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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

When Pretty Isn’t Enough: Corporate Events Need to EventSmarter in 2013 [CBS]

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Rubber chicken. Endless speeches. Budget-breaking centerpieces. Sound like an event you’ve attended? Too many corporate events don’t yield the ROI Cassie Brown, CSEP, knows they should. As Chief Experience Officer of TCG Events, Cassie specializes in planning and executing corporate events that stand out in their ability to produce solid returns. This “EventDifferentlyTM” approach is needed now more than ever. According to a February 2013 survey of 300 corporate executives at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue, 75 percent of executives agree that their company is looking for greater ROI from corporate events this year than in previous years. The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of TCG Events.

“The Wells Fargo Championship is an annual PGA TOUR event, with the majority of profits going to Teach for America. It is vital to the event’s ability to support this and other worthwhile organizations that we attract Fortune 500 clients year over year,” asserts Jan Ivey, Director, Marketing & Partner Relations, Wells Fargo Championship. “To do so, our clients need to know they can achieve solid ROI from their investment in our event. As our official decorator for the past 11 years, TCG Events’ creative ideas – even when budgets are cut – and comprehensive, guest-centric management style have played a key role in keeping a number of our clients coming back on an annual basis.”

The survey shows that even in the virtual age, live corporate events are still essential. Eighty-four percent of executives indicate that their companies hold corporate events, and four out of five (79 percent) say that their companies understand the value of ROI (e.g., increased corporate morale, new business identification, client relationship building) in doing so. At the same time, 84 percent of respondents report that their company has made cuts in corporate events in the past few years.

“Corporate events are a prime example of the ‘do more with less’ trend found across American businesses today,” said Cassie Brown. “While appearances will always count – and TCG Events certainly knows how to do pretty – what’s most important now for our clients is that every event serve as a true business driver. And often, that means shaking up expectations based on past events.”

The majority of executives believe that corporate events tend to be formulaic and lack innovation. TCG Events’ proprietary EventSmarterTM approach addresses this event burnout head on, with ideas including:

Talking Heads – Only a good thing if we’re talking dance music. The primary way events lose audience engagement? Giving speakers – even the CEO – the floor for what seems like forever. A 2-minute, professionally designed, powerful video (that features the CEO and any guest speakers) has a far bigger impact. Everyone wins: key constituents, your organization, and most importantly, the audience.

Center stage, not centerpieces – make the most of your event spending. Depending on the size of the event, the traditional stage at the front of the room arrangement can leave some tables feeling like they’re in Siberia. Consider placing the stage/podium in the center of the room, with surrounding screens overhead so that everyone has a great view. Does it cost more? It may, but it will engage your audience far more than even the most costly centerpieces and tableware. Shift and invest your budget where it makes the biggest impact.

Change it up – present the unexpected. Holding an annual event? Even if the speakers are different from year to year, if the format’s the same, your target audience may regard attendance as a duty rather than a pleasure. Consider introducing new elements each year. At one event planned by TCG Events, they literally turned drink service on its head by having an aerialist serve champagne upside down! Work with an event planner that understands your end-goal and can offer fresh ideas to get you there.

To learn more about how to boost your event ROI and “EventDifferently. EventSmarter. Event with TCG Events, visit www.tcgevents.com.

Follow TCG Events on LinkedIn and on Twitter @TCGEvents.

Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive between February 6-18, 2013 among 300 corporate executives at companies with revenue of $1 billion or more. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.