I founded EventWell® in 2017 to make a difference to an industry I love.
An industry I’ve spent nearly three decades in.
Next year marks 30 years working in events – and 10 years of EventWell. One decade of my career dedicated to changing how we think about wellbeing, accessibility, and inclusion in live environments.
And I’ll be honest – I’m incredibly proud of how far we’ve come.
But I’m also increasingly concerned.
Because somewhere along the way, neuroinclusion in events has started to drift.
The rise of checklists, and the problem with them
Let me be clear: this isn’t about bad intentions.
People in this industry do care. Organisers want to do better. Venues want to be more inclusive. There is a genuine desire to make events more accessible.
But what I’m seeing more and more is this:
Neuroinclusion being reduced to checklists, toolkits, tick-box exercises.
Often created without lived experience, without deep understanding, without the voices of neurodivergent people at the centre.
And what that creates is something that looks like inclusion – but doesn’t feel like it.
“We’re doing enough” and why that’s not the reality
Over the past few years, I’ve increasingly found myself being told:
– “This is too much” (the irony!)
– “We don’t have the budget”
– “Is this really necessary?”
– “We’re already doing neuroinclusion”
And as a neurodivergent person, that’s a difficult place to sit. Because what’s being labelled as “enough” often isn’t safe.
– It’s surface-level.
– It’s performative.
And it misses the most important point entirely.
The piece the industry is still missing: psychological safety
In 2022, just a year after we introduced our first SensoryCalm™ Quiet Room, we carried out research with neurodivergent attendees.
What we found changed everything.
Yes – sensory overwhelm matters.
Noise. Crowds. Navigation.
They are real, significant barriers.
But they’re not the biggest one.
The biggest barrier is trust.
– Not trusting organisers to understand their needs
– Not trusting that support will be there if they need it
– Not trusting that asking for help will be met with care
And because of that?
85% of neurodivergent attendees told us they avoid events altogether for fear of becoming overwhelmed.
That’s not a lighting issue. That’s not a signage issue. That’s a psychological safety issue.
You can’t checklist your way to safety
You can lower the lights. You can widen the aisles. You can send a beautifully written pre-event email.
But if someone doesn’t feel safe to attend, they won’t come.
And if they don’t feel safe to ask for help, the support you’ve put in place won’t be used.
This is where the industry is getting stuck. Because neuroinclusion isn’t just about environment.
It’s about:
– Human support
– Supervision
– Safeguarding
– Training
– Accountability
– Clear roles between organisers and venues
And ultimately, how people are made to feel
Why we relaunched QSSS™
QSSS™ (Quality Sensory Safety & Supervision Standard) has been relaunched to fundamentally reset this conversation.
Not as another checklist. Not as another badge. But as a framework grounded in lived experience, research, and real-world delivery.
A framework that moves us from:
👉 “Are we doing something?”
to
👉 “Are we doing this safely, properly, and in a way that people can trust?”
QSSS™ focuses on five critical pillars:
Governance — who is responsible, and how accountability is held
Supervision — ensuring spaces are properly staffed and supported
Safeguarding — clear escalation, protection, and care protocols
Environment — sensory-aware design that actually works in practice
Communication — clarity, transparency, and expectation-setting
Because neuroinclusion without safety is not inclusion.
From neuroinclusive… to neuro-affirming
This is the real shift. Neuroinclusive events make space. Neuro-affirming events create safety, trust, and belonging.
They allow people to:
– Show up as they are
– Participate without fear
– Ask for help without hesitation
– Leave without judgement
– Return again
That’s the difference, and that’s the standard we should be aiming for.
This isn’t about perfection – it’s about doing it properly
I understand the pressure organisers are under.
Budgets are tight. Expectations are high. The industry is moving fast. But we cannot keep cutting corners on safety and calling it inclusion.
Because when we do that, we don’t just fail neurodivergent attendees – we lose them entirely. If we want real change, we need real frameworks
QSSS™ has been built from:
– Nearly 30 years in the events industry
– A decade of EventWell delivery
– Lived experience
– Research
– On-the-ground insight from thousands of attendees
It exists to support organisers and venues to get this right – properly, safely, and sustainably.
Because this industry can lead the way.
But only if we stop aiming for “good enough” – and start designing for real human experience.
If you want to understand what neuroinclusion really looks like in practice – and how to move towards neuro-affirming events – QSSS™ is where that journey starts.
Helen Moon is the neurodivergent powerhouse behind EventWell, the multi award-winning not-for-profit championing neuroinclusion and mental wellbeing in the events industry. With nearly 30 years’ experience across hotels, venues, suppliers, and operations, Helen knows events inside out.
Diagnosed with AuDHD and Dyslexia, she founded EventWell in 2017 to make wellbeing and neuroinclusion the norm, not the nice-to-have. With Level 3-5 professional diplomas in stress management, psychology, neurodiversity and safeguarding, she blends lived experience with professional clout to drive meaningful change.
Helen is a respected voice in event accessibility; an advocate, educator, and disruptor on a mission to rewire the way the industry thinks about inclusion.
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