Themes. Every event must have one. An even theme is the primary way you let people know what your event is about. Themes are important to the messaging and critical to the success of your events. Creating an event theme is as important as choosing the right location, hiring the right vendors as your event team, and choosing a venue that fits your event.

Event themes help drive home the purpose of the event, AKA the key objective. Your event team, whether your employees or fellow vendors, can help you brainstorm ideas for your theme.

Brainstorming a theme starts with determining the goals and aspirations for your client’s year, their mission, and their vision for holding the event.

Themes create a framework, just like 2x4s create the framework for a home. The theme is the structure that sets up the framework for your messaging and every other detail about the event.

Once you have the framework, use these next eight steps to fill in the details:

Choose a Tagline

Choosing a tagline for your event is crucial to the overall success of the meeting. This is the foundation that will carry the event from beginning to end and will guide your attendees in the direction you want them to go.

This will help guide you in selection of your speakers (speakers whose message fits your goals and objective), your staging, and all things that relate to this event. Your tagline will keep all the elements cohesive, reinforce the key message, and help you have a clear call to action for your attendees.

One great example is using the POWER OF ONE as a theme. You could weave the idea of ONE person having the power to create, change, or raise up the organization. The Power of one individual combined with the power of another ONE individual, so on and so on, becomes a force to make changes in the organization, the nation, and the world.

You can use Audio Visual elements to show the Power of One. How ONE brick is the start for a hospital, How ONE person’s actions created a movement, a tech product, or other changes for good in the world. You might have a choir singing an opening song of the Power of ONE. These songs and inspirational videos can be found online as an inspiration to the opening you can create for your opening or closing session for your meeting or convention. You can also have the words of a song rewritten to match the event.

Create a Logo

A picture, or in this case an image, says a thousand words. You want your message to be memorable, so the next step is to create an accompanying logo. This may require some outside help. The graphics department within the organization or an outside agency will likely have creative ideas that align with the messaging. The logo that is created will be printed on everything used for the event, so make it meaningful. Use the logo to drive the purpose of your event.

In addition, you’ll want to create a slide deck with the selected logo. While some speakers will have their own canned graphics, others will want to use your monogrammed slides. Even if others aren’t looking to use it, the template you’ve created will be great for the introduction and outro slide for speakers. This helps to keep your message in front of your attendees.

Remember to use colors that will stand out on the video screens! Not all colors are “screen savvy”. In other words, they don’t appear the way they would on a computer or when printed out. Let your speakers know whether the room will be dark or if lights will be on while they present. Different colors work with different lighting situations, so it’s best for them to be prepared for the right situation.

This is a great time to pull in your AV and graphics teams to discuss what can be done with your logo to be dynamic for both the screen and print formats.

Use Your Colors in Your Lighting

Once the logo has been chosen, use the colors within it for your event. This will help bring together elements of the event. This includes lighting effects and projections. There are so many wonderful ways to create special effects with lighting and projections that we could likely write a short novel on the matter. However, getting your AV team involved in the planning can certainly help you decide what will make the best graphic treatment for your message and budget.

Lighting greatly enhances the mood of an event. Research shows the amount of light in a room affects the regulation of emotions – bright light heightens emotional responses and alertness, soft light diffuses emotional responses and induces relaxation.

Send Out Invitations and Social Media Updates That Tease

Teasing your event attendees with a taste of what’s to come will create a bit of intrigue. This is a great way to get people talking and make your event stand out from the other events they will have the opportunity to attend. Your event is the ‘not to be missed’ event of the year. Make sure your teaser invite stands out as well.

Add in social media to start revealing what’s behind the curtain for the event. Drip this out a bit at a time. Also create an email campaign to send out to your email list with a small 30 second video or a man on the street interview. If you were using “The Power of One” theme, you might send out a short video or photo of how one person changed the world each month leading up to your convention. Then string all these stories together for your opening video.

Building the excitement, the curiosity, or the messages will stick in the minds of your attendees and they will be anticipating your event with enthusiasm.

Coordinate Special Experiences Tied to the Theme

Is your event theme for a 70’s style event? Hire actors dressed as 70’s TV characters to meet and greet guests as they come in. Ask attendees to dress the part as well.

