irony is that the busier you are, the more you need those moments of stillness to ensure you’re busy with the right things.

Brené Brown keeps us honest about values and vulnerability. If your events say “we value creativity, connection, and wellbeing” but your agenda is wall-to-wall content with no breathing room, people feel that gap. They might not articulate it, but they know something’s off.

The point is this: we’re not just booking dates when we plan our new year events. We’re training brains. We’re shaping organizational culture. We’re either reinforcing old patterns or creating space for new ones.

So what would it look like to treat 2026 like a designed experience instead of a calendar you’re trying to survive?

Your New Year Design Playlist: Five Conversations That Will Change How You Plan 2026

I’ve pulled together a handful of conversations from The Keynote Curators Podcast that function as a design studio for your new year. Think of these as your planning partners while you’re mapping out 2026. Each one tackles a different dimension of how to approach your year with intention.

Strategy Keynote Speaker Seth Godin: Stop Confusing Motion With Progress

If James Clear is the habits guy, Strategy Keynote Speaker Seth Godin is the “please-stop-confusing-motion-with-progress” guy. Seth makes a deceptively simple distinction that changes everything about how you approach new year planning.

“Strategy is the story of where you’re going and why. Tactics are the things you do to move that story forward.“

In events, here’s how that misalignment shows up constantly. You book big names but not a big narrative. You jam content into every available slot because “we have them in the room anyway.” You choose sessions based on who shouted loudest internally, not what the year actually needs most. Consequently, you end up with a calendar that’s tactically full but strategically empty.

Seth’s conversation forces you to ask uncomfortable questions about your new year events. What is the actual story of 2026 for your organization? How does each event—and each keynote—support that story instead of existing in its own little bubble?

If you can’t answer that clearly, your calendar is probably tactical by default. You’re filling slots instead of designing moments that move a larger narrative forward.

Design prompt for your new year: Before you confirm another event hold or speaker contract, write down in one sentence: “The story of our 2026 is ___________.” Then look at each planned event and ask: “How does this specifically advance that story?” If the answer is vague or nonexistent, you’ve found something that needs to be redesigned or possibly dropped altogether.

Professional Development Keynote Speaker Dorie Clark: Understanding Your Season

Huberman talks about circadian rhythms. Professional Development Keynote Speaker Dorie Clark talks about career rhythms and seasonal thinking that completely reframes new year planning.

Not every season is a “growth at all costs” season. Some years are build years. Some are repair years. Some are transition years. Some are honestly just “we have to hold it together and not burn everyone out” years. Dorie gives leaders language and frameworks to honestly name the season they’re in, which then informs every decision about events, expectations, and goals.

This matters enormously for your new year planning because trying to execute a high-growth event strategy during a repair season is like planting seeds in winter and wondering why nothing’s growing. You’re fighting against the natural rhythm of where your organization actually is.

Dorie’s insights help you design events that match your reality instead of your aspirations. There’s nothing wrong with an aspirational vision, but your tactics need to be grounded in the truth of what season you’re genuinely in right now.

Design prompt for your new year: What season is 2026 for your organization or team? If you were brutally honest about that, how would it change the way you design your events, set expectations, and allocate budget? Suddenly your agenda isn’t just “Q1 Keynote” and “Annual Summit.” It’s supporting the actual season you’re in, which makes everything more aligned and ultimately more effective.

Productivity Keynote Speaker Lisa Bodell: Rewiring Your Calendar

Joe Dispenza talks about rewiring your mind. Productivity Keynote Speaker Lisa Bodell helps leaders rewire their calendars, which is exactly what new year planning should be about.

Lisa’s work essentially boils down to one big, uncomfortable question: “If time is your most valuable asset, why are you spending it like this?” She pushes teams to stop doing low-value work, question legacy processes, and clear space for actual innovation instead of just talking about it.

For event design, this might mean fewer sessions but deeper conversations. It might mean killing that panel discussion that nobody remembers two days later and replacing it with something genuinely bold. It might mean using your keynote not just to inspire people for an hour, but to simplify their thinking so they can actually execute when they get back to their desks.

