Attendee experiences are what make your event memorable. This is the core mantra of the MICE industry that we keep repeating to ourselves over and over again. Every time we plan an event, we make sure to add a “special” detail or dynamic meant to delight people.
Exciting entertainment shows, unusual venues, and city tours are just a few of the guest experiences we include in our social program. There’s nothing wrong with that, if you ask me. However, we’ve somehow managed to automatize the event experience itself.
We stopped going that extra mile to come up with something truly worthwhile and leave a long-lasting impression on our attendees. We don’t take the time anymore to design a unique social program that people have never experienced before. We just throw in a few leisure or entertainment activities and hope that does the trick.
But when we do that, we forget about the essentials of an event experience.
What are those essentials? As event professional Kevin Van der Straeten argues, "A strong concept seeks to play on the imagination of your target group, exciting their sense of fantasy and exploiting the zone of uncertainty which exists between curiosity and confusion. The gradual build-up of tension and excitement ensures a lasting effect. Once you have experienced something of this kind, you are not likely to forget it in a ...
