Everyone is trying to figure out the best way to bring their teams together today. In a world changed by the pandemic and limiting face-to-face interaction for so long, individual preferences have changed. Gone are the days of an easy happy hour and free food to engage your teams. They want more, if they are going to give you more of their time. As an event planner, I’m always working to find new ways to work with my clients…
Business leaders have a problem. On one hand, their workforces are saying that they are tired of Zoom meetings and feeling isolated as they work from home, and mostly, that they miss the human connection. Leaders miss connecting with their teams in person too. But, on the other hand, employees are not keen to rush back to five days a week, 9-5pm office setting with crammed commuting and cold corporate cubicles. So how do leaders reconcile this problem? How do…
By Daniella Bustamante and Dela Kumapley, Event Coordinators at Managing Matters Selecting the right theme is crucial to the success of your event and sets the stage to influence your food and beverage, design and décor choices. It will communicate to guests a sense of what to expect, what the atmosphere will be and even what they might wear! With this much pull on the outcome of your event, make sure you spend time choosing a theme that is interesting,…
The tone of your event entrance starts long before your first attendee arrives. You must set your tribe’s level of ambition. Raise your level of expectation from your staff, your team and your volunteers, and build your culture as a force for good. Events can be long hours, exhausting days and taxing on the brain – but they are also fun and rewarding! Let your team have fun with their onsite presence. Encourage them to be goofy while maintaining a…
Tools and tactics to create more emotional engagement and encourage greater overall participation and higher stakeholder satisfaction Business events these days are shifting. Attendees no longer want the same old snooze fest they’ve attended in past years. With technology changing and new generations taking over, one must keep their events interesting and flexible, allowing for attendees to connect with the event and enjoy their overall experience. There is no one-size-fits-all anymore. With four generations in the workforce, our events must…
By Kristin Hosie The theme of a meeting should be considered its ‘centrepiece.’ In the events industry, we know all about the centrepiece. Sometimes its floral; sometimes it’s made of ice. In any case, it’s the focal point of a function’s dining table. Your theme should be the focal point of your meeting – a jumping off point for everything that follows and in every aspect of the meeting from start to finish. Determining your theme should help to streamline…
Throughout our lives, design considerations can be found all around us. An inert object such as your morning coffee mug has been designed to achieve maximum ‘tipping’ comfort, heat retention and “lip appeal.” Similarly, the system or process at a blood donor clinic is “designed” for the donor’s comfort, safety and overall traffic flow of people. Design in each application seeks to create a viable solution to the stated objective. Design, as applied to live events, seeks to blend guest…
Serendipity is a topic dear to my meeting designer heart, and one I have explored before. Why? We attend meetings and events as stated ubiquitously and often for learning and networking. I would go deeper than this and borrow a concept from Robin Jones (CMO at QuickMobile). “Learning at its best is either disruptive, where it really makes us consider a new perspective, or actionable, where we want to leave and try something new or in a new way, as…
A question came up on Twitter recently, “what is the ROI of great event design?” This to me is what is considered a beautiful question in that it does not have an easy answer, but does incite thought and discussion. Please add your comments below! Return on Investment (ROI) is a critical factor which plays into strategic meeting management (SMM), participation in trade shows, who we buy from, and ultimately what we buy, including the events we choose to attend.…
For the most part, if you are reading this, you play a role in planning meetings and events both face-to-face and hybrid, and provide opportunities for meaningful dialogue. Why is this important? It is dialogue between human beings, sharing ideas, debating opinions, hearing other perspectives, analyzing our own responses to new ideas, and using these exchanges to understand and develop healthy approaches to diversity, collaboration and innovation that will continue to allow us to build communities – traditional by location,…
