The Definitive Guide To Planning A Dinner & Dance, Part 3
*This is a 5 part series detailing the various different things to note while preparing for a Dinner & Dance, not just in Singapore, but internationally as well. These points are arranged chronologically, according to order of importance. A link to the full article will be included at the end of the last installment. *
4. The Theme
Possibly one of the processes that takes the longest time to complete. Of course some of you would say it’s not really that difficult to decide on a theme, especially if the committee already has a couple of ideas they are exploring. Well, confirming the theme to follow is one part of the work, the other bigger part of the work is realizing the theme with the right visuals, design, and decorations.
Say your committee and yourself have a few ideas for themes and would like the EO to submit a proposal based on the themes. for each suggested theme the EO should be able to come out with sample designs for backdrops and invites — with rationale — so that you can see and understand the choice of creative direction. Being a creative agency ourselves, we tend to offer a few options for the clients to choose from for each proposed them, with different creative directions, so that we can obtain better and more accurate feedback from you about which particular option you like better and prefer to move forward with. This helps immensely in terms of shortening the whole design process as compared to other event companies who don’t have a strong design team. Posters, Invites, Microsite Banners, etc. does a lot in building up buzz for the event prior to the event, and provides a very clear direction to attendees on what to expect at the event, what to dress up as, when and where the event would be held, and how grand the scale of the function would be. The worst start any D&D can have is if attendee’s interest is lackluster due to poorly designed marketing collaterals. Attendance could be affected, and so could your staff’s willingness to dress up in themed costumes to attend. What you want is a buzz of excitement around the office with everyone discussing costumes to rent, characters to come in, even synchronised outfits for the whole table, and the right visuals will help you achieve exactly that.
After the theme or key visual has been decided on, the adaptation for the posters, emailers, microsite banners, etc can begin. Posters are especially important to build hype for the event around the office. Certain well placed posters in the pantry and at the entrances/exits can lead to more chatter about the event and keep the excitement build up going. Emailers sent to those who are working off-site is important because you don’t want them to feel left out.
5. A Microsite
We would normally have a microsite done up for our dinner and dance clients so as to facilitate information dissemination with regards to the event. Otwo’s microsite also functions as a registration site so staff can log on and indicate whether they are able to attend the event. With a simple online form, we are able to obtain data like dietary preferences, contact details, names, photos, etc — all within the Data Protection regulations of the company of course — and then categorise this data so as to make it easier to provide updates not just to the organising committee, but also to the venue as well. Since there are many ways to customise the microsite, I won’t be touching on it too much here as it probably deserves an article of its own. Simply put though, once the designs for the emailer and the posters are done, the adaptation for the microsite would begin, and so would the information uploading ( event schedule, talent and emcee profile, talent competition details, location information, program highlights ).
As you can see from the visual, there are many categories that you can add to the site, depending on the program for the night. One of the great things about Otwo’s version of the microsite is the inclusion of the Lucky draw tab, which simplifies the whole lucky draw process which could get very complicated if you have a large number of attendees (anything from 500 above). With the lucky draw tab, draws can be conducted off stage or on stage, with the results immediately updated onto the microsite. So even if the attendee is in the toilet, or too absorbed in the fun and festivities outside the hall, a simple check on the microsite would keep everyone up to date on the winners and allow any missed winners to come to stage side to redeem their prizes once they are more predisposed to.
Once final checks on the design and the information on the site has all been done, the microsite would then go live. Another emailer with the microsite log in details would be sent out to all staff to get the registration process going and also to provide the initial burst of information to them. As an added security feature, we can also design the website to be password protected, with the staff’s ID number as part of the required log in info. This is to ensure the information on the microsite is accessible only by staff within the company.
As the event date gets nearer, further emailers or information updates can be sent out to all attending staff using the information gathered through the microsite. For example, seating information can be disseminated prior to the event, depending on whether seats would be assigned, or free. Costumes ideas could also be updated onto the microsite so attendees have a better idea of what costumes to rent. Otwo is normally able to offer our clients discounted rates for costume rentals from our partnered costume shops as part of our value added service. This goes a long way towards helping attendees save on time, effort and money when it comes to costume selection. For clients with large pax numbers, we could even arrange for a costume truck to head down to the client’s location to make it even easier for staff to select the costumes they want!
- stay tuned for the fourth part to find out what the 6th and 7th steps are!*
- Here is the link for the first part and second parts if you missed it!
