All the Feels

This often-repeated quote by acclaimed author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou should be applied to all events: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This past April, the opening keynote of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Annual Conference & Expo INSPIRE in Anaheim, California, was given by J.R. Martinez. Martinez, an Army veteran and New York Times best-selling author, is a motivational speaker whose message likely resonated more deeply with INSPIRE’s audience than other groups — he spoke about how occupational therapy was instrumental in his several-year recovery (2003-2005) from the full-body burn wounds he suffered during an attack in Iraq.

But AOTA went a step further to make Martinez’s time on stage land even more emotionally. Leveraging its relationships with the military occupational therapy community, the association tracked down Kim, who had been Martinez’s occupational therapist (OT), and secretly flew her to Anaheim. All that Martinez knew was that a 15-minute Q&A would follow his keynote with AOTA CEO Katie Jordan (a Doctor of Occupational Therapy) and “another OT” who treats burn patients. When Jordan came out during Martinez’s standing ovation, she asked him to repeat the name of the OT he had talked about — and then asked Kim to join them on stage. The audience went wild as Martinez, clearly overcome, couldn’t stop hugging her.

Leslie Jones, CAE, CMP, AOTA’s director of meetings and events, told me that “creating the surprise reunion between J.R. and Kim was rooted in fostering a true sense of community and connection with our audience. Our attendees deeply value hearing from speakers who have been personally impacted by occupational therapy.” Reuniting Kim with Martinez created an experience, she said, “that will stay with our attendees for years to come.”

What Martinez called an “Oprah moment” fits the definition for the peak–end rule — a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience based largely on how they felt at its most intense point and at its end, rather than on the sum total of their experience.

For annual conferences, the peak-end rule can be applied to how you open and/or how you close your meeting by designing those sessions around a lived experience, like AOTA did with Martinez. The benefit of kicking off a conference with that kind of keynoter is that the opening session usually sets the tone for the conference and when done well, will be referenced in the education sessions and networking conversations that follow.

The challenge with creating a peak-end rule experience at a closing session is that every annual conference that I’ve ever seen (and that’s a lot) has a last-day attendance problem. Perhaps a recognized inspirational keynoter could help prevent attendees from taking an early leave and skipping the closing session, which has greater potential to be remembered, shared, and to reinforce for attendees as they head home that what they do matters. And now, more than ever, that’s what professionals seek.

Watch a video clip of J.R. Martinez’s AOTA keynote, including the surprise moment when he was re-united with Kim here.

Micro EQ Moments

Another option for delivering an emotional connection at your conference is to design a five-to-10-minute micro-experience. This could be some sort of entertainment, video clip, or emotional story. Some of the most effective examples we’ve seen include Kechi Okwuchi, an America’s Got Talent (AGT) finalist, who survived a plane crash. Slam poets like Brandon Leake (AGT season 15 winner) can inspire live audiences and create a viral moment for those not there. Emerging talent who share a lived experience usually deliver an authentic message that resonates with your professional community.

Adapted from Dave’s Forward Thinking column in PCMA’s Convene. Reprinted with permission of Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association. ©2026.