“A live stream can transmit information, but only a live ritual can create collective energy,” Cultural strategist José Luis Piñeiro explained on a recent Convene Podcast Interview.José Luis Piñeiro, cultural strategist, philosopher, and design executive officer (DEO) at Mexico City–based HD* Human Design Doing, recently joined the Convene Podcast following his keynote at Convening LATAM 2026, held May 3–5 in Quito, Ecuador. He shared why events are becoming modern rituals — and why human connection matters more than ever in an AI-shaped workplace. Drawing on his more than 35 years of experience designing experiences across Europe and Latin America, Piñeiro discussed how organizations can use events not simply to communicate information, but to create culture, belonging, and behavioral change.
Some of the key insights from our conversation:
Events are no longer communication tools — they are “behavioral architecture.”
“Most companies still think events are communication tools, but events are actually behavioral architecture,” Piñeiro said. “Events shape what people celebrate, what people repeat, what people remember, who belongs, what is emotionally rewarded.”
Piñeiro thinks organizations often underestimate the role events play in reinforcing culture and identity over time.
“Culture is built from specific elements that interact with each other,” he said. “Events are powerful because they activate many of these elements at the same time. That’s why rituals are not soft activities. They are infrastructure for human behavior.”
According to Piñeiro, every live experience teaches something — whether intentionally designed or not.
In an AI-shaped world, human connection becomes more valuable — not less.
Piñeiro argues that AI, digital overload, and constant connectivity are increasing people’s need for emotional depth and real-world belonging.
“With artificial intelligence we have hyper productivity, permanent stimulation, algorithmic distraction, emotional exhaustion, and loneliness despite connectivity,” he said. “We are connected all the time, but rarely truly together.”
As a result, he believes the future of events — and culture more broadly — will be increasingly emotional and symbolic.
“Gen Z is not only searching for entertainment, but they are searching for coherence, emotional truth, spirituality, and belonging,” Piñeiro said. “I think the future of culture is not informational, it’s emotional and symbolic.”
He pointed to immersive concerts, wellness experiences, and community-driven gatherings as examples of people seeking something deeper than content consumption.
“A ritual is where emotion becomes memory and memory becomes culture,” he said.
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Live experiences create something digital platforms cannot replicate.
While digital platforms excel at distributing information, Piñeiro believes live experiences create a form of emotional synchronization that technology alone cannot reproduce.
“The digital content informs, scales, and distributes, but live experience synchronizes human energy,” he said. “Breathing together, the music, eye contact, collective applause. Silence.”
He emphasized that presence and shared attention are becoming increasingly rare — and increasingly valuable.
“The quality of an event depends on the quality of the conversations,” Piñeiro said. “The quality of the conversations depends on presence and mindful attention.”
And while livestreams can replicate access to information, they cannot recreate collective emotional energy that comes from being in a shared, in-the-moment environment.
“A live stream can transmit information, but only a live ritual can create collective energy,” he said. “Belonging is not downloaded, it is experienced.”
For Piñeiro, that distinction will define the future of the events industry.
“The future of events for me would not belong to those who create bigger screens,” he said, “but those who create deeper human connection.”
Magdalina Atanassova is digital media editor at Convene.
