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Marisa Elevating your event doesn’t have to break the bank. There are simple ways that you can bring your event beyond basic to create a more memorable experience for your attendees! That said, there are levels to this and the further you go in complexity, the higher the price. But before you can start adding all of the bells and whistles, step 1 is to identify what your goals are.
Do you want people to be wow-ed by your set? Is there a lot of data attendees need to walk away knowing? Or do you just want your people to look good?
No matter what your event goals are, you need to make sure to figure those out ahead of time. Knowing this will help inform your decisions going forward about elements you may or may not need to include.
Once you figure out what you want your event to accomplish, you can start thinking of ways to bring it to the next level!
When people enter the room, it would be weird for it to be silent! Have something playing, even if it’s just elevator music. It’s one of those small details that’ll change the feel of your event. You can also choose your music based on the vibe of your event. Is it a fun, laid back event where you can play some techy, energizing music? Or do you want it to have a more classy feel with some corporate music? Playing music in the room can change the whole feel of the event, and it’s a simple (and free) add on!
When people enter the room, it would be weird for it to be silent! Have something playing, even if it’s just elevator music. It’s one of those small details that’ll change the feel of your event. You can also choose your music based on the vibe of your event. Is it a fun, laid back event where you can play some techy, energizing music? Or do you want your event to have a more classy feel with some corporate music? Playing music in the room can change the whole feel of the event, and it’s a simple (and free) add on!
For example, one event we worked was capturing behind the scenes at a Sneaker Gala. Everyone was dressed up, but everyone was encouraged to wear their sneakers! When an attendee walks into an event like this, it would be off putting to have classic, corporate type music. This is a perfect example of an event to play something a little more fun and upbeat at.
Lighting is another one of those elements where you don’t realize how much of a difference it makes until you have it. A little bit of lighting goes a long way, and you might be surprised at how much good lighting will help the feel of the event. Even if it’s subtle lighting, it’ll make your event stand out that much more.
If you don’t have lighting, the speakers on stage will, as we like to say, look “stuck in the mud”. Especially if they’re standing in front of black pipe and drape (which we’ll talk more about later…)
Lighting helps separate your subject from the foreground and background. So, if your speakers aren’t lit or if your background isn’t lit, then all of it will look blended together. This is especially true if you are streaming or recording an event and you need the stage to show up well on camera. Without lighting, cameras are essentially useless! There will be film grain on your footage, and it won’t be the best possible product.
For one of our clients, we live stream their quarterly All Hands Meetings from spaces in their office. In this instance, the meeting was being held in the cafeteria. In order to dress it up a little, we added black pipe and drape along with some up-lighting in their company color to make the drapes pop. We then added some lighting directed at the speaker and voila! The end result was a set that looked a lot nicer and more professional than just hosting a meeting in the cafeteria.
Of course, as with everything mentioned in this blog, there are levels to this. In it’s simplest (and cheapest) form, lighting could just be a few small lights pointed at the subject or up-lighting the backdrop. Where lighting gets more complex is when you’re doing a full stage set up. Which brings us to our next list item…
Designing your set could be the difference between your event feeling like a small classroom lecture vs. a complex, well-thought out event. Again, there are levels to the way that you can design your set, but we’ll focus primarily on two of the ways we’ve seen it done with our clients.
Pipe and drape is a simple, inexpensive yet effective way to give your event a cleaner look. All it consists of are some tall pipes with stands that hold up what are essentially curtains, or drapes. Usually black in color, these drapes will help block those weirdly placed exit signs or ugly doors. Pipe and drape can help transform any space into an event space. For example, we’ve produced events for clients in a lecture hall and in a student center TV lounge, and you’d never know by looking at what shows up on camera! Not only is it a nice way to clean up the look, it also helps simplify where you can host your event, especially if it’s a smaller scale event.
At this Tufts University event (pictured below) the location was in a classroom. But we didn’t want it to look and feel like it was being held in a classroom. We dressed up the set with some black pipe and drape, some custom lettering with lighting behind it, some small lights directly underneath the speaker, and bigger lights pointed at the speaker directly. The result was a clean-looking set!
If you’re looking to really wow your audience (and you have a bigger budget) you can create a whole stage set. This could include custom backdrops featuring your branding, lighting on trusses, a stage build, and more. Designing a set like this will really give your event a big conference feel that’ll impress your attendees.
This is what we did for an event in Nashville. This was the first time they were hosting their conference back in person in a few years, so they really wanted their audience to be blown away! We were tasked with transforming a 100 foot long hotel ballroom into a main stage room. We brought in a 32×16′ stage, a 50 foot backdrop with a printed logo, two 20 foot projection screens, and to finish it off, we dressed the stage with white leather chairs and a branded lectern. Although this wasn’t exactly a “basic” way to elevate an event, it includes components pointed out in this blog! Your event doesn’t have to get this complex, but, if you have the resources, this is an extra step you can take to elevate your event.
This blog is by no means a full list of all of the ways to elevate your event, but it’s somewhere to get started! Whether inexpensive and subtle or a little more pricey and complex, there are always ways to help bring your event to the next level.
Want to learn more about how we produce events? Check out our work, and better yet, let’s chat!
Phil & Tyler also had a conversation about this very topic in our latest webinar. Watch it on demand to learn more!
