  We compute power corrections to hadronic event shapes in $e^+e^-$
annihilation, assuming an infrared regular behaviour of the effective coupling
$\alpha_s$. With the integral of $\alpha_s$ over the infrared region as the
only non-perturbative parameter, also measured in heavy quark physics, we can
account for the empirical features of $1/Q$ corrections to the mean values of
various event shapes.
