Who is Who
Nika Brunet Milunovic is the founder of Calm Nest Collective, a leading voice in neuroinclusive design, sustainable event strategy, and mental wellbeing advocacy. With more than a decade in events and corporate environments, she creates sensory-friendly Calm Nest Spaces®, mentors emerging professionals, hosts the Pink Nest Podcast, and serves as a Principal Advisor in global ESG leadership. Her work blends research, lived experience, and human-first innovation to reshape how the world gathers and works.
When “Too Sensitive” Became a Superpower
For most of her life, Nika heard the same labels: too sensitive, too emotional, too aware. But working in high-energy environments made something undeniable. These traits were not weaknesses. They were early warning systems, empathy radars, and forms of human-centered intelligence. They allowed her to see, feel, and understand what others overlooked. In the overstimulating world of events and workplaces, these once-dismissed traits became her superpowers. They guided her toward founding Calm Nest Collective, a movement built on the belief that sensitivity is not something to hide but something to design for.
Foundation: A Life Shaped By Awareness, Humanity, And Hard-Earned Insight
Long before she became a founder, strategist, mentor, and advocate, Nika’s worldview was shaped by her experiences across both corporate and creative environments. Early in her career, she worked within multimillion-euro companies and witnessed firsthand the pressure and pace that often overshadow the human experience. These formative years helped her understand what was missing: environments that supported people rather than draining them.
Her education in social sciences and sustainability, along with her MBA, strengthened the foundation she would later rely on. When she began her PhD on mental health in event production, her lived experience finally merged with academic research. Throughout these years, colleagues noticed her instinctive leadership. One teammate reflected on their collaboration by saying “Nika brings solid common sense and diligence to every project. She never shies away from the workload, even when it requires personal sacrifice.” The reliability and clarity she brought to every environment hinted at the leader she would become.
Ascent: From Festival Fields To Founding A Movement
If her corporate years taught her what was missing, her decade in the events industry revealed why it mattered. Working behind the scenes at major European festivals, Nika witnessed recurring patterns that deeply affected her. Events equated overstimulation with excitement and often placed spectacle above human wellbeing. She saw artists battling anxiety backstage, crew members looking for quiet corners to regulate, and attendees leaving early not because they were uninspired but because their nervous systems could not withstand the environment.
Her own lived experience mirrored the same challenges. She often describes moments when she had to step away to compose herself, hide her sensory overload, or simply breathe. These experiences shaped her belief that events should not require people to abandon their wellbeing. In her words, “We mistake sensory assault for atmosphere and exhaustion for engagement.”
Her colleagues recognized the shift she represented. One industry professional said, “Nika is reshaping the conversation about what our industry can and should be. She’s building solutions that prove what’s possible when you put people first.”
Still, Nika knew that the industry needed more than small changes or one-off improvements. It needed structural redesign. It needed courage. It needed honesty. And she was ready to build it.
The Birth Of Calm Nest Collective: When Lived Experience Became Leadership
Calm Nest Collective began not as a business idea but as a deeply personal need. After years of operating in environments that demanded constant masking and emotional labor, Nika reached a realization: the issue was never the people. It was the design of the spaces themselves.
This clarity led to the creation of Calm Nest Spaces®, quiet and sensory-friendly rooms designed for events, workplaces, and public venues. These spaces offer soft lighting, comfortable seating, adaptive tools, and sensory-aware design elements that allow individuals to regulate and recenter themselves. They are more than rest areas. They are intentional environments created for nervous system safety.
One attendee described her experience inside a Calm Nest Space by saying “Stepping into that room felt incredibly therapeutic. It helped me reset from overstimulation.”
Industry leaders echo similar sentiments. A senior consultant described meeting Nika as “a life-affirming experience that proves the power of real connection.” Another colleague wrote, “Her passion for inclusive, sustainable, mindful spaces shines in a way I have not seen elsewhere.”
These reflections illustrate the emotional depth behind Nika’s work. She is not only changing physical spaces. She is changing what people feel is possible.
Impact: Changing How The World Gathers, Works, And Belongs
Today, Nika’s influence extends far beyond the events sector. Through Calm Nest Collective, she helps organizations rethink how environments impact wellbeing, inclusion, and human connection. Her work blends sustainability, accessibility, neuroinclusion, mental health advocacy, and cultural authenticity into a unified approach that redefines how we gather and work.
Her certifications as a Mental Health First Aider®, Carbon Literacy Professional, Lumina Spark practitioner, Nature-Based Therapist, and Planet Positive Event Assessor give her a uniquely multidisciplinary lens. For Nika, sustainability is never limited to environmental considerations. It includes the emotional and sensory sustainability of the humans who experience those spaces.
Her impact is also deeply personal. Through mentoring, she supports professionals navigating burnout, identity exploration, creativity under pressure, or neurodivergent challenges. She often says, “Mentoring is not about fixing. It is about helping someone find their own rhythm.” Many describe their sessions with her as grounding, insightful, and life-expanding.
Her podcast, Pink Nest, extends her mission even further. The show features unfiltered conversations that explore the emotional truth behind leadership, creativity, mental health, and human resilience. As Nika often says in her introductions, “I’m on a mission to make events, workplaces, and everyday environments calmer, kinder, and more inclusive for all.”
In recognition of her impact, she was appointed Principal Advisor with the Global ESG Leadership Organization, where she brings the lens of wellbeing and neuroinclusion into the global sustainability conversation.
Vision For The Future: A World Where Everyone Belongs
Nika believes that the future of events and workplaces must be inclusive from inception rather than retrofitted as an afterthought. She envisions environments where quiet rooms are standard, where neurodivergent professionals do not have to choose between opportunity and wellbeing, and where sustainability includes how people feel, not just how much waste they create.
Leaders across industries regularly describe her as someone ahead of her time. One executive shared, “If you want to understand the future of events, Nika is the person to watch and the person to know.” Her vision is grounded in research, lived experience, and relentless commitment to human-centered design.
A Call to Redesign the World With Care
Nika Brunet Milunovic’s story is about transforming lived experience into leadership and personal insight into systemic change. Her journey reflects the power of listening to what the world overlooks and the courage it takes to redesign the systems that shape us.
Her message is simple and compelling. “When we design for real people, everyone benefits.”
Safety fuels creativity. Inclusion strengthens innovation. Calm enables authentic connection.
If you are ready to rethink how your environments feel and function, Nika’s work invites you to join a growing movement of leaders committed to creating spaces where people can genuinely thrive.
Let us build calmer, kinder, more connected spaces, one environment at a time.
