The P.L.A.Y. Lab™
Live virtual cohort for event professionals, community & people leaders
Most people responsible for other people's experiences within community events were never taught how to design for belonging.
Instead, they were taught logistics, programming, agenda-building and platform management. In essence, how to keep people engaged enough to stay. But, nobody taught them the invisible architecture that makes a room feel alive and cohesive—the specific facilitation choices that make a group of individuals feel a part of something bigger than themselves.
The result is what you already know: events that run well but don't engage. This looks like communities that exist but don't communicate, teams that show up but don't connect and experiences people attend but don't remember. Spoiler alert: belonging is the missing ingredient. And good news for you, it’s totally designable.
Who this is for
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Who this is for /
You're the person whose job it is to create belonging for others.
Maybe you design conferences, retreats and live experiences. Maybe you run a paid community or lead a team and you're responsible for the culture inside it. Maybe all of the above.
Whether it’s a conference ballroom, a Slack community, a weekly team meeting or a weekend retreat, you know the difference between a gathering that simply runs smoothly and one that creates a stronger culture. You want the second one. That's what The P.L.A.Y. Lab™ teaches.
You're an event professional, community leader, people manager, or experience designer who is already doing the work and ready to do it differently.
You have a real event, community, or team you can apply the methodology to during the sprint.
You believe how people feel in your room is your most important metric.
You're done consuming content about connection and ready to design for it.
You can show up fully for three weeks, including live sessions, async participation, and one real-world implementation challenge.
This is not for you if:
You're looking for a logistics or production course. The P.L.A.Y. Lab™ is about the human experience of your events and communities, not operational execution.
You're brand new to leading people or designing experiences and don't yet have a real room to apply this to.
You want a self-paced course on your own timeline. This is live and high-accountability.
You're looking for a platform, marketing, or growth strategy. This is about the human experience inside your room (not how to fill it).
The Program:
3 weeks. Live calls. Self-study curriculum. 1:1 time with Eli. Async Slack community throughout.
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We start by auditing your current community events through the lens of belonging. Where is connection breaking down? What are the invisible barriers stopping your members and attendees from actually connecting? You'll map your full experience arc, from the invitation to the last goodbye, and identify exactly where belonging is being accidentally designed out.
By end of week one: a complete belonging audit of one of your real event, community or team experiences.
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Deep immersion in the four pillars applied specifically to event design. How do you open a room so people feel safe? How do you use play to lower defenses in a professional context? How do you design the specific moments that make strangers feel like they belong to each other? You'll learn the framework and immediately apply it to your event redesign.
By end of week two: a completely redesigned event arc built around the P.L.A.Y. Method.
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You'll design and facilitate one belonging-forward moment at a real or practice experience during the sprint, then bring it back to the cohort for feedback and refinement. This is where the learning becomes embodied. You don't just know the methodology; you've lived it, tested it, and gotten real-time feedback on your facilitation.
By end of week three: a tested belonging intervention you can use immediately and a complete P.L.A.Y. toolkit for every event you design from here forward.
What happens after:
P.L.A.Y. Lab™ is a powerful standalone program. It's also a natural entry point into the P.L.A.Y. Mastermind, our 3-month flagship program for leaders who want to go deeper into the full belonging methodology. Many P.L.A.Y. Lab™ alumni go on to the Mastermind. You'll have priority access when you complete the sprint.
What’s included:
Three live group sessions
One per week, 90 minutes each, with teaching, hot seats, and peer feedback.
One private 1:1 call with Eli
A focused session to apply the P.L.A.Y. Method directly to your specific events, community and challenges.
Self-study curriculum
The Belonging P.L.A.Y. Book including design templates, facilitation scripts, and experience design tools.
Slack community access
Async peer support, feedback, and accountability for the full three weeks.
Early Bird Bonus
Get an additional 30-minute follow-up call with Eli four weeks after the sprint ends to check in on implementation.
“No one understands importance of designed gatherings that spark belonging and encourage community building more than Eli. 7 years later, she is still my #1 go-to advisor whenever I need help preparing for a team meeting or event that requires expert facilitation.”
-Corinne Teklitz
Fitness Studio Manager and Wellness Entrepreneur
You walk away with:
A complete belonging audit
you can apply to every experience you design or lead from here forward.
A redesigned experience
such as an event, community gathering, or team ritual, built around the P.L.A.Y. Method and already tested in the real world.
A personal P.L.A.Y. facilitation toolkit
including scripts, templates, and belonging design tools customized to your specific context.
A peer community
A peer cohort of experience designers and community leaders who speak the same language and share the same mission.
Confidence
to walk into any room you've designed and know that belonging is going to happen (because you built it in).