Creating major events that leave lasting experiences
In a region defined by national transformation agendas and world-leading digital adoption to an accelerating pipeline of megaprojects, the expectations for what a major event experience should feel like in the Middle East are higher than ever.
Jacobs knows major events, infrastructure and large-scale delivery, bringing design intent to life at scale. PA Consulting (PA) knows service design and human experience, using curiosity to uncover questions that shape meaningful experiences. Together, we ensure ideas translate into experiences that work in practice.
Events that resonate rely on infrastructure that can evolve over time. While scale is expected, what matters is how the experience feels to the people moving through it.
Major events last days or weeks. Great experiences outlive them.
From place marketing to placemaking
Place marketing tells a story. Placemaking encourages everyone to become their own storyteller.
In major events, especially in the Middle East, reputation is shaped on the ground and through people’s experiences. This is why the shift from place marketing to placemaking is critical. Authenticity comes from moments that hold up in reality and invite participation.
That means:
- Grounding events in the cultural fabric of the host city or nation.
- Embedding human sensory and emotional anchors.
- Building for participation over performance.
- Creating space for connection and intimate discussion, balanced with moments of spontaneity.
- Using curiosity as a catalyst, inviting visitors to look closer and stay longer.
For Jacobs and PA, placemaking is a delivery discipline. PA focuses on how people respond to an environment, including cues that shape behavior and perception. Jacobs translates this into reality by shaping spaces and movement, so the experience works at scale.
Together, we create “sticky places” people linger in and return to – through designing environments that spark curiosity and build platforms that support meaningful human experiences.
Beyond the great photo opportunity, these full, multisensory experiences create core memories for those lucky enough to attend.
From hearing about it to talking about it: designing the full experience loop
Major events start the moment someone first hears about them and they live on in the stories people tell afterward. Designing that full customer experience (CX) loop means making deliberate choices about what matters most, creating journeys that feel intuitive rather than overloaded.
In practice, every journey is defined by trade-offs: scale vs. intimacy, peak throughput vs. dwell time, climate comfort vs. resource use, security rigor vs. frictionless flow and regulatory certainty vs. rapid iteration. In the Middle East, where events are often delivered at exceptional pace and ambition within complex governance environments, the consequences of these choices are magnified. CX becomes a strategic lens for decision-making, helping teams navigate competing priorities while maintaining a coherent experience for visitors.
A disciplined CX approach is critical.
PA defines the experiential logic — the emotional, behavioral and narrative arcs that underpin great CX. Jacobs translates it into the physical and operational systems that shape visitor experience that remain resilient under stress and scrutiny. CX becomes embedded in wayfinding, safety engineering and infrastructure design, making it intuitive onsite and shareworthy in reflection.
Jacobs contributes to a wide spectrum of visitor experiences at global events, including the Olympic Games and World Expos — spanning live event programming and event activation to curated visitor journeys. These experiences are shaped to feel coherent and intuitive, creating environments that welcome millions of visitors with diverse expectations and needs.
At World Expos, ’smart’ goes far beyond technology. Policy frameworks create space for creativity, while planning and design reduce waste and improve how people move through a place. Collaboration across a complex network of stakeholders ensures that decisions made behind the scenes translate into a better experience on the ground. Climate and environmental conditions are also part of the design equation, shaping how infrastructure, operations and visitor experiences come together over time.
When major programs adopt this broader definition of 'smart’, they create environments that are in balance with their surroundings and leave a lasting impression on those who experience them.
Creating programs and experiences designed to evolve
For major events to feel authentic, experience thinking must be embedded throughout the program lifecycle. In the Middle East, where megaprojects evolve rapidly and involve multiple stakeholders, experience strategy can only succeed when someone takes ownership of it throughout delivery. That’s why we embed experience thinking and ownership into delivery structures:
- Planning – designing for human behavior
From day 1, experience thinking shapes how spaces and movement are conceived. By combining behavioral insights with rapid prototyping and adaptable design, we create environments that can flex, anticipating how people move and interact long before arrival.
- Delivery – reacting in real time to visitor needs
Once the event goes live, the experience evolves with the crowd. Real-time data — from dwell time to movement patterns — allows teams to adjust programs as needed. Engaging experiences are dynamic and responsive. We treat live delivery as an ongoing process of iteration rather than a one-off plan.
- Legacy – extending the value beyond the event
Experience thinking continues to apply even after the event closes its doors. The insights gathered, with refined operating models can create long-term value for the host city, supporting future events, as well as ongoing cultural community programs. Purposeful programming can create connections that outlast the event itself. Curated panel discussions to interactive dialogues create shared experiences and collaborations that have ripple effects long after the event closes, extending its value in unexpected ways. Legacy becomes more meaningful when designed through the lens of future users and experiences in mind.
We challenge the accepted model and embed innovation across all stages, enabling events to stay adaptive and relevant from start to finish. For us, innovation is a grounding capability that makes major events possible, ensuring they continue to evolve and deliver lasting value.
For major events to be more enduring than a forgotten cache of photos in someone’s digital archive, the experience needs to be shaped with a deep understanding of people, infrastructure and delivery, and supported by governance that protects its integrity from concept to legacy.
The goal is simple: creating authentic connections that are easy to feel and impossible to miss.
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Partner, PA Consulting
Tom has been building products, services and experiences for customers in financial services, consumer goods, defense and technology for over 20 years. All of the things Tom has built have one thing in common: a user. Tom believes that the user is central to design and build — and is critical...
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Director, Strategic Consulting
Anthony shapes megaprojects and operating models to turn big visions into systems, services and experiences that can be delivered and sustained.
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Associate Director, Strategic Consulting, Water and Environment
From the UN to World Expos to grassroots startups, Zoe turns complex global agendas into strategies and stories that move things forward.
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Principal Innovation Consultant, Strategic Consulting
Syon Yoon is a principal innovation consultant using innovation to shape clear strategies and creative approaches that keep people at the heart of large-scale experiences.
