Events are not just about good content and programming. They are about how people are made to feel, the relatable moments shared, the connections made amongst attendees and whether they choose to share their experience with others long after the event has passed. 

There are certainly many factors that may contribute to the overall event success, but the true measure of a good event lies in the experience and how memorable it was. So how do we intentionally design events that people will remember and continue to talk about?  

Understand the Full Event Landscape

The first step is to see the event from an attendee’s perspective and truly understand the landscape we’re navigating. Events can easily lead to information overload as we are often competing for attention between speaker sessions, scheduled activities, exhibitor interactions, entertainment, and so on. The reality is that people don’t remember an event in its entirety, they remember key moments. The emotional highs, unexpected surprises, and ‘wow’ factors. For event planners, this is an opportunity to be intentional in every aspect of the event design by incorporating these moments and planning for memorable experiences. 

Know Your Audience

In order to incorporate these special moments into your event, it’s important to understand the audience demographic and their interests. By identifying some common threads amongst those in the room, we can start to explore suitable moments that are relatable, enjoyable for everyone, and above all, remain aligned with the overarching event goals and objectives. 

Get Creative

Think from the attendee perspective and brainstorm ideas with your team. Getting everyone involved will allow for healthy discussion and hopefully some wild ideas to explore. 

Here are some considerations to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Tickle the senses – add unique elements that will play on one or all of our senses. Sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.
2. Create a feeling – align content and activities with known shared values. Again, people will remember how they felt more than what was said. 
3. Add a surprise – think special guest, mystery performance, hidden room, or unexpected ‘big win’ prizes.
4. Make it immersive – if budget allows, transform the space into a fully immersive experience that brings your event theme to life. This usually creates that ‘wow’ factor. Give people a reason to get their phones out to capture photos. 

Keep it Balanced

Although we want to build excitement and special moments within the event experience, be mindful of not over-powering important moments during the program. Avoid adding distractions at the times when you plan to make special announcements or in areas that will disrupt the event flow. Be strategic with how and when people experience things and keep a good balance between content / programming and special fun moments and surprises. 

Offer a Memento

In order to ensure the event lives on long after it ends, make it easy for your attendees to share event photos and their stories. Create online contests that run before and after the event to build excitement and continued engagement.  Also, offer a tangible piece of the experience for them to hold onto. Provide swag that they will genuinely find useful. Everyone loves receiving good swag, and the better the gift, the more likely it is to spark conversations.

Great events don’t happen by chance. They’re the result of carefully planning memories that go beyond the people in the room. Attendees will replay experiences on social media, talk about them at work, and hopefully return the following year bringing others with them!  

Good luck and happy planning!

This article was written for Corporate Meetings Network, review it here.