Lisa’s perspective is critical for new year planning because most of us approach our calendar additively. We keep everything from last year and then try to add new things on top. What we need instead is a subtractive approach—what can we eliminate to create space for what actually matters?

Design prompt for your new year: If you had to cut 25% of what you normally do at your biggest event, what would go? What would you do with the time and budget you got back? That exercise alone will show you where your real priorities are versus where you’re just going through the motions.

Creativity Keynote Speaker Kyle Scheele: Permission to Experiment

Mark Manson might say “care about fewer things but care deeply.” Creativity Keynote Speaker Kyle Scheele is the guy who says, “Okay, let’s play with those things we care about.”

Kyle treats creativity less like a “fun extra” and more like a fire alarm for stale thinking. He gives people explicit permission to try weird formats, tell honest stories, and build experiences that feel more human and less corporate. When you bring that energy into your new year planning, you’re not just making events entertaining. You’re teaching people that experimentation is allowed, which is foundational to any kind of organizational agility.

Here’s what I love about Kyle’s approach: he doesn’t just talk about creativity abstractly. He gives you frameworks and exercises you can actually implement. For new year event planning, this means building in intentional moments where people can play, fail safely, and discover something unexpected.

Design prompt for your new year: Where in your 2026 calendar are you giving people explicit permission to experiment? What’s one format, exercise, or experience you’ve never tried that, if it worked, would fundamentally change the way your people feel about your events? If your answer is “nowhere,” your culture already has its answer about whether innovation is actually valued or just talked about.

Health and Well-Being Keynote Speaker Erin King: Managing Energy, Not Just Output

Brené Brown would tell you that you can’t numb selectively. If you shut down emotionally to survive the pace, you lose access to joy, creativity, and connection. Health and Well-Being Keynote Speaker Erin King picks up that thread and asks a question every event planner needs to sit with: “What if success isn’t just about output, but about how you’re managing your energy while you create it?”

Erin’s conversation is one of those “save it for the commute” episodes that sneak up on you. It forces leaders to ask uncomfortable questions about new year planning. How many big pushes can we realistically do next year without frying everyone? Where are the built-in recovery points? What kind of emotional tone do we want our events to have?

This matters because most new year calendars are designed around deliverables, not human sustainability. We plan events as if people are machines that just need the right inputs. But people run on energy, attention, and emotional capacity—all of which are finite and need intentional recovery periods.

Design prompt for your new year: As you map out 2026, where are your all-out sprints, and where are your built-in recovery windows? Does your event calendar reflect that rhythm or fight against it? If every quarter looks like a sprint with no rest, you’re not planning for success—you’re planning for burnout.

Four Simple Moves to Design Your New Year This Week

Enough theory. Let’s talk about what you can actually do this week to shift from survival mode to design mode for 2026. These are tiny moves with an outsized impact.

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Name Your New Year in One Line

Take five quiet minutes—Ryan Holiday would approve. Find a space where you won’t be interrupted. Write at the top of a blank page: “2026 is the year of ___________.”

Some examples: Focus and follow-through. Repair and rebuild. Bold experiments. Deepening trust. Building sustainable systems. Saying no to good things so we can say yes to great things.

Now look at your planned events and major moments. Ask yourself: what on this calendar clearly supports that theme? What doesn’t but is still there out of habit or fear or political pressure?

Circle what stays. Question everything that doesn’t align. This exercise sounds simple, but it’s remarkably clarifying. When you have a clear theme for your new year, every decision gets easier because you have criteria beyond “someone thinks this is a good idea.”

Turn One Event Into a Design Workshop for Your People

At your next big gathering, steal a page from Adam Grant and Brené Brown: invite people to rethink and to be honest about where they are and where they want to go.

