Event Planners Don't Derail Your Corporate Event!

Let It Snow Winter Theme

Simple and easy! Here’s a perfect politically correct theme for the holidays or your company holiday party. Snow never offends anyone (except when it turns to slush!)…and this can be elegant or informal—that’s up to you!

Winter Theme Holiday Party Invitations

People are very busy during the holiday season. Make sure you get on the calendar with an unforgettable invite. Personalized winter holiday invitations are perfect for a winter themed holiday party. Include your company’s logo, attire (Especially if it’s black tie—so people don’t come in jeans!), some of the events details and all of the other necessary invitation requirements. Make the invitations sparkle by adding a little snowflake confetti in the envelopes.

Another popular option is sending personalized ticket invitations. You get to use your own wording, choose from seven colors (we recommend blue or silver) and can order as few as 30. Lanyards and pouches are also available for ticket invitations, so everyone can wear the ticket to the event!

Or go with a caricature invitation; it is one of a kind and can't be topped! Include the CEO of your company dressed as a snowman or Jack Frost with all of his or her "snowflake helpers".

Corporate Winter Wonderland Party Decorations and Party Supplies

At the entrance to your party make a statement with a wonderful snowflake arch. On either side, add some fun winter balloon trees. Then add a welcome sign with your company name or logo of course, and decorate the easel with snowflake garland and a bouquet of white and light blue balloons for a finished look.

Winter Wonderland seating cards complete with your logo will help everyone to their seat.

Once inside the party, there are endless decorating possibilities. Create a wonderful winter backdrop with scene setters. Pine, peppermint or spice scented candles will make the room smell as well as look like winter, so place them liberally around the room. Your guests will feel like it’s snowing inside when they look up and see shimmering snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.

Table and Bar Decorations

Make sure that as your guests prepare to eat, that your tables look as inviting as your food, and your centerpieces and paper products match the Winter Wonderland theme. Even though you’re probably hosting this soireé at a hotel, restaurant or other venue, you may still want to use snowflake papergoods at least for dessert or appetizers just to pull through the theme!

Snowflake centerpieces are festive and fun. If you have a large room add snowflake balloon bouquets to the centerpieces to give them some height. Add white votive candles to the table, and sprinkle snowflake confetti around them for the perfect winter setting.

One of our favorite decorations is a linking snowflake mylar balloon. These balloons link together to create beautiful balloon arches that look great over buffets, bars of dancefloor areas.

Party Favors

We love photo favors for a holiday party. Set out a snowman theme photo op and hire a photographer to take pictures of your guests. They can print photos at the party and pass them out at the end of the evening.

A perfect party favor for this Winter Wonderland party is a personalized Winter Wonderland candy bar. Whether it’s milk chocolate or dark chocolate, this candy bar is a delicious way to say "Thanks for coming!". Set one at every place setting, or have them by the door for guests to grab on the way out. Additionally, set out single serving sized bottles of milk or bottled water to go with the chocolate.

You can also fill a silver gift bag with small winter themed gifts and a little tissue paper. Try a few of these ideas:

• Personalized Mint Tins with a Winter Wonderland design
  
• Chapstick (the cure for those chapped winter lips)
  
• A single serving pack of gourmet hot coco
  

Have a wonderful time in your winter wonderland, and a have a Happy Holidays!

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How to Throw an Adult Easter Egg Hunt!

NOTE: I don't recommend having this party on Easter Sunday, people are busy. The Saturday before is usually perfect.


Don't we all miss the Easter egg hunt? The starting line, colorful woven basket in hand, heart racing, eyeballs trying to catch a glimpse of color hidden in the landscape before us. You might be surprised to find how many of us "grown-ups" get a kick out of the traditional hunt, but leave the kiddies at home folks! This party is for the mature crowd.


Things you'll need:
A well stocked bar.
Easter snacks.
Dozens of plastic Easter eggs.
A golden egg.
Candy and grown up goodies to stuff the eggs with.
One large prize for the person who finds the golden egg, at the very least.


