Event planning can sometimes feel like a guessing game regarding how to impress guests. Thankfully, industry experts and event planners have been tracking popular trends. We’ve assembled our own list of trends that are most likely to stay at the top of event requests in the near future.
Immersive Experiences
Guests want to feel more connected to brands, companies, and each other. For event planners, this means creating multi-sensory environments that engage sight, sound, aroma, taste, and more.
Keep this in mind when selecting your event theme. A rock-and-roll-styled event comes with great music and entertainment built-in. Still, you could be under-delivering on expectations if you miss the opportunity to incorporate rock-and-roll-inspired food and beverage or perhaps some classic automobiles for local transportation.
Remember, you can spend less to make immersive events work. You have to think smartly about which elements to tailor to reinforce the theme and make guests feel more involved in the experience.
Customized Agendas
Few things are more frustrating for guests than not knowing a schedule, where to go, or what to expect once there. The larger your event, the more complicated this becomes when breaking into smaller groups for different sessions or activities.
To simplify this matter, take the time to create personalized agendas for various attendees. You will likely have some overlap between people with similar credentials, so this is less work than it may initially seem. Executives, sales teams, family and plus-ones, press, keynote speakers, different geographic regions, and special guests or officials are all types of audiences that may benefit from customized agendas.
Highlight any items or activities that are exclusive to that person or group, as this will reinforce to guests that their agendas are unique to them. To go the extra mile, make sure names are included on each agenda. If you take advantage of QR codes on name badges, you can update this information even hours before the event should the guest list change.
Technology
Being connected and staying connected are no longer conveniences; they’re essentials. Guests want to avoid using books and paper when digital documents are available. They also don’t want to watch yet another PowerPoint presentation when they could have a fully interactive game show experience.
Some technologies are easy to execute – event registration websites, digital agendas, and multimedia videos. Others, you’ll want to customize to your event. For instance, if you are training on a brand-new product, consider VR headsets that allow everyone to touch, handle, or use the item rather than having only a few actual items that people must wait to try for only a few moments.
Or, if you’re guiding teams through performance figures for the year by region, active push messaging sends links with specific data to the cellphones of people in each area. This also enhances your personalization factor and makes attendees feel noticed for their role in the organization.
Quality
For everything else, including venue, food & beverage, activities, and entertainment, remember that guests care about attention to detail and thoughtful execution. People tend to remember negatives more than positives, which makes it wise to avoid lower-quality perceptions whenever possible.
There’s no point in giving away a low-cost plastic pen and notepad as a gift for an otherwise luxurious event. It’s better to skip it and let guests enjoy the tasteful decor instead. If 4 menu options cannot be delicious within your budget, offer 2 exceptional ones.
You will want to work closely with your vendors to ensure you get what you expect.
If this is your first time working with that vendor or venue, that means going and seeing furnishings or place settings in person. It also means doing a little online searching for entertainers to find videos or reviews beyond those on their websites.
Most importantly, communicate with your guests. You can only predict what everyone will enjoy if you ask or give people a chance to provide input. That doesn’t mean you have to let them control every last aspect of the event, but a little two-way communication can let you know if there’s an opportunity to do something unique for your group. The deeper you gather background information, the happier you – and your guests – will be with the result.
