Many large companies in Cluj Napoca are organizing corporate events for their team or business partners, but very few make the best of their event in terms of growing their brand awareness or enhancing their reputation towards becoming the employer of choice. There are ways for companies to make people talk about them and create memorable moments for their event audience, just by putting the right ingredients into their event.
Romanian market is not yet mature enough to set the trends in corporate events, but that is still ok, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel, we just want to drive in the right direction. I’ve done a bit of research to see exactly what the right direction is, and I’ve come across some interesting trends in corporate events that I want to share with you.
There are ways for companies to create memorable moments for their event audience, just by using the right ingredients. Here’s what you should be looking at when organizing your company’s event.
Crowd-streaming
Or live-streaming on a mass scale. This term means broadcasting the streaming of a live event (your company’s event) to a website where lots of other people can watch it. We can think about social media sites like Facebook with the Facebook Live feature that allows people to broadcast live with just their smartphone.
For people to want to livestream the event organized by your company, the experience you create needs to be interesting and inspiring. Invest in unique visual effects and activities, as people are more likely to share their experience if it looks like they are doing something fun and interesting. Invite famous live bands to the entertain your employees, invite speakers that will make an impact, or just go mad with an out of the box theme.
Mobile Apps
Companies are using mobile event apps to keep things simple for their audience. The mobile app trend for meetings and conferences it here to stay. Event apps keep things simple for guests and attendees, helping them to stay on track and organized by using the online agendas, interactive social sharing, messaging and also allowing them to take notes. Mobile apps can also provide valuable information for your guests, as they can check the profiles of the speakers or have access to educational resources on the topic of the conference (e.g. audiobooks).
Event planners use mobile apps to manage the RSVPs and guests check-in, share information with the audience in a targeted way and make sure any change is timely communicated.
Drone footage
We’ve all seen the epic videos filmed from “somewhere in the sky” showing vast landscapes and happy people having fun, and thought that must have cost a fortune. All that equipment needed to do that! Think again. Drones are getting smaller and more attainable and offer great post-event marketing tools to amaze your guests. Drone footage is a concept people are familiar with nowadays and they expect it to be part of the company’s event. Make sure you integrate this in your agenda.
Break out spaces
Networking is a very important part of every corporate event, even an anniversary party. Create more quiet spaces where people can sit, relax and connect. Comfort is a top priority, and if you spice it up with some company messaging or branding, that will be the perfect place to escape the loud music and just enjoy your cup of midnight coffee.
Unique venues
You already knew this, right? We are bored of hotels, conference centers and restaurants. Why not have a conference event in a park? Technology can be made available anywhere if you have the right team in place. The venue needs to offer the wow factor, something that the guests did not expect. An unusual setting immediately makes a statement about how innovative the company is, and helps to create a fantastic experience.
Every amazing event needs to have a clear WHY
The reason for your event should be in everyone’s minds throughout the event, and this is only possible if it is well communicated. The why needs to be incorporated in the venue design, entertainment and all event activities, and is the memorable feature that your guests will take home with them after the event. To the event planner, it is critical to understand the purpose for the event before laying the groundwork, to know his client and the corporate culture he needs to personalize through the event. Not an easy task, though… Put together a creative team and brainstorm ideas. If you don’t have the internal resources for this, partner with a specialized company and let them handle the messaging.
Focus on the customer journey
People in IT field are more familiar with the “customer journey” concept, as this is extensively used when building websites or apps. To the wider audience this means “the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand”. Your customer in this case is your event guest, be it an employee, business partner, collaborator or just an acquaintance. Focus on them, what they see and when they see it, how you tell them the story of your company. It is said that events this year will combine several journeys such as a formal conference style, through to an exhibition and onto something more experiential like virtual reality.
Chatbots
We do need to collect feedback during and after an event, as lessons learned are an invaluable asset. However, traditionally nobody likes to fill in feedback forms at events. We also tend to ignore the emails where some company is asking for feedback, we’ll just put it aside and maybe look at it later. Later becomes never.
In order to gain feedback, it is important to keep things simple, quick and interesting, and chatbots have proved to be an interesting feedback channel for events. They are continuous feedback channels, as they collect all the interactions at any stage of the event, offer a safe environment for your guests to speak their minds and it makes it easier for companies to interpret the results.
Storytelling or themes?
Think of how you want the attendees to feel from the time they receive their first invitation to the moment they walk out the door, smiling and thinking that was one of the best experiences of their lives.
The top trending theme is the un-theme. No longer are we sticking to a hard and fast look like Fire & Ice, the current popular movie, or a specific decade, but we’re moving towards a feeling or an emotion associated with an event. The experience that you are creating through your event is what matters.
Storytelling in events is communicating something about your company and what you believe in, your values and mission, future plans or reason for celebration. It allows people to feel part of your story. Storytelling can be done visually, orally, or through written communication. In conclusion, I am not saying not to have a theme for your event, we are just saying to choose a theme that connects to the story you want to share.
Every event planner needs to stay connected to the market trends and offer the best customized solutions for the corporate events he delivers. I personally start my day with a cappuccino and the usual research for interesting articles and ideas that I could bring to life in my next event. This helps me ensure that MONDEVENTS stays creative, focused, and continues to deliver premium corporate events.
For more information about corporate events management techniques and best practices, visit MONDEVENTS blog and website.