1
Set the date and send out your invitations at least a week in advance, 2-3 weeks would be better.
Invitations should include the party's date, time, your address, directions to your house or place of the party, your phone number, and a clear statement saying "leave the kiddies at home folks, this one's for the 21 and over crowd." You could print up a nice little invitation and fold it up to fit inside a plastic Easter egg, these should be hand delivered. Follow up with an online Evite, nice because you can set up map-quest online so guests can have another set of directions, plus Evite is set up to keep a running tally of who's coming to the party and who's not.
2
Load your plastic eggs with all kinds of funky, sexy, sweet, and grown-up treats. We all love Easter candy and the individually wrapped ones are very convenient. Think about your days as a kid, hunting for eggs. What did you like? Parachute men, mood rings, bubbles, finger puppets, yo-yo's... a few of these things added to your loot are fun for us big kids and they're good and cheep. Don't forget the grown-up things; you can be as risqué as you're comfortable with. Condoms in all kinds of varieties, the little sample sized lubricants and flavored gels, visit your local adult super store for some Easter egg sized ideas.
3
Yummy!
Decide on how many large prizes you would like to have. 1 big prize for the golden egg (my mom used to take the biggest sized plastic eggs she could find and decorate them by hot gluing on lace and fabric trim). 1 big prize for the most eggs collected. 1 consolation prize for the least eggs collected. Depending on your budget, you can do as many prize eggs as you wish. The prizes can be as simple as a big chocolate bunny (who don't like big chocolate Easter bunnies?) To a lavishly stuffed Easter basket adding some adult store goodies with your Chocolate bunny.
4
Hide your eggs. Since your crowd is a little more sophisticated then your average 3-year old, go ahead and hide those eggs in some complicated places. High in the trees, barely sticking out of perennials, behind the flower pots...
5
Set up a self-serve bar and print up a few drink recipes (an "Easter Egg" is 1 once blue Curacao, 1 once white cream de cocoa, topped with half and half served over ice - see what you can find on the internet). Add a few snacks around the bar and the place is set for the party. All you have to do is get your own self primped and ready.
6
The actual hunt, if your guests didn't bring Easter baskets from home, a simple plastic grocery bag will collect plenty. Even better, buy a bunch of reusable grocery bags and give them away for favors and impromptu Easter baskets for the hunt. Get your guests together and set a 20 minute time limit and release them to hunt for the Easter eggs (you'll be laughing so hard, you won't believe how your friends turn into such kids again). After the 20 minutes is up, gather everyone around and do an egg count. Award your big prizes and kick back and enjoy the rest of the day.

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SuperBowl party tips and planning
According to Hallmark, the SuperBowl is now America's top party occasion, surpassing New Year's Eve. Of course, Hallmark wont tell me where they get their stats from. More than 130 million Americans watched last year's SuperBowl on television with an estimated global television audience of 800 million. Nine of the ten most-watched television programs of all-time are SuperBowls. In addition, the American Institute of Food Distribution states that SuperBowl Sunday is the second-largest day of food consumption behind only Thanksgiving. Do you guys have the same memories of fullness on superbowl sunday that you do of thanksgivings gone past?


If these statistics are surprising you, relax, all it means is it's time to party! A successful SuperBowl party is the only place that you can eat loads of junk food, laugh with friends, schmooze with new friends/contacts, and show off your party-planning skills, while watching your favorite teams knock heads. It's become traditional to round up a group of friends, put out a meal of casual food such as chili, pizza, sandwiches or lasagna, and gather around the TV to cheer for your favorite team. It's truly a great American good time.

To add just a little more to the day than chili, big tv screens, and beer, why not make it seem like a party with the help of your computer? You can make personalized invitations, place settings, banners, pennants, or even t-shirt iron-ons. OhYA, think about how good your SuperBowl party would be if your guests are each handed a 'Joes SuperBowl Party 2011' t-shirt as they walk through the door. You could make two kinds, one supporting each team (while dissing the others). This alone will make your party more memorable than any other on the block!

Do something neat with your invitations - have them look like stadium admission tickets or shape them like footballs. Speaking of football shapes, don't forget to cut something into the shape of a football this year! From a food perspective, keeping things simple is key. Good sandwiches and good chili are all you really need for a cold January afternoon.

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Many corporate events are derailed when committees or representatives from the client organization refuse to heed common sense advice from event planners.


Some of the requests that corporate event planners receive can make us feel as if we’re entering The Twilight Zone. What is disturbing is the lack of a practical focus. Some client organizations appear to be particularly resistant to following the advice of professional event planners who are familiar with specific destinations. Instead, they seem to be interested in engaging firms that will work as order takers to implement their plans no matter how flawed. Even if they are considering an event in the wrong location, during the wrong season, with the wrong geography, and the wrong timeframe, some client organizations are not open to modifying their plans.

As the recession deepens, this seems to be increasing. It will become easier for prospective clients to find your competitors that are hungry enough for business to deliver exactly what they request. As an event planner who is interested in growing their business, it can be a challenge to walk that fine line between pleasing your client and giving them your best professional advice.

Here are 5 wrong moves to avoid no matter how much pressure you are facing from clients or prospective clients.

1. Wrong Location
A prospective client from the USA insisted on staying at an airport hotel. They then proceeded to request an activity that would take place in downtown Toronto. They simply would not listen to advice that, given traffic patterns, it would have been more prudent to stay downtown, even if it were just for the night before their planned activity.

Despite the fact that they wanted to explore the heritage areas, a prospective client from the USA insisted on staying at a beach resort for the duration of their time in Dubai. They would not listen to advice about where to stay for that part of their itinerary to avoid traffic gridlock. The company booked an event planning firm with no experience in Dubai. They had a terrible time and received numerous complaints from employees who were stuck in traffic for hours at a time.

