Think about the last event you attended. Was it magical or mediocre?

Now think about your next company event. Are you on track to wow your audience and connect with clients and potential customers?

With company and corporate events, you want to be sure to reach your marketing goals by connecting with your target audience and creating brand awareness. You can even create a more meaningful impact that helps grow your brand through events and experiences that bring the brand to life.

“In 2024, events will revolutionize customer experience by embracing innovation, sustainability, diversity, and impactful brand collaborations,” says Amanda Ma, an EO Los Angeles member and CEO of Innovate Marketing Group. “Beyond entertainment, events aim to be transformative catalysts for positive change, leaving attendees not just entertained but genuinely changed.”

In the dynamic world of event planning, the pursuit of excellence is a constant endeavor. What transforms a good event into an unforgettable experience? How do you captivate attendees and leave a lasting impression?

Amanda hosts the Event UP Podcast to share best practices for hosting memorable events. Drawing from the insights of seasoned professionals in the event industry, here are seven transformative tips from the podcast to help elevate your upcoming events to new heights.  

Leverage unique spaces to offer VIP experiences 

“Finding unique spaces is really valuable now. For significant size events, you are going to need large conference rooms and large event spaces. But what we are finding is that what grabs people’s attention is having more intimate connections with your clients at special, unique types of venues. When you have a wonderful dining experience at a really exclusive venue, that’s going to drive people to come to an event, because not everyone can get to that. It feels exclusive.”  

— Micaela Christophe, Vice President of Bessemer Trust, Episode 55

Transform your event from good to great 

“An event goes from good to great when it creates a memorable experience for attendees. This can be achieved by focusing on the tiniest of details from design elements, engaging activities, and the quality of food and beverage.” 

— Erin Edwards, Director of Marketing and Communication at Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, Episode 54

Curate choices and co-create 

“Two things that we found that can take good events to great are co-creation and curating choice:

• Co-creation: Inviting your audience to have a seat at the table in the design process so you are sure that what you’re offering to them resonates, is meaningful, and matters to them.
• Curating choice: offering optionality, and letting people choose their own adventure. Trusting that people will find their own meaning has been really successful for us.” 

— Katie Chin, award-winning chef, Episode 62

Attendees want immersive experiences  

“People are eager to come back in person. There was a lot done virtually, but now there’s a real need to come back in person. It’s kind of the secret sauce of experiences. If you are having an experience, attendees want to really immerse themselves to feel the experience and be part of the product.” 

— Melissa Cintron-Muñoz, Experiential Events Director with MM2 Media Inc., Episode 59

Help people feel a sense of belonging to become more engaged 

“We are seeing a lot of synchronism around ideas like neural inclusion, and a design practice for belonging, and practical things we can do as event professionals to make people feel a sense of belonging and be more engaged. Different content modalities are leveraging multisensory experiences, color, light, texture, sound, and combining science, art and technology.”  

— Megan Henshall, Global Events Strategic Lead at Google, Episode 63

Lean into the value of in-person events  

“People are finally understanding the importance of events. People understand the value of events. Now that they see how effective they are, now that they see how important they are to building experience, building community, building your customer base, it’s very important.”  

— Venita McLemore, Senior Manager of Public Relations Events at Amazon Web Services, Episode 49

Experiential marketing is another element to add to the marketing mix  

“Experiential is not replacing anything; it’s adding to the marketing mix. We all know that in order to reach the consumer, we need to reach them across the consumer journey and through all of the variable touchpoints. We need to continue to add things as the consumer evolves; we need to catch up with them.”  

— Denise Vitola, VP of Brand Integration at Bayer, Episode 66 

Stay open for the next great idea  

“My advice to all entrepreneurs out there: You cannot live in your little bubble; you need to be out there experiencing things. I feel I can gain inspiration from travel, from songs, the radio, magazines, social media … You have to keep that part of your brain open because you never know where the next great idea might hit you.”  

— Katie Chin, award-winning chef, Episode 62

Through the wisdom shared by these industry experts, we are reminded that the key to unlocking the full potential of events lies in the details, the experiences, and the connections forged. From meticulous attention to design elements to embracing immersive environments, each tip shared serves as a beacon guiding you toward event excellence.  

Remember, it’s not just about hosting an event; it’s about crafting an unforgettable experience that resonates with your attendees long after the curtains close. 

Contributed to EO by Amanda Ma, CEO and founder of Innovate Marketing Group, and host of the Event Up podcast where she interviews industry experts to share their wisdom, tips, and experiences on the latest in events industry news, experiential marketing, corporate culture, and diversity and inclusion.

For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog.