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How to Celebrate a Business Anniversary [Successful Meetings]

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Successful Meetings contributor Cassie Brown calls business anniversaries “the vanilla of the events season.” And yet, that doesn’t mean that planning an anniversary celebration is easy. In fact, it’s uniquely challenging, as planners must take great care to craft an event that feels merry, but not frivolous.

The solution, according to Brown, is to approach company celebrations as you would any other event: strategically.

“Realistically, you can’t spend company funds on an event just for the sake of celebration,” Brown says. “The event has to have a strategic business goal.”

The strategic reason for a business celebration might be to motivate the company’s employees, to create an opportunity for bonding with clients or to thank the community. Whatever the strategic objective, the key to success is using the event not as a soapbox or ego-booster, but as a business mechanism.

“People don’t want to attend an event that is all about the company history, which usually means a long, boring speech from the CEO,” Brown says. “Reinforce your brand, and acknowledge the past and future, in innovative ways. Utilize multimedia, staging, even food to make it an event to remember.”

By Mark Payne

Expert Advice On Your Questions [CBJ]

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By Charlotte Business Journal

My company is having a notable anniversary this year. What are some ways to celebrate that will be a benefit to my business?

Marcia Merrill, owner, Red Rover Communications: Celebrate those who got you there. Thank customers, employees, partners and the community in meaningful ways.

Create an anniversary theme. Launch a relevant community-service project and encourage participation. Share your appreciation and vision for the future.

For customers, cut prices to opening-day levels. Send them something — a gift, valuable information or just a thank you.

Don’t forget your employees. Throw a party, provide a keepsake or maybe pay a bonus. Be sincere and heartfelt — remember where you came from.

Cassie Brown, owner, Tribble Creative Group: An anniversary is a great time to remind clients why they do business with you. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge employees and vendors.

Why not celebrate all year? Develop a campaign to keep the anniversary in the forefront of people’s minds — perhaps with a community-service project that includes clients, vendors and employees.

Revamp your employee-recognition programs. Or spice up an annual event with something unexpected — a new location, fun invite or special entertainment.

Read the original article in Charlotte Business Journal.