Meetings Blog Feb 27, 2017
Choosing an excellent venue that is perfectly aligned with the characteristics of the event is essential if you want to amaze your attendees. Although, this alone is not enough: you must “reach” each and every one of your guests so that their time at your event becomes a personal memory.
To do this and to exceed the expectations of your attendees try to surprise them with some of the ideas we propose below:
Imagine you’re going to a new place and someone welcomes you by name. Feeling recognized in such a personal way is always well received and makes a lasting impression. It‘s very likely that in most of the events you organize you aren’t able to personally greet each attendee. Therefore, make small gestures that show warmth and interest; little details that demonstrate that you’ve tried to know something about each one of them.
For example, you can check out the public information that your guests offer on their social networks and make little references during the event. Maybe even leave a card or souvenir (T-shirt, tablet cover, notepad …) with their very first tweet: how many of them will have the phrase “‘Hello, world!”? If you want to go a step further, you can even surprise them with a “digital fingerprint report”, a document where each attendee can discover their digital profile and reach, that includes data such as how long they have been using Social Networks, their history of followers, their best tweets and posts, their VIP followers, etc. Surely they’ll get a kick out of that hilarious tweet they completely forgot about! These kinds of details will impress your attendees and will be a beautiful memory that they can take with them.
You can also add personalized touches during the coffee break, decorating the food with your company’s logo thereby making Food & Beverage as important to be seen as it is to be tasted. For example, order letter-shaped muffins and spell out the name of your company on the trays. You can also print logos on the fruit with edible ink or in powdered sugar on the cakes that are served. Some NH hotels offer a much-requested option: giving each guest a tube filled with delicious chocolate candies to take home with them. Imaginative and impressive! A hit for sure. Add a dash of originality to what you design for your event. Plan the catering to be filled with local or tradicional dishes of the region where the event is held. You can also include local decorative elements to the venue where you’re celebrating your event. Your guests that come from other places will discover the local flavor, in both the food and the décor, and will always remember that it was in your event where they had this experience. If your attendees are from the city or region where the event is being held, add some originality and fun by serving traditional dishes with a twist. Your guests will be pleasantly surprised!
We know that managing an event for a meeting planner is not a one-day exercise. It’s not a question of arriving in the morning and leaving in the afternoon, but of preparing down to the last detail, days or weeks before the day of the event, so that everything is perfect!
Therefore, it’s not enough to just meet the basic necessities of your guests: you have to plan in advance and improve each experience, from transfers and accommodation to meals and how they can spend their free time.
At NH we do everything we can so your attendees take away a memory of an unforgettable experience. We support you in every detail of the whole journey. For example, do you have guests who want to eat breakfast early or have an early departure? Don’t worry, we have solutions: in many of our hotels we offer breakfast for the early risers between 4 and 6 in the morning. We can also arrange a personalized airport transfer service for your guests. Contact us, and we’ll be happy to assist you.
If you plan to offer activities for the guests’ leisure time we can help you organize bike tours of the city. Many NH hotels around the world offer bike rentals – a fun activity that everyone enjoys.
Finally, don’t forget that many of our hotels have wonderful restaurants, luxury spas and terraces with panoramic views that will help you create special moments in unforgettable settings.
Follow these tips and you’ll be able to add a lot of character to all your events giving the guests wonderful lasting impressions.
