Last month our CEO, Emma Cartmell was asked to contribute to a feature in Conference News looking at how event organisers can spice up their events.
If an event needs spicing up, start by identifying who you are and what you do. What’s your culture, your identity and how does this relate to your audience? How can you capture this essence and turn it into your personal stamp?
Be creative, but let the problem lead the creativity – don’t add frills for the sake of it. Identify your problem first and then creatively find the right solution. Stay true to the event’s identity and its business purpose.
It can be tempting to jazz up B2B events, but you have to remember exactly why your audience is attending. Most people are time poor and need a definite business reason to attend a B2B event. Your audience is there for a reason and as an event organiser your primary objective should be to support and nurture that reason and not focus on the bells and whistles. Business events can be fun, but you should ensure that the fun never distracts from the business purpose of the event. We always include an element of fun in our events – but only after the business appointments or networking has been concluded “Work first, play later” is my mantra. Having an element of fun can make your events more appealing to your audience, but no-one can really justify attending a ‘jolly’.
You can add spice by making sure that the energy levels at your event are kept high. We are in the middle of organising a large B2B conference and the sessions are being designed to be fast paced, inspiring and to create a buzz. We have chosen speakers from outside of the industry to add a new dynamic and to encourage delegates to think differently about a topic.
Don’t try to create an event and then add the ‘spice’ as an after thought. It needs to be considered right from the get-go; it needs to be integral, not a flimsy add on.