Have you hired an actor that impersonates the president? Hire college students to act as secret service agents with headsets and dark glasses.

For a sports themes, offer games of skill for your attendees to try during breaks or at a dinner following the main event. This is one of the areas that theming becomes so helpful. Knowing what kind of entertainment to add to your event to again drive home your message is equally important.

Be careful when continuing the theme with the food pairings. Some themes just don’t lend themselves to good food, so make sure you are offering food that will please your crowd. It’s great if you can theme the food to the event, but make sure it’s quality food and not a major fail for the dinner.

Linking breakout events, meals and activities to the theme will help guests form lasting memories.

Give Promotional Products That Match the Theme

It’s no surprise that promotional products work. Just look in your desk drawer, at least one of the pens with a company name will bring up a memory that you tucked away. So, promotional products are a great reminder of your event. Put thought into the product; don’t just order to have a pen to hand out with the theme on it. Spend time thinking about the message you are using for your event and what promotional product works with the theme.

Using the copper taken from the capitol building in our city, we created a custom lapel pin for a group that was headed to the capitol to lobby their legislators. We added a note to the pin about how the copper that was removed from the capitol dome during renovation was used to create the pin. We had an artist press the copper into the company logo. This made the pin something special for them to keep that reminded them of the event, the importance of what they were doing, and the organization that put it all together.

Create a Follow-up Survey

Yep, you need to measure the success of the event. You will have several different ways to measure the success whether monetary, attendee satisfaction, or to reach other goals.

One of the ways to measure your success is to send out a survey. Remember to keep the theme going in the look and feel of the survey so your attendees will have visual recall.

Send out the survey within 24 hours of the event so everything is still fresh in the minds of your attendees. Ask about the theme, whether they liked it, if it helpful, if they felt it was carried through, along with all the other questions you will be asking them.

Create a second life for your event

Make sure you capture the event on video and audio. Ask your AV team to help you with this. Everyone in the organization or group will not be able to attend, so use this video after the event to share information with those that couldn’t be there.

If a speech was attended by 300 people, but you have thousands in your organization, its message and influence is limited to those 300 individuals. You can share the message to the thousands if you record and share on social media or via your private channel or website.

Want to increase awareness about your organization? Share snippets of videos from your event or conference online with all the associated hashtags for people to follow. Make sure your branding and messaging are included in the video, such as signage or a stage backdrop, and post away. Ask others to share your video to increase your reach.

In addition to creating a video library and archive for you and your organization, you will be able to use the snippets to help you advertise next year’s events.

If possible, do a “man on the street” video. Have a spokesperson or backdrop where attendees will be recorded. Ask them to share information about how important the conference, meeting or event was to them. Ask them to share a something that they picked up at the conference that made a difference to them. Those that can’t attend will be inspired to make sure they are at the following event. Being left out of the party isn’t any fun, so show them what they missed.

Running a business from home means having a lot of flexibility. However, with that flexibility comes a lot of responsibility. You should be the one to hold yourself accountable and need to make decisions that are best for your business. Therefore, it is important to spend time considering where you want to have your office located whether it’s inside your home, a rented space, or even at the library. Whatever decision you make, you should ensure it is somewhere you can focus and get your work done.

I’ve been a business owner for over 30 years and have found that I like having a home office best. I’ve had office space for employees, but it always worked best if I had my own space to really get my own work done. In fact, I built a building next to my house as a business space and while it worked for my employees, it never quite worked for me to have an office there.

Office Spaces Can Be Mobile

In the last 6 months, I’ve moved my home, my employee offices and my warehouses AGAIN! And again, I love my home office work space. Truth be told, I like to change location of my home office every few years. My office has made the way around the house as my has family changed.

When the kids were young, the office usually ended up in my bedroom. Once they moved into their own rooms, it was easy to put them to bed then work at my office in my own space. Over the years, my office might occupy a spare bedroom or a larger space in the finished basement. When they grew up and left the house, I moved the office into the dining room so I was closer to the front door for deliveries.

