Recently I conducted a site visit for a Pepper Events project. While at the venue, my shoe heel got stuck in a floor board and my other major issues included their service and the fact that they don’t have parking.
The client on the other hand, was stressing to our team the need for us to bring a wow factor to the event. In fact, I’ve heard the term wow factor so many times from clients and industry people that I started wondering if it was a thing we could just go to a supplier and rent or buy.
Everyone wants their event to have that distinctive appeal that guests leave talking about. However, if I were a guest at an event, it wouldn’t matter if the hosts pulled out all the stops with fancy décor and freebies. If I had to park two blocks down and trek to the venue in my heels and rain, then only to get there and have my shoe heel stuck in the floor board, that’s what I’d take away from the experience.
For me the wow factor must be when the sum of the entire event experience for the guests meets the company’s strategic objective.
Don’t get me wrong, bells and whistles are nice too. Our credo at Pepper Events is actually ‘Anything but vanilla’. Don’t come to us if you want boring.
So what’s your take on ‘the wow factor’?
10 July, 2012, 7:36 am
I agree Shyvonne, the wow does not always have to be “the skydiver jumping from the plane” but it could be all the little things that add up. That said, I think there are some things that I expect at an event, so just meeting those won’t wow me, dr
14 July, 2012, 1:25 pm
I completely agree with this post! Sometimes we get caught up trying to create that special moment in an event that should leave the guests remembering the brand for months, yet we often miss out the small details which are enough to pull the entire facade down. The truth is that your event can be really out of this world, however, if your guests can find one reason to complain, then that’s the message they will be leaving with and inevitably, spreading to their counterparts. I have also found that many companies host events without ensuring that company objectives are met. While the evening may be a spectacular one, what good is it to spend millions of dollars just for your guests to leave saying ‘wow, that was a great dinner, I’m going to come back next year because they sure know how to have a good time!”. Vs, “this brand really got me thinking, maybe I should start purchasing/ using them from now, and recommending them to persons I come into contact with”