#135 Plan Your 2026 Programming Like A Pro
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Yesterday I ran the annual volunteer retreat for CreativeMornings Baltimore. If you've ever been to a CreativeMornings event, you already know the vibe – coffee, good people, and a ton of inspiration.
It's the kind of morning that reminds you that your city is overflowing with creative energy even on a random Friday at 8:30 AM.
What most people do not see is the volunteer group chat behind the scenes. The thirteen conversations about where to put the coffee station so the line does not bottleneck. The tiny decisions that add up to an experience where people walk in and feel like they belong.
Our team feels that responsibility in our bones. Which is why, every December, we skip our usual event and host a volunteer retreat (read: 4-hour workshop) instead!
It is my volunteer-duty to organize and facilitate our end-of-year retreat... so today I'm sharing my approach (+ how you can use this to design your 2026 programming).
Let’s get into it –
Before I plan any retreat or strategy workshop, I always ask for data. Community strategy becomes guesswork without it... and you know how I feel about guesswork.
For CreativeMornings, that looked like:
Our annual attendee survey
Registration & attendance metrics
Notes and trends from every volunteer who interacts with our people face to face
I spent the week leading up to the retreat reviewing all of it. I highlighted themes, looked at what improved and what slipped from last year, and I flagged anything that felt like a pattern.
Two things stood out immediately.
First, our attendees feel belonging with the community. It showed up in the quotes, and it showed up in a scoring question that we ask year over year. This is one of the questions we intentionally repeat because it shows whether we are doing the job our chapter exists to do. People feeling like they belong is not a nice to have – it's the entire point.
Second, our attendees LOVE the surprise and unique activations that we do at our events. They want more light, more play, more chances to meet people they would not meet anywhere else.
When your people tell you their preferences that clearly, the strategy becomes simple.
Why This Matters for Your 2026 Planning
January is the strongest growth month of the year for memberships and community products. People come in energized, clear minded, and ready to invest in the goals they just set.
Community builders who show up in January with refreshed programming, a clear articulation of what is changing, and proof that those changes were driven by member feedback almost always see a spike in growth and re-engagement.
The fastest way to earn that momentum is what I call scrappy research. It doesn't require a six week project plan, it only requires intentional questions and the willingness to look at your data.
That is exactly what we did yesterday. By the time we wrapped, the volunteer team had:
A 2026 programming vision
A list of new activations based on survey trends
Clear insight into what worked, what did not, and why
A shared sense of direction and ownership
This is what lets a community enter January with momentum.
The Strategy You Can Steal Today
Here is the assignment I have been giving clients in every end of year workshop I've run:
Step 1. Ask your members directly. Send a DM or email to every active member and keep it simple. Ask something like... What did you love this year and what would you love to see next year? This is a co-creation moment.
Alternate Step 1. Run a short survey. Or if you haven't run a survey in a while and lack data tracking, then raffle off a fun gift to get end of year survey responses. Use mostly multiple choice questions so it is easy to complete, and save your open response for the final question(s).
Step 3. Review your internal data.
Highest attended events
Best converting months
Popular posts inside your platform
Guest sessions that attracted the most people
The patterns will surface quickly.
Step 4. Spot the momentum indicators. The moments where people showed up more, bought more, and participated more – those are clues to build from.
Now you have a data backed picture of what people value and what they want more of. This is where your 2026 programming begins.
Your Next Steps
Send your members an email and/or DM asking for feedback, or draft a 7 to 10 question year end survey with mostly multiple choice answers.
Pull your 2025 attendance, sales, and engagement data and look for your three strongest peaks.
Review all your data and look for the stories – what is the data telling you? What worked well? What should you keep doing, stop doing, and start doing?
Choose one idea you want to test in January and start sketching the member experience.
If you want help with this research analysis & 2026 planning, book a discovery call. I have a few research and planning sessions left in early January and they are the quickest path I know to a high growth Q1.
But whether you DIY it or do it with me, your 2026 strategy should start with the people who already chose to be here. They will tell you what to do next if you ask.