Build in a 10-15 minute “Design Your Quarter” segment after a keynote. Give attendees three prompts and have them write their answers privately:

1. What’s one habit you’ll start in 2026 that Future You will thank you for? (This is pure James Clear energy)
2. What’s one thing you’ll stop doing, even if it feels uncomfortable? (Mel Robbins and Mark Manson would approve)
3. What’s one relationship you want to invest in more intentionally? (Brené Brown and Simon Sinek’s “start with who and why”)

No sharing required. No forced vulnerability. Just the act of naming these things changes the way people’s brains tag that event. Instead of “another conference I attended,” it becomes “the event where I decided to change X.” That shift in framing creates lasting impact far beyond your speaker lineup.

This is new year design work at its finest—giving people tools to be intentional architects of their own experience instead of passive consumers of yours.

Do a 20-Minute Speaker Strategy Reset

Before you confirm another speaker hold or default to “let’s get someone on AI,” try this short exercise with your team.

List your top three business or culture priorities for 2026. These should be real priorities, not aspirational ones you know won’t get resources. Next to each one, write: “What do our people need to understand, feel, or do differently to make this real?”

Only then ask: “What kind of speaker or story would help unlock that?” This is how you move from “we need a big name on innovation” to “we need someone who can help our people stop clinging to old processes and feel safe experimenting.”

That’s the difference between filling a slot and designing a moment that actually moves the needle on what matters. Then contact The Keynote Curators to identify the best possible speaker who will design and deliver the greatest impact to your specific audience.

Your new year speaker strategy should be driven by your actual organizational needs, not by who’s trending on LinkedIn or who gave a good TED talk five years ago. Alignment between your speaker and your strategic priorities is what transforms inspiration into application.

Schedule One Stillness Block Per Quarter

Joe Dispenza talks about breaking the habitual “think-feel-act” loop. The Stoics talked about examining your life regularly. Huberman discusses non-sleep deep rest. Pick whatever language resonates with you, but the principle remains the same: you need space to think about your work, not just in your work.

Once a quarter in 2026, block 60-90 minutes on your calendar labeled “Design, Don’t React.” Protect this time fiercely. Use it to look at your upcoming events, ask “what’s the real purpose of each one,” and drop or adjust anything that doesn’t serve the larger story of your new year.

This will be one of the highest-ROI meetings you have all year because it’s the meeting that decides what all the other meetings are actually for. Without this kind of regular reflection, you end up in what I call “event autopilot”—executing competently but not consciously.

What I Hope You’ll Remember About New Year Planning

Designing your new year before it starts isn’t about squeezing more into an already packed calendar. It’s not about controlling every variable or creating some perfect plan that never encounters reality.

It’s about being honest about the season you’re in. It’s about choosing the stories and ideas you want echoing through your organization. It’s about using events, speakers, and shared moments as levers that create change, not just logistics that check boxes.

When you program voices like Seth Godin, Dorie Clark, Lisa Bodell, Kyle Scheele, and Erin King—and pair them with the kind of practical, science-backed tools that thought leaders like Huberman, Robbins, Clear, Sinek, Grant, Holiday, Manson, and Brené have been advocating—you’re not just planning another year.

You’re designing a fundamentally different one.

That’s the work that lasts beyond the badge, the ballroom, and the budget cycle. That’s the work that transforms your role from event coordinator to experience architect. That’s the work that makes your new year planning actually matter.

The difference between a forgettable year and a transformational one isn’t about bigger budgets or flashier venues. It’s about approaching your calendar with the same level of intentional design that you’d bring to any other strategic initiative. Your events aren’t separate from your strategy—they’re where your strategy either comes to life or quietly dies.

2026 is coming whether you’re ready or not. The question is: will it be a year that happened to you, or a year you designed?

Ready to Design Your New Year Event Strategy?

Want a thinking partner for your 2026 speaker strategy who actually understands the difference between filling time and shaping outcomes?

Grab 15 minutes with me and we’ll look at your calendar, your goals, and your audience together, then design a lineup that doesn’t just fill time—it shapes the year.

Prefer to talk directly? Email us at info@thekeynotecurators.com and let’s start the conversation.

Ready for deeper insights on Thought Leadership, event design, and speaker strategy delivered straight to your inbox every week? Subscribe to our newsletter and join event professionals who are designing years, not just surviving them.

Delivering impact (by design),

🖤 Seth

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