2023 Wrapped: DCi’s Top Event Highlights From This Year
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houghtful culinary offerings, fabulous cocktails, eye-catching decor, and bespoke lighting — all of these elements are essential to a successful event, but what makes a gathering truly stick in people’s minds is what they actually do while they’re there. Creating an immersive environment is one part of the equation; the other is enlivening the atmosphere with entertaining activities. When guests feel engaged in some way, those are the moments they’ll likely remember long after the event is over.
That’s why, when it comes to planning events, DCi puts extra focus on designing the right activities for guests to enjoy. As one of the country’s premier destination management companies, DCi’s event production team pulls out all the stops to dream up experiences that are original, personalized, and distinctive — itineraries that make every guest feel like they’re part of something special. Looking to do the same at your event? Here, our event-planning pros share a few ways they work their magic, plus some standout event activity ideas to inspire your own.
1. Get Moving
Whether it’s a team scavenger hunt or a mini beachside tournament, adding games into the equation brings people together, provides a topic for conversation, and gets the dopamine flowing. For example, for a Palm Springs event curated for an incentive group of 25, DCi offered custom golf fittings for each attendee — a personalized experience in which an expert with TaylorMade fit the players’ clubs to their unique physical characteristics, style, and swing. The group left the fittings feeling confident, inspired, and ready to get out on the green — our next activity!
Weaving motorsport-inspired activities is another way to keep your guests on the edge of their seats. Think: an off-road adventure experience, a driving simulation tournament, or even just a scenic drive in a classic car. During one standout experience, we treated a group to an exhilarating exotic-car driving experience in the Napa Valley, followed by a visit to a world-class sporting clay course. Guests cruised in high-performance vehicles from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Aston Martin, and more, and then headed to a premier sporting clay course to shoot clay targets across the forested terrain.
2. Give Back and Pay It Forward
The best event activities incorporate experiences that are not only fun but also meaningful. Activities focused around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) bring a new layer of depth to an event — mainly because they create impact on multiple levels: for employees, for the company, and for the community. Whether it’s for 25 or 500 guests, these types of hands-on activities not only allow attendees to contribute to causes that matter, but they also create great bonding opportunities for everyone on the guest list.
During a recent CSR giveback activity designed by our team, attendees took a private tour of a farm on native grounds; this included a visit to a demonstration garden filled with plants and vegetables that are indigenous to the land and area. After the tour, they participated in a workshop that guided them through weaving their own dreamcatchers, while learning about its sacred significance in native culture. For another team-building event, participants constructed farm boxes to be filled with local produce and delivered to area families through the support of the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission.
3. Savor the Flavors
The legendary chef James Beard once said, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” Keyword: experience — it’s not just about the consumption, as nice as that part can be. Elevate your next event by arranging a cooking class with a local chef or curating a mini “Great British Bake Off” competition (consider no-bake recipes if you don’t have enough oven space to go around). Also consider: curated food-and-wine tasting experiences, global street food festivals, and mixology workshops.
DCi’s recent culinary-focused event experiences included a VIP chef experience, in which guests were treated to a captivating cooking demonstration by Chef Claudia Sandoval, winner of the sixth season of MasterChef. With their appetites whetted, attendees proceeded to a delectable three-course lunch. Another example: For a three-day Napa Valley program for top wine producers and their guests, our team planned a unique wine event for each day. The group also participated in customized wine tastings at local wineries, daytime excursions throughout the region, and exclusive dining experiences in special settings — including a vineyard and an intimate wine cave.
4. Meet Me at the Fair
There’s something both magical and nostalgic about a carnival; it’s like stepping backward in time and into our childhoods. At DCi, some of our best event activities have featured our designers’ unique takes on the classic county fair. In one of our most exciting projects to date, our team organized a wine and culinary carnival on a private Napa Valley estate — complete with a Ferris wheel, wine tastings, and whimsical decor. To bring the setting to life, we included carnival games and rides, fair food with a Napa-inspired spin, and strolling entertainment like fortune-tellers, jugglers, and unicyclists.
On another occasion, our client wanted to say a massive thank-you to the 1,900-member sales team at their annual sales conference in San Diego with something fun, novel, and totally memorable. So we went big with a beachside carnival in Belmont Park, featuring a rollercoaster, traditional (but elevated) fair food, a “strongman” game, and so much more. Buying out the neighboring Beach Club meant that attendees could comfortably and conveniently retreat to their rooms after the festivities were over.
5. Party All the Time
Work-related or not, every event should feel like a party (at least in our view). Our event production team is dedicated to making corporate events feel like vacations, and this means building in lots of time for activities that create a sense of celebration — just like we did at several recent events. For example, when we were approached by a large tech company to help get its new brand message out, we came up with the idea of taking over a whole city block for a lively block party and product expo. The five-day event involved interactive features, vibrant decor, and entertainment.
By contrast, for a sales force in Palm Springs, we went for a (literally) immersive experience — a pool party with an underwater photo booth and swings above the water. The event also included other interactive activities, like hot-air balloon rides, wellness clinics, and a silent dance party in a museum. Whether it’s a high-energy celebration or something a little more laidback and relaxing, our team always strives to spark a sense of joy and connection through well-planned experiences and activities that go a step beyond the ordinary.
Excited to curate your own activities-focused event? Contact our team to start planning something spectacular.
