It's no secret that MANY (if not most) companies have experienced extended time apart since 2020. Our client, Georgia's Own Credit Union, hadn't gathered in person in over 2 years! When they decided to plan a retreat for their leadership team, they called Elevate to help bring a high level of engagement and LOTS of meaningful moments to their event.
In this episode of the Mic Drop Events Podcast, Billy breaks down the Georgia's Own Leadership Retreat experience and shares some of his insights into executing this event - including having to pivot in order to create the best possible experience for everyone in attendance.
The main focus of this event? Teamwork and brand growth.
PLUS - Elevate Experiences Founder & President, Billy Boughey, led many sessions throughout this retreat, incorporating some of his keynote talks.
To learn more about Billy as a keynote speaker, check out his website: billybspeaks.com
Can supporting/producing an event from a remote location actually work?
In this episode, Elevate team member Sarah Cait Sawyer shares how she best prepares to support our clients and their events, even from across the country.
Spoiler Alert! It all boils down to 2 powerful questions we ask when planning any event:
1. What do you want your attendees to feel when they leave?
2. What do you want them to remember?
In this episode, you'll also learn about one of our amazing clients, Cardlytics. We are honored to partner with Cardlytics on a monthly basis, helping to make their monthly town hall gatherings a success. These virtual gatherings are streamed across the globe! We also recently partnered with Cardlytics on a special "Women's Fireside Chat" event where powerful female CEOs shared insights, lessons learned, and so much more.
Did you know that Elevate offers retainer packages? If you/your company have monthly gatherings, regular meetings, or just know you want to make remarkable events a part of your calendar, we'd love to help! Click here to connect with a member of our team to learn more.
Heart For Africa is an incredible organization that focuses on fighting hunger, helping orphans, decreasing poverty, and providing education in the country of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). Throughout the year, the organization hosts several fundraising events.
We recently partnered with Heart For Africa to help them bring one of their annual fundraising events, a comedy night, to life!
The annual comedy night event is focused on bringing people together in a fun way to raise money for Heart For Africa's mission.
In this episode, Alison discusses how this event came together alongside Heart For Africa's Director of Program Partners, Hannah Gaddis. From weather, to scheduling conflicts, and everything in between, they share insightful tips on the best things to consider when planning your own outdoor event.
This event raised $30,000 for Heart For Africa!
Want to contact Hannah? Email her at hannah@heartforafrica.org
And be sure to check out Heart for Africa's website and Instagram page!
Ever wonder what it takes to plan and produce the SAME event in multiple different cities? If so, you'll love this episode where we share specifics of producing several events for one of our favorite clients of all time - All Pro Dad.
One of the reasons we love working with this organization so much is because of the ability we have to partner with them from the initial content creation phase to the actual experience execution. And most importantly? Their mission of helping Dads (and father figures) connect with their kids in meaningful ways is one we REALLY believe in.
Each event is based on a specific yearly theme, is held in a college or professional football stadium, and features a variety of activities for families to participate in together. Everything is designed to help them connect in different ways both "on and off the field". Each event concludes with a powerful message from coaches or former players who discuss their experience and advice for fathers and families to prioritize connection with one another.
Check out our recent TikTok video with pictures from a recent APD event!
We recently partnered with Home Depot to create a remarkable event with the purpose to welcome their 200+ summer interns. This event took place at Home Depot's home office in Atlanta, GA, and provided a fun space for the interns to connect and enjoy time with one another.
In this episode, we share all the details on how this event came about, the logistical considerations that went into the planning process, and WHY it's so important to welcome interns in a celebratory and unique way.
Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for even more valuable tips for your next event!
Preferred Apartment Communities knows how to throw a party, and we loved producing a fun, energetic event for their 11th birthday celebration! This episode breaks down how this event offered the best of both worlds - a 45-minute virtual hangout and an in-person carnival-themed celebration for local team members.
Oh, and the one thing you might not imagine would play such an integral part in the success of the event?
A DUNK TANK! Give this episode a listen to hear more about how this fun addition made such a difference.
If you're in search of great ideas for virtual, live, or hybrid events, you won't want to miss this episode. And if you're looking for a reason to celebrate your team this year, look no further than your company's birthday! Trust us, it never disappoints.
“If I had known more about the event, I would have brought more of my team.”
- William Crum, Chick-fil-A Operator from Redlands California
In this episode, Billy recaps a one-day team member appreciation event we produced for 800 Chick-fil-A Team members who came from stores all across Southern California! The Operators of the restaurants wanted to celebrate their teams and inspire their best leaders. Our team planned and produced the entire event from scratch, bringing Chick-fil-A’s ideas to life and creating a truly unforgettable day.
Click here to view a case study about this event including photographs and more, and here to view the highlight reel on YouTube!
In this episode, we break down a recent event we produced for the Mueller Water Products team. This group was planning a fun "back to the office" event for their staff after working remote through the pandemic. Just two weeks before their event, they had to find a new event planner and contacted us. It was a quick turnaround, but we helped them put together an unforgettable rooftop experience for their team, full of awards, celebration, and LOTS of dancing!
Give it a listen to hear all about the logistics of the event. And don't forget to subscribe for more event highlights and tips!
In this special episode of Mic Drop Events, Billy breaks down a recent event we helped produce for Merry Maids. This team was looking to add energy and engagement to their event in a way they had never done before. Our initial consultation gave them some ideas around accomplishing this goal. From there, we were able to compile a complete run-of-show for everything from an awards show to group sessions to a final dance party. When the event day finally rolled around, our team had worked out all of the logistics for a successful event execution. Check out the full episode to hear all the details!
