The P.L.A.Y. Lab™

Live virtual cohort for event professionals, community & people leaders

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Street Cred.

The P.L.A.Y. Lab™

is a 3-week live sprint for event professionals, community leaders, and people leaders who are done with surface-level connection — and ready to learn exactly how to design belonging into every experience they create.

PRICING:

$997 early bird
$1,500 regular

NEXT COHORTS:

August 3rd - 21st, 2026
October 12th - 26th, 2026

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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 sequence of moments and facilitation choices that turn a group of individuals in a room together feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

The result is what you already know: events that run well but don't necessarily create lasting engagement. This looks like communities that exist but don't “cohere,” 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.

In 3 weeks, The P.L.A.Y. Lab™ gives you the framework, the tools, and the live practice to start designing it on purpose and applied directly to your real work.

Who this is for:

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.

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 membership. Maybe you lead a team and you're responsible for the culture inside it. Maybe all three.

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 runs smoothly and one that actually moves people, and between the people who simply show up and those who feel like they belong.

(…And you want to reliably create the second one.)

That's what The P.L.A.Y. Lab™ teaches.

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.

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.
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.
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.

Join the P.L.A.Y. Mastermind Waitlist

Apply for the P.L.A.Y. LAB™