Proximity isn't connection
Most events put people in the same room and hope connections happen.
Some people thrive. But many feel awkward and only get surface-level networking.
Yet, so much more is possible.
By intentionally structuring human interactions, I turn standard conference schedules into high-trust environments where attendees build lasting relationships.
We know how to build stages.
We've forgotten how to build campfires.
I design modern campfires:
unfiltered human warmth × sharp peer-to-peer insights.
The questions we solve together
How do we stop networking from feeling fake and forced?
How do we turn hundreds or even thousands of strangers into trusted allies?
How do we design an experience that makes attendees immediately rebook?
How do we give sponsors strong connections with attendees?
How we can work together
Three ways to bring relational design to your event — and turn a room of strangers into allies.
Full Event Strategy
We examine the complete attendee journey — from registration through departure — and intentionally design how people meet, interact, build trust, and form lasting relationships.
Peership Experiences
Facilitated high-powered roundtables that help people skip the superficialities and discover meaningful relationships. This can run as individual sessions for small- to medium-sized events or as an activation for large-scale conferences.
Interactive Keynote
A keynote that shifts the atmosphere of the whole room — often rated the highest hour of the conference. I deconstruct how human connection actually works, then let your audience experience it live, so they've genuinely met one another by the time I step off stage.
Three unfair advantages of relational design
Stronger relationships
Typical networking is surface-level and connections fade quickly.
We build sticky bonds between attendees that turn brief encounters into long-term relationships.
Deeper learning
Information overload is real. 90% of talks are forgotten within a week.
We make content stick. By giving audiences space to digest, debate, and apply key ideas, we double how much attendees retain long-term.
Greater ROI
Content attracts. Belonging retains.
High-trust environments directly drive repeat registrations, organic word-of-mouth, and high-value sponsor renewal.
I can confidently say that this was the most impactful conference I’ve ever been to.
What a fantastic conference! Hands down the most connected and intimate experience I’ve had.
Hi, I'm Aïko
I've spent the last decade running a company that designs and hosts confidential CEO groups.
Watching strangers become trusted advisors to one another made me obsessed with a single question:
How quickly can humans build trust together?
Working with thousands of founders and executives, I discovered something surprising: building deep, meaningful relationships doesn't have to take months. With the right structure, the trust and intimacy you'd find around a campfire can happen in a single session.
Today I bring that understanding to events through relational design: intentionally shaping how attendees meet, interact, build trust, and form relationships.
I don't simply facilitate individual moments. I design the relational conditions that turn a roomful of strangers into a community of allies.
If you’re running an event and want to be the kind of event people talk about again and again — you absolutely must work with Aïko.
She has my fullest recommendation.
Design Leadership Summit
Attendees now treat the Summit as their annual reunion — and leaders return bringing entire teams with them.
Read the case study ⟶The approach behind all of this has a name: Peership.
Discover Peership →Peership
How to bring out the best in one another—in a world that is pulling us apart.
We spend more time communicating than ever, yet many of us feel profoundly alone.
For more than a decade, I've watched strangers become trusted allies—sharing what they couldn't say elsewhere, thinking through difficult problems together, and changing the course of one another's lives.
Peership explores why closeness doesn't have to take years, why the wisdom we need often exists among our peers, and how we can create more meaningful ways of being together.
Let’s make your next event unforgettable
If you’re planning something and want your attendees to leave deeply connected, I’d love to hear about it.
LET’S BUILD YOUR NEXT CAMPFIRE