Events are sometimes considered trivial activities next to the importance of business progression and success. Yet events are intricate aspects of, not only our business lives but our personal and social lives as well.

Events can act as powerful conduits for bringing us together for focused celebration and reflection. To host an engaging and successful event requires a balance of many moving parts, combined with a strong current of vitality to lift an ordinary gathering into something that will be shaped into a memory for all who attend. 

These are the events we strive for!

The launch parties, goal achievement celebrations, staff training, holiday gatherings, benefit events, community builders etc. These events have potential to exceed their titles and become templates for what coming together can be and allows the ripples of these moments to carry us into places we maybe have not imagined yet.

An event can also be a synthesis of years of hard work and countless people’s contributions. Birthdays, a bat mitzvah, a retirement party, a sentential gala etc. there are usually many layers to why people gather. What makes a great event is being able to highlight these layers in a creative and meaningful way, and the possibilities we have to do this is greater than ever before.

Lets check out some examples:

Event photography has expanded from hiring just one photographer for posed and professional shots, to including a vibrant photo booth that allows guests to contribute their own photo memories and gain ample creative expression to participate in the memory making.  

    

 

 

 

Staff training can include comedians who use office language and transformational business practices as content, turning a regular staff training into a comedy fest transforming it into a memorable experience and enjoyable learning environment.

 

Challenge day is an organization trending through high schools all over the country, where kids are immersed in compassion oriented activities that allow them to share some of their personal stories with their peers. These events nurture empathy for how much we don’t know what is going on in someone else’s life, how much we may have in common…

 

Events can be your opportunity to step outside of boxes so that fresh ideas and experiences are encouraged to take form. Events also can bridge different demographic, work colleagues, family or people who have only experienced each other in virtual platforms and who are now meeting for the first time. This makes for fertile soil if these events are executed well, as they can lay the groundwork for projects and relationships to come.

 

Let’s also look at two, sometimes overlooked, resource generated by successful events: Joy and Symbiosis.

 

Enjoyment is often one of the highest priority goals of an event and it is amazing to see how well it supports other successful outcomes.

When people become inspired, there is a specific motivation that is activated which can become a huge asset in next step actions for any type of organization, life step, or fundraising effort.

 

Joy is often the result of the symbiotic partnership, which is a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence. For example, if a beach cleanup festival were to charge one bag of gathered beach trash for a round of drinks at the bar, that would be of benefit to both the beach cleaning effort and the refreshment of the attendees.

Really the events we host and attend in business can hold profound impact and now more than ever deserve more of our attention. We have such abundant capacity to create truly superb and purposeful event planning. Organizations like Youcanevent not only makes this accessible, they have a team of passionate people who include many of these aspects in what they do and how they do it.

With love

Nichelle Lyster

Also published on Medium.