12 Office Party Themes for Every Month of the Year

You know the saying “An office that plays together, stays together.” Well, here to keep the fun rolling in your workplace are 12 carefully selected office party themes for every month of the year.

Allowing staff to have fun together can promote teamwork and serve as a bonding experience. Group activities improve communication between employees and even between executives and employees. Not to mention, fun breeds creativity and when your company is known as a fun one, it can help recruit new hires. The list of benefits goes on and on. So grab your calendar and start plotting some serious office fun!

January: Centering in the New Year

January can be a tricky time to host a party. Most people have indulged over the holiday season and may simply be tired of the festivities. However, it would be welcomed if employees were able to start the new year on a different note, with their employer catering to them. Bring in a caterer to set up a smoothie bar and Starbucks in the morning. Surprise them with a mid-morning guided meditation break. Announce that everyone must leave 2 hours early after a particularly stressful meeting. Catering to your employees will not only give folks a healthy start to the new year, but show your appreciation in advance of a great year ahead.

February: Winter Olympics

We can’t believe it’s been 4 years since we wrote about hosting an Olympics office party for Sochi. Don’t let the Olympians have all the winter fun! Go for the gold at the office with an Olympic office party theme this month. Have different departments choose a country and begin setting up an Office olympics extravaganza. Your tournament bracket could include everything from desktop bean bag toss to trash can basketball. Don’t forget the gold, silver and bronze medals: something your employees will treasure as bragging rights for years to come.

March: Naughty Leprechaun

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th in 2018, but hold the green beer. This can be a wonderfully fun holiday with games, food and tricks. Queue the fiddle music and set up the greatest scavenger hunt your company’s campus has ever seen. A scavenger hunt is great to get office workers around the nooks and crannies of your workplace, and allow them to see how the other half lives (or works). Just be sure to include a pot of gold at the end!

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Why Your Sales Activation Plan Should Involve a Live Experience

A live experience can be a dynamic component of a sales activation plan. While your plan should include a marketing mix of high impact ideas, one such idea is a live experience. Engaging with a targeted group in a real-life, live experience, can aid your sales activation plan in ways that are hands-on, participatory and measurable. Besides, what is better than face-to-face interaction? 

Planning

Think about who you would like to reach with your experience. Are you looking to engage a large number of former customers who may have gone ignored? If this is your target audience, then past sales data can reveal telling information on how to re-engage them. On the other hand, are you looking to engage a small group of influencers? These individuals may not have a history of your company but through proper engagement can help spread your message through their ample networks.

Goals

Live experience goals are two-pronged. First, you want to engage with your audience emotionally by bringing the brand to the consumer in a way that creates an experience. This experience not only builds an emotional connection with your audience, it will also position the brand within the mind of the consumer, therefore, setting your product apart from the competition.

Secondly, you want to push sales. There are a few strategies that are used to encourage product purchase and drive sales. This is a part of your sales activation plan, after all. Through brand education, brand engagement, and interaction, people can experience the brand for the first time in a well-rounded way. Equally important, past clients who are familiar with the brand may be experiencing the brand in a whole new manner. Make sure there is plenty of opportunity for purchase during the live experience. Customized promotions and loyalty/motivation programs can be great tactics to drive sales.

Measure Engagement

During the planning phase, set up a number of metrics that you would like to track during your live event. The information gathered during this stage can help with the other aspects of your sales activation plan. Of course, you are tracking sales, so follow sales numbers closely in real time. Similarly, there are other items that are important. For example, email capture or contact information shared can be great indicators of audience engagement, as well as useful additions to your sales force.

Modify/Replicate

If your live experience was a success in terms of sales and other metrics, consider replicating it. After all, success is always worth replicating. If there is an area in need of improvement, try to alter details to reach the intended outcome.

For more information on successful live experiences and sales activation plans, please contact us at Strategic Event Design.

New Event Technology for 2018

New Event Technology trends for 2018 would show that the sky is virtually the limit. If you can imagine it happening, it probably already is. These changes are not only assisting event planners with their jobs, new event technology is providing the attendee with better and more memorable experiences.

AR-Indoor Navigation

Beacon technology, sometimes referred to as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), has brought navigation indoors. For an attendee inside a trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, this means they can now navigate hallways, meeting spaces and booth to booth. This hyper-navigation is going a step further with Augmented Reality (AR) by super-imposing a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the event, either through their phone or a set of glasses. This not only gives attendees step-by-step steering through the event but includes gamification options, as well as the possibility of interactive booths, logos and displays.

Chatbot

Some may look back on 2017 as the year of the chatbot revolution. You can think of a chatbot as an app that interacts in a conversational way, usually through text messaging. During events, a chatbot may provide on-demand scheduling information, directions, feedback and surveys. You can also use them to search for speakers, break-out sessions, exhibits and more. Chatbots typically have audio capabilities but text is preferred for crowded conferences and large spaces.

Online Booking of Direct Meeting Space

The traditional way of booking a meeting space is being replaced by online Airbnb-style apps. Once upon a time, a meeting space was booked through an event center with a sales contact and a negotiated contract. Now there are at least one dozen online platforms to book your next meeting with new booking apps popping up all the time. There truly is a venue-finding app for every meeting. For example, the app EventUp has facilities across the country and includes hotels as well; were as Meetingsbooker specializes in smaller meetings up to 40 people, in 70,000 venues across the globe.

As we wrote about in a previous blog, the sharing economy has affected the events industry. But these DIY options aren’t for everyone. Nothing can replace the experience and expertise that comes with a professional event planner.

Snap Mask

For a photo-sharing alternative to Snapchat, check out Eventtag’s new app called Snap Mask. Snap Mask is a facial-recognition app that offers users a Snapchat-like filter for attendees taking selfies at events. Anyone can use Snap Mask, you don’t have to have the Snapchat app or an account. Planners can design filters and add sponsor logos and unique hashtags and the app can be loaded onto any tablet used at an event. Attendees choose their filter, snap their photos or video and then share via text or email.

These are just a few of the new event technology trends that we are excited about. For more information on using technology at your next event, contact us at Strategic Event Design.