5 Tips for Choosing a Winning Theme

Meetings come in all shapes and sizes. As meeting and event planners, we’ve planned a full gamut of meetings ranging from clinical to commercial and every meeting in between. Whether it be a sales meeting for a team of regional staff, an annual conference, or a President’s Club for employee recognition, we know what works. We’ve found that with just a few additional creative measures, you can create a more memorable meeting experience for your attendees, exceed your meeting goals, and foster connectivity among your group that will garner an impressive return.

In our previous post, we explored how themes can enhance the overall meeting experience for your attendees. Today we deep dive into how to best select a winning theme. Gracie Fisher, CMP, Global Conference Director for Miller Tanner, lends her expertise with these 5 suggestions:

1). Align your meeting theme with the greater objective and vision.

Your meeting theme should be directly aligned with the greater objective and vision. If your themes are intentional, purposeful and meaningful, your attendees will embrace the themes and see the program sponsors as also authentic in their objective and purpose.

 2). Choose a theme that can grow.

Branding, theme, and objective are fluid and symbiotic. Each translates into multiple products and each depends on the other to drive home a unified program. With this in mind, choose a theme that is elastic and can expand to accommodate for growth.

3). Choose a theme based on more than aesthetics.

When developing a brand or theme, choose a theme based on more than the aesthetic. Themes should have vertical possibility allowing them to tie into presentations, products, programming, etc. This will create an environment that stimulates the attendees to align themselves with the messaging. They’ll be more likely to see the value of the investment of their time and participation.

 4). Consider the attendees’ perspectives.

Think about your theme from the perspective of an attendee who has no insider information. Is the theme clear? Is it inviting? Does it inspire confidence, participation, and unity? Would you walk away understanding the objectives of the meeting after the program’s end?

By being mindful of your attendees’ perspective, you can design a more cohesive theme to support your overall goals for the meeting.

5). Have fun and dream big.

Brainstorm! Great collaboration always comes forward from imperfect ideas being shared and refined. You may find a gem.

From an event planner’s perspective, it’s helpful to dream out loud with our clients first without being consumed with logistics and to speak to what’s possible, shape a dream collaboratively and ultimately bring those ideas toward the vision.

We can make your next event memorable in every way. We’ll transform your ideas into a winning theme and design a meeting that exceeds all expectations.

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