An awards ceremony provides the perfect opportunity to recognise your employee’s achievements. Furthermore, these events offer far reaching benefits to organisations who are committed to employee engagement.
As a creative events management company, we understand the special ingredients that will positively promote your brand, and leave a lasting impression for all the right reasons.
OUR TOP TIPS FOR ORGANISING A SUCCESSFUL AWARDS CEREMONY
Planning an awards ceremony can be an immense undertaking, therefore we have suggested five top tips to ensure that your awards ceremony provides a moment to remember for all the right reasons.
TIP 1: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
As with all events, choosing a venue is a key ingredient to hosting a successful awards ceremony, which requires forward planning and research.
Firstly, check your calendar to ensure that your event does not clash with any other major events in your industry, and holidays. Try and book your venue at least six months in advance, so you can develop a timeline.
One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a suitable venue is location, location, location. You need to understand the demographics of your guests, and where they’re coming from. Ideally, the chosen venue needs to be centrally located, but functional.
Also, you need to ensure that the venue creates the right impression to your guests, and that the venue space is suitable for your proposed numbers and production needs.
It is always worth taking the time to research suitable venues before committing. Take your time to understand how the event space will work, and assess how your awards evening will flow with your guests. If you need help finding a venue, why not use our free venue source service, click here for more info.
TIP 2: AWARDS CEREMONY PRODUCTION
When planning an awards ceremony, creative event production will give your event that wow factor from the moment your guests arrive.
To create a sense theatre for your awards ceremony, careful consideration and planning is required to ensure that you engage with the audience.
Therefore, you should allocate a significant proportion of your budget towards the production. This doesn’t mean you need to have a huge budget, but you will need to be creative.
Your plans should therefore cover all aspects production including set design, sound, video and lighting. We have another blog here (‘Event Design – The Rules’) about event design and which aspects are important to create a stunning event.
TIP 3: AWARDS HOST
Another top tip when planning an awards ceremony is the selection of your awards host. A great awards host to head up your evening is worth their weight in gold, when it comes to planning a memorable awards evening to ensure your event runs smoothly and your guests are engaged and entertained throughout the evening.
Whether you are planning a large-scale awards ceremony or an intimate affair you need to carefully select your awards host. This maybe the CEO of your organisation or a celebrity, comedian or TV presenter.
TIP 4: ENTERTAINMENT
Last but by no means least is the entertainment aspect. Your guests have come to be entertained, therefore don’t just read a long list of award winners and take photos as they receive their awards from the stage, as this can be very tedious for the audience.
Therefore, always think how to engage and entertain your audience.
The most common complaint from attendees is boring PowerPoint presentations. Communicating your key message in motivational and inspirational way is essential. Be creative with your content and think outside the box by using other forms of impactful media, including animation and videos.
Apart from engaging content your guests have come to party! Therefore, think about how you can entertain everyone throughout the evening, including pre-dinner drinks and dinner.
If you would like help or advise in organising your next awards ceremony, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team, or visit our Awards Ceremony page here!
