The 5 Stars of Annual dinner
While speaking to a client sometime ago, he did make an interesting remark, he said “there will never be a perfect event, only memorable ones”. Now you perfectionists put down your pitchforks and hear me out first. Of course we desire to have everything to be at the best, who doesn’t?! We strive so hard, yet it is so hard to bench mark it. After giving much consideration, we did come up with some basic guiding principles to achieve just that, the perfect event or near perfect at least.
To simplify things, we will just call em, star ratings. Just like hotels and restaurants, if you have a pool, you get a star, if you have silverware for your restaurant, you get a star. So what are the stars for events? Well, there are many types of events to begin with, but we will discuss just for annual dinner types.
The first Star-Venue.
Picking up a venue isn’t easy, there are so many things to consider. Parking space, seating capacity, available ambiance and picking a 5 star venue cannot guarantee that it will be the perfect location to hold your annual dinner, neither skimping for the cheapest will be best. Be practical; the venue needs to be logistically logic; it also must have supportive sales and banquet team. A pleasant ambiance can be a bonus, but go for a venue which is flexible for event set ups.
Food and Beverage
I tie this together with the venue because most venues do provide foods as part of their service. So far the best I’ve experienced was a custom make semi fine dining, a good fusion menu. It was a good fusion recipe, custom made for the bridal couple. Venue’s that take the effort to niche down to your needs will definitely be a good choice venue.
Sound and light, Star two
Recently I attended wedding of a friend, it was held in a typical Chinese restaurant. All was well until they had a special performance by some family members, then followed by the speech by the bride and groom, the only sound we could hear was the clink clanks of cutleries and drunken laughter from neighboring tables. Poorly sound equipping your event is fatal. The point of having an event is not only to enjoy the atmosphere, but also to get a message across, and if that doesn’t happen, the event is deemed meaningless.
House lights are fine, only if you don’t mind having the same lighting throughout your event. Ambiance lighting play a major role in setting the mood, imagine having warm yellow house lights for a deep blue sea theme. It just doesn’t work right?
Star 3, Décor
A masquerade theme will only be a masquerade theme when there are masks, draping, silverware props, and feathers. To truly say that an event is themed is totally reliant on how well your event is dressed up. Imagine going to a supposedly Oscar theme award night and the only thing that lead you to think of it as Oscar theme is the stage backdrop written “Oscar night 2015” in 2 inch styrofoam. It just doesn’t work that way. The goal is to “transport” your guests to another world. Some tips to help you figure out this part on a tight budget.
Entertainment
Entertainment for the night must achieve the following, it must make your guests, laugh, cry (of happiness of course), wow and clap so hard you have to standby paramedics. Entertainment is considered the peak of emotion in events. Good entertainment should start from the Emcee, assuming this is a fun event, breaking the ice as everyone is feeling awkward in their costumes or unusual dress codes.
While in house entertainments are very much fun and it involves the crowd and allows staffs to show off their talents, don’t forget that they too are your guests for the night. Keep house entertainment to the minimum stress, we want them to enjoy the night as well, let them also be entertained by professionals.
The final Star
The most unnoticed element in events is the scent. Yes, the most subtle, yet so important factor overlooked by even the top agencies. Most 5 star renowned hotels will take care of unpleasant odors, but other venues don’t cover such service. Smell is important as it impacts into the sub conscious mind, a good example is, imagine traveling to the seaside, before your eyes are able to see the actual beach, you can already “smell” it, the sea breeze and your mind has already arrived before your body.
Lucky for us, there are many available room air fresheners that come in a good selection of aroma, ranging from jungle, mountain and even falling star (like seriously? Yes). Give a few presses on these aroma cans before event and let your guests’ noses do some exploring.
Achieving 5 stars for your event is no rocket science, if you noticed we have just properly dealt with the 5 senses of a person. Sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. Fulfill these basic elements and you will reach into the hearts of your guests