Can walking tours, treasure hunts, endurance feats, festivals, and talent shows rub shoulders with award ceremonies, celebrations, team competitions, and sports days when we think of business and corporate events? Events in the morning, like a breakfast briefing, have gained prominence since they enable reaching out to an audience who would otherwise be unavailable due to office timings and other engagements. But can some out-of-the-box formats create their charm? Here we will look at 5 unconventional event ideas.
Starting with the more conventional formats … Award Ceremonies and Celebrations Award ceremonies act as morale boosters, charging up employees and teams. They offer opportunities to recognise and to reward – your vendors, your partners, and of course your employees. Bringing together people, celebrations may honour an individual, a group effort, or that partnership you cherish. You can celebrate your company’s anniversary, the reaching of a significant landmark, achieving a tough sales target against a difficult schedule. They can be for many things. Team Competitions and Sports Days Cricket, that game which stirs up the whole country or a fun-filled session of the rigorous football – both offer tremendous opportunities to bring your employees together. Group engagements in sports go a long way to foster and build team spirit and the sense of competition. You can add a further dash of fun and entertainment by holding an award ceremony for the winner and runners-up teams – as they say, create a ‘win-win’ situation. Now, planned corporate occasions hold special significance for a company. But it involves detailed planning, often spread over months and requiring event planning vendors and services. Let us have a quick look at some popular corporate and business events – their nature and format. While a Conference is seen as a formal meeting for discussion, debate, and consultation, in an Executive Retreat, employees generally meet at an offsite location to discuss, attend seminars, participate in team-building activities, etc. A meeting of the general membership of an organization, an Annual Meet (or Annual General Meeting, AGM) is held to conduct business on behalf of the company including making important decisions regarding the organization, informing the members of previous and future activities, etc. Bringing together employees for a shared experience, a Family Day is often part of a staff motivation programme, to reward employees, or to celebrate company success. Can an executive retreat or a family day embrace out-of-the-ordinary events? Can a conference include a fun event during break time? There is, of course, a world of opportunity to make your event memorable. This is how … Walking Tours You can walk for a particular cause (promoting education, food-for-all, and clean environment, among others) or you can walk for personal wellness. For a corporate gathering, walking can be a great group event. The exercise, led by an expert, can take the group to historical places of interest, on a tour of a particular area of the city, or the immediate vicinity of the office. Walking tours hold great potential for building interpersonal relationships, boosting communication, and developing team spirit. And, involve your vendors and partners as well. Treasure Hunts and Survival Feats Look for that missing piece to complete the puzzle, search for the final block to complete the building game, put your minds together to think out where the final link is – great exercises to get people working together. Or work out survival or endurance events where your employees (or teams) can complete against oneself and against groups. Most common would be running, but why not cycling or swimming. Festivals and Talent Shows
Festivals or a series of shows and concerts at the same or rotating venue and spread over 2-3 days can be a great business event. They can be on any subject: from sculpture to literature to music to films. Apart from employees, now invite your partners and vendors. On the other hand, in a talent show, your employees can compete and demonstrate their abilities in front of peers and seniors. A creative way to bolster cohesive forces in your office. Ideas are fine, but where to look for vendors? Now you can access a host of opportunities to plan your corporate or business event via Flikeve, a resourceful online event planning hub. Catering to a range of needs, budgets, and styles, Flikeve brings anything and everything related to event planning on one dedicated platform to offer a unique, personalized, do-it-yourself experience. Whether you need to celebrate achievement, market a company, build business relationships, commemorate a special occasion, or raise funds, there is Flikeve.