2023 Wrapped: DCi’s Top Event Highlights From This Year
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f you’re tasked with hosting a one-day appreciation event for your employees and your mind immediately goes to those same old ideas, like bringing in lunch or passing out free t-shirts, listen up. Your team members work hard, and the way you show gratitude can go a lot further in motivating them in their careers — especially if you think outside the (takeout) box.
Helping our clients shower their employees with gratitude is one of our favorite tasks at DCi. We always work to raise the bar with activities designed to surprise, delight, and give team members the chance to truly relax for the day. Want to give them a day (off) to remember? Here are five tips — plus some real-life examples — for creating an appreciation day they’ll remember forever.
1. Completely Transform the Space
If you’re getting your employees out of the office for a day, it’s important to make sure there isn’t a cubicle in sight. Instead, transform the space into a fantasy-for-a-day that will take them far away from meetings and to-do lists. Off-site events come with the advantage of physical separation from work, but even if your event is in the HQ parking lot, it’s still possible to whisk them away to a world of fun and entertainment.
Our Take:
When selecting the theme and decor for our clients, we start by understanding the attendees. We ask questions about the type of work they do, their typical office setting, the total company size, and more to get a clear picture of what their everyday life looks like. Then we ask ourselves: How do we take them somewhere brand new for a day? Based on our clients’ needs, we’ve transformed cafeterias into all-you-can-eat smorgasbords, basketball courts into kid-friendly playgrounds (complete with padded floors), and lawns into music festival grounds.
2. Go Big Across the Board
Treat your employees like VIPs with amazing food, drinks, activities, entertainment, and gifts that they would never expect. Imagine the impact of a live band rocking out in the center courtyard of an otherwise quiet office campus, or a ring of food trucks offering culinary experiences like mobile bars, creation stations, and plenty of chairs and tables to go around.
When it comes to gifts, craft unique and meaningful thank-you packages that go beyond the usual pens, keychains, or t-shirts. Don’t limit yourself to tangible items, either. What would your employees appreciate the most? Gifts like locally made treats, extra vacation days, or tickets for nearby attractions for them and their families will help them create lasting memories.
Our Take:
Summer Fest, a day-long employee event we designed for a longtime client in Thousand Oaks, California, transformed otherwise drab parking spaces into a roaring festival for 5,000 people — complete with carnival rides and games, high-end food trucks, and a host of live performers. The centerpiece of this event was a unique dining experience that included an Airstream mobile bar serving signature cocktails, a station for creating your own loaded fries, and even a shaved ice machine for cooling off in the California heat.
For the annual Employee Internal Meeting at a law firm, guests were greeted by a bevy of entertainment options, including wandering magicians and mentalists, a glass engraver who created personalized souvenirs, an acoustic duo, an immersive VR experience, and even an aura photographer. At day’s end, we sent employees home with gift bags stuffed full of goodies like handcrafted gummy bears, boutique popcorn, and gourmet cupcakes and cookies.
3. Focus on the Logistical Details
For an all-day event to be memorable, it needs to go off without a hitch — despite all the moving parts behind the scenes. One of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make upfront is finding a venue large enough for all of your employees and their families. If your campus doesn’t have a large gathering space, consider taking everyone off-site — especially if there’s a local attraction or venue that’s popular.
From there, you’ll need to dig into the details of the venue, including size and space constraints, doorway sizes, required permits, access to electricity and internet, staffing rules and regulations, parking for your guests, layouts, and travel time for off-site locations.
Our Take:
One of the most crucial aspects of ensuring an event runs smoothly is understanding the parking area and event access points. For a recent event, we had three access points and three parking lots to avoid bottlenecks (both on foot and in vehicles) — as well as a mobile app, clear signage and key directional signs that made it easy for guests to navigate the space.
4. Communicate Early and Often With Your Guests
Even if you have a few surprises up your sleeve, party guests are always more comfortable when they know the basics of an event before they arrive. Details like parking, directions, and maps are key in ensuring everyone makes their way into, out of, and around the venue with ease. Information like weather forecasts, entertainment, dining options, alcohol policies, and any activities with a set time and place will help them carefully plan their day and guarantee they don’t miss out on anything.
Our Take:
We advise our clients to find a balance between sharing information well in advance and closer to the event. Essential details like date, time, location, and RSVP should be communicated as early as possible and across multiple channels — so that everyone can make their calendars. In the days leading up to the event, consider dropping little hints and teasers about what’s in store for your guests. This will get them excited. Finally, be sure all of the information is in a centralized location and easy to find (like an employee intranet).
5. Solicit Feedback
This advice applies to any aspect of business: When the event draws to a close, ask your guests for their feedback. What were their favorite parts? Did they have pain points along the way? What did they think of the food, beverage, entertainment, and gifts? When you receive the answers, look for trends and repeated comments — those are your best indicators for what to double-down on (or refine) for the next event. Take it a step further and ask the staff, vendors, and entertainers the same questions. This will help you grow the event across the board in the future.
Our Take:
Soliciting client feedback has been one of the cornerstones of our growth and experience as a premier event-planning company. Over the years, we’ve listened and learned what works, what doesn’t and how to think big when it comes to events. When it comes to planning memorable employee appreciation events, we suggest communicating with your team members and finding out what they actually enjoy and looking forward to. Gathering this key information will help you — and us as your partners! — organize an event they won’t soon forget.
We hope that these ideas have inspired you to plan your next event at HQ. Reach out to our team to get the ball rolling.