A company from Quebec was interested in dog sledding during their January sales meeting. Although they were advised that it would take 2 hours to travel to an area with enough snow for dog sledding, they insisted on staying at a downtown Toronto hotel instead of at a resort in the Muskokas.

When planning an event, transition times and traffic patterns have to be taken into account. No group will thank you if they end up stuck in gridlock or stuck on a highway because predictable inclement weather has caused a 30 or, heaven forbid, 200 car pile up. It’s much better to encourage clients to plan their arrival and movements for low traffic periods. It’s also a good idea, to split the itinerary between hotels in different areas to give the group more comfortable access to certain attractions and activities.

2. Wrong Season

A prospective client from Asia insisted on an itinerary consisting of beach activities in Oman in July. Firms did not make the shortlist if they advised the company’s representatives that, with temperatures soaring past 40C, the group would be very uncomfortable and there could be significant hot weather health risks for some members of their team.

Two Canadian firms requested a polo clinic for January retreats near Toronto even though local polo clubs had suspended their activities due to the cold.

Another Canadian firm requested an outdoor event with an arctic survival theme in October. They would not consider a wilderness theme that was doable at that time of year.

Do some initial checking to determine if the requested activities are appropriate for the season in which your client will be having their event. Make sure that you give them a realistic picture of what is and isn’t doable in certain locations at specific times of the year. Never compromise group safety just to please a client. You could be held liable if someone suffers illness or injury.

3. Wrong Geography
A firm from the USA would consider no option for dinner other than a beach BBQ in downtown Toronto. They refused to stay at a lakeside resort in the Muskokas for a few days where an outdoor BBQ would have been more practical and enjoyable. They also rejected the Toronto Island location that was recommended. They seemed determined to have their dinner near the beach downtown, despite the pollution, smell, and risk that the garbage strike would not be over by the time they arrived in Toronto.

A European firm insisted on travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto by helicopter, even though they were advised by a number of firms that this would be very expensive and not as practical as taking the Shinkansen.

Make sure that you give your clients solid advice and point out things they may have missed. It is important for you to have the integrity to advise clients that their preferred activity is a poor fit for the season or location and encourage them to either change the activity or change the date of their event.

4. Wrong Timeframe
This is such a regular occurrence that examples are probably not needed. Suffice it to say that many organizations insist on subjecting employees to wall-to-wall speakers well into the afternoon. Then, they try to cram team activities into a short timeframe when everyone is exhausted. No amount of input from the event planner or facilitator will get them to modify their plans.

When groups feel rushed and pressured and they are too tired to enjoy the event, this will reflect poorly on you as the event planner. To avoid making a wrong move, encourage your clients to either cut content or increase the length of their conference or programme to realistically incorporate all desired activities. They may end up spending a little bit more money but you’ll end up with attendees who are pleased instead of frustrated and resentful.

5. Wrong Budget
A regular occurrence in the event planning industry is awarding business to firms that low ball their quotes. This usually happens because their budget is just too low.

Just this week, a Toronto firm called and requested a recreational event for a team of 14. They expected to pay less than $1000.

A couple of days later, another Toronto firm requested a recreational event for a team of 18. All that they had budgeted was $75 per person INCLUDING taxes.

It’s time for a reality check. As a general rule of thumb to give your clients, let them know that the smaller their group, the higher the price per person they should expect to pay. If a group is small, they should not be expecting to pay any where near under $100 per person.
Let your prospective clients know that, when their budget is unrealistic, they are setting themselves up for something similar to the bait and switch technique used in retail. It gets played out in 1 of 2 ways:

- corners are cut and the event is watered down significantly (e.g. a scavenger hunt is provided when an Amazing Race was booked).

- once planning is well underway “unforeseen items” that jack up the budget are identified and its too late to switch event planners.

At the end of the day, when the event doesn’t work well and they’ll be the ones who will be embarrassed every time they have to face their co-workers.

Event Planning: Let’s Get Real
Especially in this economy, there will always be competitors that will take a company’s money and give them exactly what they ask for…. even if it isn’t realistic or practical. It’s great for a client to have ideas and a vision for their event but a reality check from you, an event planning professional that knows your destination, is vital. br>

How can you avoid the embarrassment of a poorly executed event?

How can you greatly reduce the likelihood that you will be “ripped off”?

You’ll greatly increase the likelihood of planning a successful event if you don’t automatically cave into pressure and tell clients and prospects exactly you want they want to hear. With your next event, keep these 5 wrong moves in mind. Take the time to identify pitfalls and raise a flag of caution when they are considering options that are not advisable. Then, really encourage them to consider taking the advice for which they are paying you. This may cost you some business but the events you organize will be executed much more smoothly.

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