How to Continually Wow your Guests when Using the Same Venue Each Year
How to Continually Wow your Guests when Using the Same Venue Each Year
Using the same venue year on year and need to surprise guests? Ever wondered how you make the same venue look the different over and over again? There’s nothing wrong with the familiar! There are so many reasons to book the same venue year on year – great service! Great food! Good location, excellent motorway links, ample rooms that you need – and the list goes on!
However, for guests, the same venue can start to feel bland and they start to second guess what to expect at the next event. Not great when you want them to feel invigorated, excited and ensure that this year’s conference is a game changer! Whilst new venue search is an option, it’s hard to start again as well as trying to relay the company’s key strategic message and juggle the extra work that the new boss keeps piling on you! So, what’s the solution to a completely awe-inspiring conference at the same venue? At Eventologists, we think it’s about delivering newness every time and making the same venue look completely different!
- Firstly, the room – if changing the room isn’t an option, then how about changing the floorplan, consider theatre style seating if you had cabaret last time
- Change the stage set – wow them with a new stage and backdrop which changes from the day to the evening. Work with your AV company of Creative agency to shake up the status quo
- Do cool stuff at lunch – Venues now offer so many more options such as street food to make lunch fun and interactive with finger licking good food!
- Add some interactive sessions that they would not ordinarily get to do – It will be a talking point!
- Transform the venue from day to evening! If you’ve never had a themed event – dip your toe – trust us, it will be a party that they do remember and look forward to. If a theme is a bit too risky, but you don’t want the event to feel too corporate; use colour, unusual table centres, and nice touches like funky bars and furniture! The less rigid and corporate the event feels the more relaxed your guests will be. Add entertainers that add ambience in the room and create great picture moments. If you had a DJ last year, what about a band this year? Think about the time of year, can you keep corporate but take influence from the time of year – e.g. add an enchanted touch in Autumn and keep it fresh during Spring?
As we all enter an era of complex marketing and sales with social media, unusual venue openings and a plethora of ways of communicating; customers are shopping around each year looking for newness or new venues. Venues who want to retain existing business really need to inspire them with ideas of what their event can be rather than be sold the features of the room. It’s a different mindset to showing the more practical elements of the room but its fast-becoming what venues are focusing on to convert new sales and maintain existing customers. Knowledge of how they can transform the room or partners who can help them to think out of the box is an essential sales skill, especially for customer retention.
If you’re a conference organiser, transforming spaces and venues is much easier than venue search and starting the process all over again! Working with creative partners who will help you to give freshness each year to get 5-star guest feedback is the panacea that every conference planning and event agency strive for. Maybe just thinking about the same differently could be just the answer!
The Psychology of Colour in Events
The Psychology of Colour in Events
Eventologists’ stylists are often asked the question about what colour to use for an event. Whilst colour is about preference or may represent a brand, we believe there is a lot more meaning to colour than being pleasing to the eye. What’s the thinking behind colour? What feelings do changes in colour evoke? What dynamic colours should be used at events to make those senses open? As an event planner, we don’t just need to understand what colour is on trend, but also the psychology behind the use of different colours. What’s equally important is what colours not to use at different events or to what extent colours should be used.
Different colours can dramatically affect moods and emotions as well as affect that initial impact when we see a room in a colour. As an event theming company, we are very aware of colour psychology and work with our clients on ensuring the correct mix of colours are selected.
Generally, people will choose their favourite colours for their private party; but, when it comes to corporate event, event managers often don’t have a colour theme in mind if they don’t want to follow the brand colours. This is where we can advise!
The Meaning behind Various Colours
White: signifies pure, clean, innocent in the West; mourning in the East. White creates a sense of space so works well in dark and small rooms. White can also represent new starts, giving a fresh new idea. White is a great colour for its simplicity, cleanliness and idea creation; White is therefore often used in the summer works well as it helps to create a cool and contemporary atmosphere and used for new launches! However, using too much white can mean isolation, loneliness and emptiness.
Black: signifies glamour, sophistication, power, elegance. seriousness, control and independence. However, in sharp contrast it can also mean death, darkness and frightening. For that reason, it’s a great colour for black tie gala dinners as well as a colour for Halloween or haunted themed events.
Red: represents heat, passion, intensity, it’s a racy colour which creates strongest emotions such as love, lust, anger, evil – some of the most extreme emotions are represented by red which can make the heart beat that much faster! It is not surprising that red is a popular colour for lighting and theming for a variety of exciting themes such as moulin rouge, burlesque, Vegas themed events, Fire and Ice themed events or even masquerade themes!
Yellow: is a happy, optimistic, warm, zingy colour that draws attention to the eye which is why it’s a great day-time event colour. But when used in excess yellow can also be too overpowering and stir up emotions of annoyance and frustration. This is why many people team yellow with whites and blacks or multi-colours to become an accent colour rather than the dominant colour.
Pink: Pink is a softer version of red that creates a sense of compassion, hope and unconditional love. It’s a colour that soothes and represents care, understanding and nurturing. It’s often linked with romance as it shows empathy and sensitivity. Excessive pink at corporate events can mean reduced power and or even immaturity. For that reason, pink is often used as an accent colour with other colours at corporate events.
Green: always has many positive connections with nature, earthliness, growth, health, tranquillity. It’s a powerful colour as it creates a calming
atmosphere, feels fresh so its colour that relieves stress and helps heal. It’s often used for chill-out spaces and networking events to create an ambience of relaxation.
Orange: is connected with motivation, vibrancy, energy, excitement; as such it creates a positive attitude and enthusiasm for life. As such orange is great colour for bringing comfort in turbulent times and creating a sense of fun or freedom for your guests; for the very fact that it is an attention-drawing colour, it is often used at charity events or launches.
Purple: Purple is most commonly known for its imagination and spirituality, royalty, wisdom, wealth. People see purple as colour linked with luxury, extravagance, courage, mystery and magic. However, avoid using it too often as it can also cause distraction. Purple is often used lighting for events especially chill out areas and bars for its very powerful emotions that it stirs up!
Blue: is known for its trust, peace, loyalty and dependability. It’s reliable, responsible and mentally soothing as it lowers pulse rate and body temperature and creates productivity. It’s one of the best-liked colours, especially by males. It’s a perfect colour to use for corporate functions however it can be perceived as distant, cold or unfriendly if used in excessively. Often it is purposefully used to create ice themed events, underwater themed events or sometimes used to create an eerie atmosphere.
We hope this guide provides a guide for your next corporate event. Whilst colours have positive and negative meanings, we always say to clients to be daring with colour which will set apart and leave a lasting impression on your clients.
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