Each time, I was inspired by the space around me. I learned that I preferred windows with the shades up, a few pieces of comfortable furniture, and a table I could really lay out all the pieces of an upcoming event to organize my event folder.

Make and Keep Your Own Rules

There were rules I had to set around my workspace. Rules that I’d like to share with you in hopes that you find them useful, especially if you’re working from home and have a young family.

#1 – If mom/dad is doing business via phone. Don’t interrupt!

Setting the rules for noise control was important early on. Sometimes it seems as soon as that one important client calls, the kids start fighting. Setting this rule and enforcing it can be helpful. Offer incentives for quiet time when the phone rings so they learn the rules or have different ring tones for business and non-business calls so the kids know when they hear that certain ring they need to be quiet.

#2 – Have regular office hours

This is so much easier once the kids are in school, but having regular office hours will help the entire family. Regular hours can be 2 hours during nap time or after lunch for an hour. Set up a schedule that everyone can live with and get a bit of time for you to work on your business.

When my kids went to school, my regular hours were as soon as the bus left until they got home. To pick up a few extra hours, I worked again for a bit as soon as I got them in bed.

#3 – List your business hours on your website

Training clients is as important as training the kids. If you are planning corporate events, most of your clients will contact you during normal business hours. With brides or private occasions, this is less strict and clients could be calling at all times.

Make sure your voice mail is set up and informs them of your business hours and let the voice mail pick up those calls that come in after hours. This is all changing with email and on-line communications, but once I learned how to set up my business hours and hold true to them, it was a life changer. Not only did I have fewer calls that interrupted family time (after 5 pm), but I got better quality clients that took my business seriously.

#4 – Dress for success

I treat my in-home office just as I would any job location. I set strict hours to be in the office and I dress as if I’m headed to a downtown New York office high rise.

Dressing for the day shows you take your business seriously. You may not think it makes a huge difference, but your mannerisms and voice reflect your style of dressing when your communicating with your potential clients.

#5 – Turning off the attention grabbers

Staying focused on business will keep things moving for you. Keep the TV off and limit the personal social media exposure. I usually give myself about 15-20 minutes at the first of the day and the end of the day to catch up on social media. I like to check in early so I am not wondering if I have any communications awaiting and at the end of the day before I walk away from my computer.

#6 – NO ONE TOUCHES MY DESK

This is a rule that is as old as my business. I remember one time my daughter thought she would ‘organize’ my desk for me. I couldn’t find a thing for days. Yep, I’m a creative and my desk is not as organized as hers would be. However, I know where everything is located and it works for me. When I moved into my new house with my new husband, I set the rules right away. No one reorganizes my space for me.

#7 – Eat in the breakroom (kitchen)

There is no reason to take a chance of spilling on all the work you have just completed or getting food stuck in your keyboard. Taking a break is also good for your mind. Walk away from your computer to grab a bit of lunch or for that afternoon snack.

#8 – Get moving

If I hit a roadblock in the creative process, I move away from the computer. Just taking a walk around the block, making dinner or a few minutes of exercise can help get the creative juices flowing again.

#9 – Housework can wait

Staying focused in a home business can be difficult. Force yourself to do house work before or after your business hours (or during lunch), but don’t get sidetracked with housework during the times you should be focusing on work.

#10 – Set up appointments and meetings for early mornings

I like to set up my appointments starting at 9 AM in the morning or earlier to get me moving and start my day. Getting out and visiting with clients early starts off my day on a positive note. Once I get back to the office, I start writing my notes for that client and set up my file system if I haven’t already. Getting out early starts the day off right.

#11 – Place motivational items around you

Let’s face it, there are just days that the motivation is slower or not there at all. Place positive affirmations, your vision board and your goals for the year where you can see them often. If you’re having one of those days, you can look at these items and remember why you do what you do.

BONUS – Learn to walk away

Not everyone has this issue, but for me stopping my day is difficult. I love what I do and can work for 15 hours a day, most days. In my mind, there is always research, a new idea or something to learn. So many times I find myself sitting and working while the rest of the family socializes in the other room. Remember to end your work day and walk away.

This is not only healthy for your family but it allows your brain to switch gears and solutions can come when you’re doing other things.

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