Sometimes the one big difference in your event is actually a bunch of smaller things working together. Before you make the leap to try the next “big thing” in events, consider trying these 7 little details that will make a huge difference in your events. It’s all in the details, right?
1. Invest in Your Learning
Constantly challenge yourself with new ideas and tools to make each event even better than the last. Ask yourself, what are you doing to continually improve the experience of your attendees? Stay up-to-date with events in your industry to know the latest tips, tricks and experiences that will leave a lasting impression with your guests.
Attending and volunteering at different events can help you learn different perspectives of what works and what doesn’t work. It can also be a good way to foster new ideas and spin off old ones. After all, you never know who you are going to meet while you’re attending or volunteering at different events.
2. Brand Everything
How are you going to differentiate your beer festival from the one your frenemy had a couple weeks ago? Event branding! Event branding helps you define your unique identity among a world of endless live streams and photo feeds.
Identify a specific theme, font, tone of voice, colors, logos, hashtag and values for your identity and keep it consistent! People will admire your go green mantra but will be leaving scratching their heads when you give them one-time use plastic cups for water. Be mindful in choosing colors and fonts. Don’t feel the need to create a complex color system with a font you can only read when you turn your head sideways. Allow guests to easily read and identify your brand before you lose their attention to a more eye-catching branded event.
If you are having a mental block on promotional items to brand, consider these Five Alternative Promotional Ideas to provide more value to your event attendees.
3. Create a Seamless Internal Communication System
Set up a communication method that works for everyone. Easily downloadable tools such as Slack can help promote group collaboration and an open conversation. Frequently check-in with your team. Just because they aren’t asking questions, doesn’t mean they don’t have any!
Encourage your entire team to share their knowledge throughout the process, keep transparency in their actions and engage in conversations about how to improve the event planning process for everyone.
When it comes to delegating tasks, consider having your team repeat or summarize their tasks back to you before they begin to avoid any confusion later on in the process.
4. Personalize Event Reminders
Nobody wants a generic “don’t forget our event is tomorrow” message. Make each message personalized and meaningful. Create a message to feel as if you are directly talking to that person by including special touches such as emojis, calendar reminders or any other personal touch to help make your guest feel a little more special.
If possible, try including your guests first name on each message. This is a simple and easy way to show your attendees you are speaking to them, not at them.
5. Consider What You Communicate with Your Five Senses
Not including The Sixth Sense in M. Night Shyamalan’s film that validated our uneasy feelings when we’re in a room by ourselves and the hair on our arms stand up (no spoiler alerts here). We are talking about the five traditional senses you were taught in grade school.
- Sight: Create a visually appealing and logical floor plan.
- Hearing: Decide whether you want to energize your guests with Ariana Grande’s latest pop hit as they arrive or calmly welcome them with the sound of a babbling brook. Awkward silences (unless planned) is not how you want your attendees to remember your event. Also consider the sounds around your event location. Even the faint sound of a jackhammer at the construction site down the street can be annoying and distracting throughout an event.
- Taste: A good appetizer or snack can have your guests looking up new recipes when they get home. If you are going to provide something to eat, cater to your guests diet no matter how small or big the food may be.
- Smell: Consider a special scent as a part of your event branding. You don’t want your guests to be reminded of your event every time they smell wet paint. A good smell can bring nostalgia to your guests after the event is over. Why wouldn’t you want your guest to keep thinking about your Candy Cane Wonderland every time they smell peppermint?
- Touch: You spent so much time putting together those beautifully crafted and branded event agendas, but you forgot to check the heating system the day of your event and now your guests’ hands are too numb to feel the special matte texture you spent an extra $50 on. We’ve been there and it sucks. Consider the temperature, lighting and any other factors that may impact your guests sense of touch.
6. Keep it Unique
Leave the boring slideshow or speech at home. Encourage a sense of natural curiosity throughout your event that will keep your attendees interested and engaged. Keep the purpose of the event in the forethought of your guests.
7. Integrate Your Event Across All Social Media Platforms
Not all social media platforms have the same audience. Know who you are talking to. Posting the same picture or video on every social media platform for the same event is not going to slow your followers speedy scrolling on Instagram. Avoid the snooze-fest and get creative with your social media. Use polls, hashtags, stories, videos, photos, live-Tweets and any other forms of social media you can think of to help promote your event, get your attendees talking and let everyone know what they’re missing out on.
It’s time to start working on these details and implement them at your next event. Set up your next event on Events.com and see how huge of a difference these details will make.
