Maybe it’s a yearly meeting or maybe even a weekly meeting, but each time you bring a group together for an event you want to make it memorable and interesting.  You typically want to provide some sort of value to the attendee.  When it comes to event production and event design, there are key elements that need to be considered and below are tips to help guide you develop your event concept when planning corporate events, team building, customer appreciation events or any type of private event.

The 5 W’s

The five W’s are a fundamental starting point for any company event planning.  Who are you targeting for your event?  Who is coming to the event?  Are there any VIP attendees to the event or special groups that you will need to consider.

What is the overall goal that you are trying to achieve with your event?  Have your event objectives been identified?

Where is the event going to take place?  What are the space requirements for your event?  Do you need space to display products?  Are there breakout rooms that you will need for smaller meetings that will happen simultaneously?  Based on your meeting speakers and agenda, will you need a classroom style setup or rounds?  Will your meeting work best set-up banquet style?  Are you presenting awards or will you need to set up multi-media displays?

Are there considerations for when the event will be taking place?  Would a lunch draw in more people or an after-work dinner?  Maybe an early morning meeting would work best and will the event be all day or just a half day meeting?  Picking a time conducive to your attendees is the best opportunity to get people there, of course, but consider your set-up time and arrangements as well.  If you are hosting a morning meeting, consider that you might need the space for set-up the day before.

The why of your meeting can actually encompass a couple of areas.  Why are people going to attend your meeting?  But also why are you hosting/planning this meeting?  In both areas, consider what people will gain from attending and what their key takeaways might be.  Also keep in mind the overall objective and the reasons why you’re having the meeting.

The 7 P’s of Marketing

The 7 P’s of marketing is a formula used to evaluate your business activities to make sure you are achieving the maximum results in the marketplace.  Transforming this same formula to event management can also help ensure that the event you are producing is relevant and a good fit as well.  Use the 7 P’s of marketing to ensure you are achieving the best results for your event management efforts.

Product is the first piece to consider.  In this situation, your event is the product and you want to consider if that event is addressing the marketplace demands.  Is this type of event the right one for you customer/attendee?  Compared to your competitors, are you executing a far superior event?

Price is the second P of event management.  Whether or not you are charging for your event, price can still play a role in evaluating whether or not people will attend.  If you are charging for the event, then consider if the rate is fair and provides enough value for the attendee to pay that rate.  If you are not charging for the event the most important thing to consider is the time cost for that attendee.  Your attendee may not have to fork up money to attend, but there is a value of lost wage for the time they are there.  Or if an employer is sending employees to the event, is it worth the investment they will be paying to have their employees attend?

Promotion covers the overall strategy and plan you have to promote the event to prospects.  Are you using a direct mail, email marketing strategy, or maybe promoting through social media?  Whatever your method, make sure your plan is in place to promote and measure your results so that changes can be made quickly in case response is not what was initially expected.

Place is similar to the where we mentioned above, but taking that a step further, it’s important to consider the physical location itself.  How easy is it for people to get to the meeting location?  Is it accessible through major roadways?  How far are you expecting people to travel to attend your meeting?  Will they need overnight accommodations?  

Packaging is important in the overall event design.  Branding, logos and even down to the site or promotional materials.  Is everything clearly tied together visually for the event, and is branding sufficiently present in the overall event design?

Positioning your event in the minds of your attendees is important and crucial in the overall event experience.  Think about how you want people to see the event and how you would want them to describe their experience and then be sure to incorporate that in to the overall event design and positioning.

The final P of marketing is People.  This is truly the final string that ties everything together.  Do you have the right people, in the right position, executing on different levels of your event?  For the day of your event, do you have the right staff in place and the right number of staff at that?

Outside the Box

Challenge yourself and your team to use the first two tips and drive solutions that are outside the box.  There are so many unique event ideas and so many yet to be discovered.  Do some hunting on the internet to see what some others have done and then create your own twist on that idea.  Or pose a challenge to your event management company to see what unique solutions can be created.  Lots of new ideas are born from challenges in location, user experience or because of budgets.  If you’re working on a yearly meeting, challenge yourself to incorporate 1 or 2 unique ideas to test how it might improve your audiences’ experience.

Start with Audience Attraction 

It’s always best to think of your event from your audiences’ perspective to create the best experience.  Start by considering what your ideal attendee would find fun.  Events bring people together maybe to mindshare, maybe for education or maybe to launch something, but peppering in a fun experience for your attendee is crucial to helping them remember the event.  So, start with some of those fun experiences and then work backwards from there on how that can fit with your overall event objective.

Get Out

Not just a reference to the creepy Jordan Peele movie that won an academy award!  But if that helps you remember this last tip then so be it.  Yes, get out and go to other meetings and events to get ideas.  This is the best way to see what other groups or companies are doing to get people in the door/or even to virtually attend and get people engaged with your brand/event.  Talk to your vendors or your event management company about other events they are doing and ask if you could check them out.  This way you can see how other industries are executing their events and event design.  

This Is It Entertainment has been creating un-duplicated events for customers for many years. Each project is approached from a fresh perspective by a team of professionals that is an expert in their own field and our goal is to produce ideas that are without limits and pushing to the next level of what’s possible.  As part of our effort to create beyond the imagination, we offer 3D design services for certain events and make ourselves available to talk in detail about your event concepts.  If this is something you’re interested in message us so we can learn more!