The Liking Principle: How Equal Business Stature Fuels More Conversations

There’s one big secret to creating more “hallway conversations” at your events…

If you think those conversations are valuable to your attendees, read on.

Equal business stature

Robert Cialdini’s Liking Principle is a powerful tool for building rapport and trust at a conference or meeting:
We like people who are similar to us — in interests, values, and perceived status.

If you like golf and I like golf, you like me just a little bit more.
If you like golf and you’re an executive, and I like golf and I’m an executive, you like me even more.

We’re drawn to people who mirror our world — and status does a lot of that “liking” work. Executives like to talk to other executives, and salespeople like to talk to other salespeople. But we all know that powerful executives can intimidate salespeople because there’s very little sense of equal status.

If you think about it for a minute, “status” is a frame.
We all choose what criteria we’re going to rank each other by — title, department, rank, or… something else entirely.

As an event planner, YOU can set the criteria

You decide the frame.

For instance, our clients use the surprise and mystery of magic to set that frame. The surprise acts as a pattern interrupt, breaking up the usual “salesman/customer” or “executive/employee” dynamic. The mystery creates equal business stature.

The executive is just as baffled as the client.
The intern is just as intrigued as the CEO.
In that moment, they’re all “equals” connecting as humans.

That equal stature carries through the rest of the event — in the opening‑night cocktail party, in the hallway, in the breakout room.

A new intern can approach the CEO and talk about the magic as if they were old friends. In fact, I’ve seen it happen.

That’s the secret behind the extra “hallway conversations” people remember: you’ve changed the frame so that status doesn’t mitigate the conversation anymore.

Magic becomes the common ground that makes everyone feel like a peer.

Want to see how this works in action?

If you’re planning a meeting, conference, or corporate event and you’d like to explore how magic can create equal business stature and spark more hallway conversations, I’d love to talk.

Send me a quick note about your next event, and we’ll brainstorm how to turn your opening, reception, or breakout into a conversation‑rich experience for your attendees.