Many thematic ideas have become exhausted, and it’s hard to have your event be distuniguishable and memorable among the many conferences that you attend. We’ve racked our brains together on 5 tips on how to design experiences instead of just planning them.
- Electrify Their Senses
The way to start your event off right is to instantly electrify your guest’s senses with an environment that is aesthetically pleasing by using lightning techniques that can create a relaxing environment. Doing so would create an inviting area for when guests first arrive, so they can get acquainted with the venue and others in attendance. If you’d like to do something more decadent, create large scale props around the perimeter of the venue so attendees can go around and look at this art when they first enter the venue. It’ll be a talking piece for your conference and will start the event off with positive feedback.
2. Have something fun for everyone
People learn through all different type of mediums, and conferences host a wide variety of learning personalities in attendance. Due to this, it’s important to have activities that everyone can take part in. A way to do this is to host exhibition games such as a treasure hunt, or a mystery game to ensure all those in attendance will stop by each of the exhibition booths. For those that absorb information better when they physically interact with objects, encourage exhibitioners to bring demos of their products and services so they can retain a wider net of listeners than just those who retain information best through a lecture or visually.
3. Keeping them engaged
A great thing to do during the event is to keep everyone engaged. You can do this by having entertainment for things that no one’s ever seen before. Three years ago, Exhilarate did a Gatsby themed event where the bartender was also an aerialist, so she’d perform until people came up to the bar to serve drinks. You can also incorporate other entertainment like the garden woman we had roam around the venue interacting with guests. Having performers makes your event interesting and gives everyone the opportunity to interact with people who are not a part of the fabric of the conference. They can take a break and be stimulated by enjoying your event’s entertainment, which in turn keeps your guests rejuvenated and attentive.
4. Go Into Overtime
Overtime, it’s when your guests are having so much of a ball, they’ll never wanna go home. Ultimately, it means your event was a complete success, and it’ll be remembered throughout the office the next day among those in attendance. This signifies that your guests not only enjoyed your décor, but also your use of entertainment with music and performers.
5. The linger effect
At the end of the conference, you’ll have wanted to create a linger effect, something that will keep everyone in attendance wishing they could go back, but importantly, glad they came in the first place. This comes from giving guests an opportunity to take home small memorabilia and creating a follow-up campaign to reply to their posts about how they’ve had a wonderful time. By keeping the momentum going after the party is over, guests will be sure to remember you for the next time you create an exhilarating experience.
At Exhilarate, we emphasize designing experiences to ensure that our clients have infinitely more possibilities. We know planning is stressful, so contact us to enter yourself at a chance to win our Spa Giveaway Raffle! The winner will be announced before this years MPI’s World Education Conference in Las Vegas.