by Kristin Healy | Sep 26, 2022 | blog
Events have many moving parts, and getting your attendees to smoothly locate and move throughout your venue is vital. Swank Events can help your company create impactful signage that can offer more than just directional value!
This summer we were apart of IntelyCare’s Summer Outing at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Larger venues like this can be tricky to navigate and can lead to your participants getting lost. Signage is the most overlooked and forgotten ingredient in a successful event because of their plain nature. Corporate events especially, have the ability to form employee comradery and lose the formality of the work environment. An easy way to do this is with décor, and it is easy to include your signage in that vision.
Allegro Photography
Create a Welcome Sign to help the attendees know they have found the correct location and are not wandering around the property. The Welcome Sign is the first touch point that guests will interact with, and it is important to make a good impression. Include eye-catching colors and branded material to ensure that your guests can easily find it. At this event we added company colored balloons next to each sign, keeping the overall theme in contact.
Allegro Photography
Swank Events created the concept of using different sports quotes on each sign leading the guests to the main event. Using these signs as touch points rather than arrows was our way of promoting the company’s core values and also carrying through the theme of “We are the Champions.” Signage can look and represent anything you want!
Event Planning Tip: After determining the placement of your signs, be sure to walk through the venue as if you were a guest. You’ll want to ensure that the location of your signage provides the most benefit for your attendees and serves it’s purpose, whether that be wayfinding or decorative.
by Kristin Healy | Apr 25, 2018 | blog
On Friday evening, we had the pleasure of assisting with the Boston Executive Assistants (BEA) Annual Buzz Bash at the AC Marriott Hotel in Boston. This incredible group was formed by Vanessa Farinojust under two years ago and is made up of 1,000 brilliant, fun, welcoming women and men who are very supportive of one another. As stated on its website, “BEA is an organization that promotes the collaboration of Executive Assistants in the Greater Boston Area and unites them in a forum where like-minded and determined professionals come together to network and empower each other through shared professional experiences.”
And at Friday’s event, they did just that! The evening began with networking and Partner table exhibits. Once in the main room, Vanessa said a few words and then each person introduced themselves. Yes, you read that right, all 75 attendees said who they were, where they worked and something unique about them.We were in awe and completely inspired by these women and men – not to mention their fun facts were AH-MAZING.
Then Bonnie Low-Kramen, International speaker and former assistant to Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis gave a talk that was nothing short of empowering. Through her words, Bonnie encouraged the audience to find their voice, to request proper training that will allow them excel in their role as an EA and to help others understand that being an administrative assistant is a wonderful career, not just a stepping stone.
As event planners, we have a special appreciation for executive assistants, because we know that you are often asked to plan the company events on top of your already full workload – and what a daunting task. To those who find themselves in this situation, let us help!
Today and every day, we say thank you to all of the administrative assistants – we know how much you do and we appreciate you. We know the executives you support would be lost without you. And we are here to make your job easier! Contact us today!
Lights courtesy of Your Love in Lights
by Kristin Healy | Mar 30, 2018 | blog
Maybe you want to deliver some exciting news about your business.
Maybe you want to bring in potential customers to learn more about what you do.
Maybe you are giving your employees important training for their work.
Whatever your intention is for your event, you need to have a plan to get people excited to be there with you.
Here are several points to be clear on when getting your message out to your intended audience:
- Value of the event: What will people walk away with?
- Importance that they attend: Why you can offer what no one else can?
- Engagement while there: What will they do, experience and have fun with?
Then you must have a method for reaching your attendees and building the excitement and value around your event.
- Email marketing is a solid way of inviting, reminding and building your messaging around a trade show, company meeting, training or party
- Social Media can build an audience and the excitement level with planned promotions, sneak peeks and special offers for attendees
- Visibility on your website will also build awareness to anyone visiting – employees, vendors, customers & potential customers
Even if your event is a mandatory meeting for your employees or a vendor appreciation party – there should still be a clear communication plan that will create excitement for the event, so that people will want to be there. It may seem strange to market to a captive audience, but having a crowd that is open and receptive to your presentation vs. wishing they were anywhere but there is clear indicator of success.
Having a dedicated team and budget for building event attendance, media coverage and engagement is a crucial factor in making your event a success by whatever methods of measurement you chose to use. Hiring a professional event planner to take on the logistics of planning & running the day could free up your internal resources to allow them to drive attendance and marketing around the event.
Post-event, what are you going to do to keep the goodwill going? Having a post-event marketing plan is important to cash-in on the momentum your event built to acquire new customers or customer loyalty, positive employee engagement and get people excited for your next big happening!
by Kristin Healy | Mar 15, 2018 | blog
From background music during cocktail hour to post-dinner dance party, music plays an important role in the success of your event. We sat down with DJ Jon Wiley to learn more about just how critical this element is and the role of a DJ at your event.
Jon Wiley
Everyone knows a DJ’s job is to provide music, but as behind-the-scenes professionals, we know there’s much more to it. So, what else does a good DJ do at an event?
“A good DJ is paying attention to what is working for the guests through physical cues,” says Jon. “What music is making people bob their heads or tap their feet. Usually you have a playlist prepped, but you will need to adjust based on what the guests are connecting with or what is being requested.”
From your perspective, how do the event planner and DJ successfully collaborate on an event? In your experience, has an event planner been an important partner to you?
“A good Planner is instrumental in making sure that the client’s expectations are being met and we’re all on the same page. Also, the Event Planner can suggest add-on things like up-lighting, video screens and dance floor lighting that can liven up an event significantly. The goal is to make the client happy and all of those things can help elevate the evening.”
How much preparation goes into an event for you?
“At least 4 hours of music prep – and that’s not including emailing the client back and forth. There is usually a ‘Don’t play’ list, familiar favorites I will suggest, setting the mood and then mixing up the decades from there. If the event has a specific theme or time period representation, like a ‘Great Gatsby’ party, then it becomes challenging to find music and prep time increases.”
DJ Jon Wiley working a Great Gatsby party!
Any other tips in working with a DJ on a company event?
“Keep it current and the DJ will make the event as fun as possible. A top DJ will ‘work’ the party and your guests will be pleasantly surprised to have a good time!”
We’d like to thank Jon for his time and for sharing some great insight when working with a DJ on an event. Some key takeaways: trust your DJ to read people and adjust music accordingly, event planners are essential (hire Swank today!) and stick with current tunes and rely on your DJ to handle the rest!
Contact us for more tips regarding music at your next event.
by Kristin Healy | Mar 7, 2018 | blog
Professional Event Planners, like those at Swank Events, can offer your company more than just great suggestions on venues and caterers for your next splashy corporate event; they can become an extension of your team to help manage logistics of events ranging from large holiday parties and summer gatherings to some of your smaller, more routine events like monthly meetings!
Swank Events is currently working with a customer to manage all of the details surrounding their monthly executive meetings including booking the venue and determining the menu based on attendees; BUT Swank is also sending out invites and tracking RSVP’s to take that task off of the business. “It helps streamline the planning process and frees that client up to focus on their business instead of worrying about the room setup and what their attendees will eat that evening.” says Swank’s owner, Kristin Healy.
Going above and beyond is the hallmark of a great Event Planner, but integrating with your business team to help coordinate small events like monthly meetings to complex multi-day conferences, Swank Events sets itself apart and is here for you!
