Kindness Event Planning

AOK Maine is available to infuse kindness into your event, whether it be a conference, a festival, a fair, a summit, or any other type of gathering. Over the past year, we have provided several major  events with such services, most notably the National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation and the New England Conference for the College & University Professional Association for Human Resources. 

We customize the process for each event, but we have core materials that we often provide to all attendees at the beginning of the event:

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1) Kindness Scavenger Hunt: We explain this as a fun way to cultivate kindness with fellow attendees and others.    

2) Wheel of Kindness (WOK): The WOK has 14 major categories of kindness. We suggest to attendees various ways the WOK can be used:

• Choose one category to hold in your awareness each day, or half-day, to focus on practicing as you interact with people.

• Use it as a checklist, similar to the scavenger hunt, with the goal of practicing as many categories as possible by the end of the event.   

• Bring it home or to work to use as a tool for practicing kindness on a daily basis.

3) Thank-you cards: We provide colorful creative blank thank-you cards for attendees to use as they wish: to give to others at the event to thank them for a workshop, a comment, a question, etc; or to give to staff helping run the event; or to take home to give to a friend, colleague, family member or anyone they wish.  

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We use a three-step process:

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1. Individual and Organizational Kindness Assessment: We start with an exploration of the many facets of kindness using AOK Maine’s Wheel of Kindness as a basis for discussion and individual and collective self-reflection. Members of the planning team gain a greater understanding of their own kindness styles or “superpowers.” This in and of itself can be a powerful team-building exercise. We then help the planning team identify which aspects of kindness are most in alignment with the organization’s mission and goals.

2. Kindness Matrix: We lead the planning team through a process of creating a Kindness Matrix for the event using AOK Maine’s 14 major categories of kindness correlated with the major functions of the event being planned, to create a master document of possible kindness methods, activities, and principles for the event. We then help the planning team prioritize the possible approaches for the event.

3. Implementation Plan: Working with the prioritized Kindness Matrix, we help the planning team develop a specific Kindness Implementation Plan for the event. This stage may also include some outreach to obtain input and feedback from potential event attendees, event partners, and other stakeholders.  

Sample materials:

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• Kindness and Democracy Worksheet 

• Keynote address "The Case for Kindness" given at the New England Conference of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources

• Keynote slide show

• Conference Kindness Scavenger Hunt

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If you are interested in having AOK Maine assist you in creating a "kindness-informed" conference, festival or fair, please contact us at aokmaine@gmail.com.  

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