Four factors that determine how memorable your business event will be
Everyone wants their business event to be memorable, and yet too many end up disappearing into the aether as nobody even remembers they attended it. The science behind a memorable business event isn’t that challenging. In fact, it usually boils down to four factors:
The Setting
The event venue will play one of the biggest roles in determining how memorable your event will be. Your goal is to choose a function venue that will wow everyone in attendance. It should be in a fantastic location with a beautiful setting that makes everyone look around with wide eyes. You want to invest big in the setting because people will always remember an event if the place looks nice, has gorgeous views, and is just generally somewhere that they want to return to. On the other side of things, a terrible venue is the easiest way to make your event non-memorable – or memorable for the wrong reasons.
Catering
Regardless of what your business event will focus on, guests expect to have food and drink supplied for them. An open bar – along with plenty of snacks – will be the quickest way to their hearts. When people are well-fed and feel like they’re looked after from a catering standpoint, they’re more likely to have a good time. Also, exceptional catering makes your event stand out, as people will recount the fantastic canapés and things they ate. Fancy or high-end food makes you look more professional than if you simply provided everyone with frozen food from a supermarket.
Surprise Moments
When hosting a business event, much of the spotlight will be on you and your main presentation. Whatever you’re looking to do, you should avoid revealing everything in the build-up to the event. Be quite coy over what will be shown, and this allows you to create surprise moments. Make everyone expect one thing, and then hit them with something that they were not expecting in the slightest.
E.g. You host this event under the guise that you’re launching a new product, but then the big surprise reveal is that the product itself is ready to go right now, and guests get a first hands-on experience with it. Or, and this is a good one, you say you’re launching one or two new products, but then you reveal a secret third that ends up being the showstopper.
Guest Experiences
Following on from above, you don’t want to host an event that gets your guests to sit around watching presentations. As cool as those surprise moments can be, they’re even more memorable when you make the guests part of the experience. What this means is that you should consider giving your guests access to new products so they can test them and spend some time with them during the event. If your business event isn’t about a new product launch, then it still needs to include activities that encourage guest involvement so the whole event feels more memorable.
Nailing these four factors will help you create an event that people remember for a very long time. It’s also how you generate a lot of hype in the press – especially when you invite journalists and content creators to experience the event with you.