Listening, Learning, and Leading. This week's episode features Ken Sobaski, CEO of America's Thrift Stores, who breaks down some of his powerful leadership strategies. Ken does a great job of connecting with his team and making each individual employee feel celebrated. In this conversation, he breaks down some of the leadership principles he lives and leads by, as well as some of the event lessons he has learned over the years.
If you're looking for some great leadership insights and how they translate into the event space, don't miss this episode!
Engaging your audience is crucial to not only keeping a group of people's attention but also for creating lasting impact.
On this episode, we break down the three parts of events that must coexist for optimal engagement: Energy, Community, and Connection.
This episode comes from a Clubhouse conversation facilitated by Billy and Sean and gives personal anecdotes and valuable ideas that you can implement right away for your own events.
For more event tips and tricks, check out our YouTube channel.
Let's face it, planning an event can be stressful. There's a lot of pressure to get all of the details right leading up to the event itself. On this week's episode, Sean breaks down ten things you can do in the planning process to create less stress and more confidence in executing the event.
We hope this episode leaves you feeling more equipped to create an amazing event!
It's never too early to start planning a holiday party! This week's episode comes from a recent livestream event we hosted on our YouTube channel about holiday party ideas for 2021.
One of the main questions you should ask yourself when thinking through this type of event is: How do you want your team/customers/audience to feel as they are attending. In this episode, we break down the five emotions you can think through when planning a holiday party:
We break down these ideas and even share some personal examples of games and types of gatherings that would be perfect for your team to implement this year.
Now is the time to start planning for this year's holiday parties. Whether you're planning a live, online, or hybrid event, this podcast episode is for you!
For more episodes like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel!
This week, Nina Butler joins the podcast to talk all things event creation. Nina is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the event and hospitality industry and start ups and serves as Director of Events and Experiences at Alyce.
Nina's team specializes in creating "unexpected" events or as she calls them "Pattern Disruptors" that surprises an audience and captures their attention.
She breaks down some of the ways their team thinks through events for Alyce and the three types of events that make up their marketing strategy:
This episode is great for anyone looking to market their business to new clients through events.
Kim Walsh Phillips joins us this week to talk about her experience with planning and executing events. After working for a short time in the event industry, Kim transitioned to more of a marketing and consulting role but used her event experience to stand out in marketing her business and converting more sales... so much so that she recently generated over a million dollars in revenue from virtual events in less than a year!
By using virtual events as a step in the conversion process for sales, Kim has found a valuable way to connect with her clientele and to make more money at the same time.
Whether you find yourself in the event industry or are simply looking for a creative way to market to your audience, our conversation with Kim is sure to give you some valuable ideas to pull from. If you have ever planned an event, you know that understanding your audience is key as is knowing what will and will not resonate with them.
Kim’s analytical insights provide a detailed look into her own strategies for using events as a marketing tool, and we're so excited to share this conversation with you!
For more on Kim, you can view her website here.
And be sure to check out her business, Powerful Professionals.
This week, Cord Sachs and Josh Swing of Wildsparq join Billy to talk about leadership, connection, and the power of events. This episode covers a variety of topics from Wildsparq's mission to some valuable event insights from their team and ours.
One of our favorite takeaways from this episode was the idea of aligning purpose, passion, and production for optimal impact. When your purpose and passion line up, production is exponential.
Want to learn more about Wildsparq? Check them out online here.
And be sure to listen to their podcast, The Secret Sauce Podcast.
Many companies are looking to host engaging events with their team but aren't sure how to make it happen. Field day events are a great way to engage your team with games and intentional conversations around particular topics.
From establishing the basics to building on the theme, this episode breaks down the principles you should live by in planning a field day.
Most field days revolve around a certain amount of fun and a certain amount of conversation. How much of each is up to those planning the event. For our recent event it was about 90% fun and 10% conversation but changes significantly based on the client or organization.
Some things we asked ourselves in preparation for the event:
Always remember to start with the end emotion in mind. What emotion are you trying to evoke from your audience?
As we round out our Clubhouse conversation with Crystal Garcia, we talk about considerations for groups planning hybrid events, including pricing and moments of engagement. When it comes to hosting a hybrid event, reinvesting money that is not spent on travel or hotel expenses is a great way to draw in the virtual audience. This can be done by sending them something beforehand to make them feel like they're a part of the experience without actually physically being in attendance.
In some of our more recent events we have been using Mentimeter, a collaborative word cloud software that allows groups to share a word or phrase. Interactive elements like this are great for engaging the group in the room as well as those tuning in online. Crystal also shares about some interactive games she has used at her own virtual events to allow everyone in attendance to participate.
Crystal ends the discussion with a mic drop phrase: “If you can’t do great things, do small things great," reminding us of the ripple effect that occurs when we are intentional about even the smallest things.
Crystal is a Digital Strategist, Virtual Events Producer, Online Business Manager, AND the founder of Propelcon.
In the first part of our conversation with Crystal Garcia, we discuss the difference between livestream and hybrid events, along with some examples and ideas for each. This discussion touches on the importance of including both audiences and the way that breaking up into smaller groups allows moments of engagement for everyone involved.
Crystal is a Digital Strategist, Virtual Events Producer, Online Business Manager, AND the founder of Propelcon.
Don't forget to check out her company online and on Instagram!
And be sure to tune in next week as we round out the conversation with a discussion on pricing these types of events and engaging everyone in attendance.
With Covid numbers once again on the rise, many businesses are questioning their Fall plans and unsure of how these circumstances might affect scheduled events. On this week's episode of Mic Drop Events, we discuss the ways a company can transition their event from in person to virtual. We break it down into four steps:
While there are many things to consider when making such a big change to your event, these steps are the best way to ensure you keep everything your audience needs and get rid of anything that might be unnecessary.
For more tips on planning virtual, hybrid, and in-person events, check out our YouTube channel.
Still overwhelmed with the planning process? We can help! Contact us through our website.
