The venue is booked, the guests are invited and, while no-one can control the great British weather, you can ensure your summer celebration has a bit of extra magic in the air. Corporate summer parties can run the risk of following a set formula year after year, becoming more run-of-the-mill than memorable. When planning the finer details of yours, think about how you want employees and clients to feel. Your job is to surprise and delight guests, show them how valued they are and treat them to a unique experience.
At Octopus, one of our special skills is creating wow factor moments. Here are our top 5 tips to elevate your work summer party:
1. Make an entrance
First impressions count so make sure your guests know they’ve arrived somewhere special. If you’re hosting a garden party, ‘human hedge statues’, beautiful hummingbird stilt walkers and living flower ladies can add to the fun and excitement. For a circus or festival theme, try candy cane stilt walkers, levitating human statues and glitter ball people. The photos will have never looked so technicolour! Wandering musicians are another great way to create a sense of anticipation in the earlier stages of your event, especially when the sound drifts out of the venue and guests can hear it before they can see it!
2. Creative catering
Working with your caterer, look for interesting and memorable ways to present food to your guests. Serving canapes in quirky vessels like test tubes, miniature frying pans and edible parmesan spoons is a great conversation starter to break the ice while guests mingle. For sit-down meals, professionally trained singing waiters and waitresses create a lively atmosphere and create a real element of surprise!
3. Music & dancers
Nothing gets the party started like music. Just make sure your choice reflects the tone and style of your event. For a vibrant injection of soul, think about Mariachi bands and brazilian drumming, or if the vibe is more mellow, a roaming trio of folk musicians. Pianists, harpists and violinists epitomise the sophistication of more formal English garden parties.
As your celebration moves into the evening and people want to let loose, try introducing some fresh energy with an evening spectacle like LED can-can dancers, aerial acrobats, dancers on silks or even 3D projection mapping dancers.
4. Art and photography
A personalised gift is a fantastic takeaway that acts as a permanent reminder of your event. Roaming portrait artists (or shadow cutters) can create silhouettes of guests, some drawn by hand, others digitally or even by intricately cutting black paper. It’s fascinating to watch them quickly take shape.
For photos, elevate the traditional booth and instead use an immersive photo parlour or a 360-photo booth where guests stand still and the camera whizzes round them. It’s likely to be something they’ve never tried before.
Magicians never seem to go out of style and, if families are invited, neither do balloon artists. A less well-known option that appeals to all ages is origami – low-key but incredibly satisfying to watch and a beautiful gift to keep.
5. Something completely different
A popular concept now is an ‘event poet’ who will ask guests a few simple questions about themselves before coming up with a short, personalised poem on the spot. In a similar vein, a graphologist can analyse guests’ handwriting, revealing what it says about them! For this kind of entertainment make sure there are enough of them to get around everyone.
For something completely unique, a live rubix cube artist will bring an installation to life before your guests’ eyes. They will solve rubix cubes throughout the evening, and, with a clear brief from you, gradually create a large display image – perhaps of your company logo. Perfect for branded photos.
Teasers to boost take up
If engagement is a little slow before your summer party, a great way to boost uptake is to send out a teaser to whet people’s appetite. Along with a reminder invite, and with your chosen entertainment in mind, you could do a desk drop of hummingbird-themed cupcakes, a short humorous poem or a branded origami creation.
We have some availability to plan any late summer corporate celebrations or can provide consultancy. If you’d like to benefit from our bulging black book of contacts and creative expertise, please get in touch with Sarah for a no-obligation discovery call: https://octopusevents.com/contact/
