Should You Be Throwing A Year End Celebration Or New Year’s Conference?
As published in ExperthHub.
As the end of year approaches, most companies are gearing up for their Christmas parties to celebrate the close of the year. But is this the best way to celebrate successes and build momentum for the next year?
When it comes to the last quarter of the year, everyone is feeling the full effects of nearly 365 days behind them. What with the year’s challenges and rewards, most people are ready to put the year to bed, and take a big, long, much-needed vacation.
From a conferencing point of view, many business owners and executives use this time of year to thank their teams for the effort they have put in, celebrate successes, identify areas of improvement, and also give them a bit of motivation that they hope will be remembered through the festive season and used in the year ahead.
What’s the emerging trend?
Bringing in the New Year
There is something we are seeing more and more in the events industry. Rather than spending the entire events budget on a massive party at the end of the year, that most of the employees will enjoy so much that they will hardly remember it the next day, more and more organisations are bringing their big, annual conference forward; to the beginning of the new year.
The reason makes sense, too. Think of it this way; who would you spend more effort and energy on: the employee who is leaving your company, or the employee who has just started?
The latter, naturally, as you want them to be setup for success. Of course, we’ll have a little shebang to bid farewell to the leaving employee, but it is understood that investing in the success of the new employee is also investing in your business’s future success.
The same follows for the year: focusing your energy on your team at the start of the year means they kick off the year on the best foot possible, and they bring that powerful positive conference energy with them into the rest of the year. By all means, have a smaller staff appreciation event at year end, but shifting your focus to a strong start just makes more business sense.
Regardless of when, do it well
If you need to speak at your conference, it is worth your while getting your PowerPoint presentation professionally designed, and you would do well to attend a one day refresher course on how to present like a pro. This will aid in elevating the entire experience for everyone attending, so that the overall effect of the conference is powerful and cohesive.
If you really want your event to move the needle of the business, don’t take on the task of putting on the entire event by yourself. Hire an events company. They are more equipped to handle the stressful, ‘conferencey’ stuff, like locating the perfect venue and catering for your budget and strategy, facilitating team building, and sourcing great speakers, and they can also fine-tune your overall conference objectives.
When you tackle it that way, it gives you the headspace you need to take part in the conference like the rest of the team, while the events co-ordinator does the heavy lifting for you.
So, whether you decide to go big at the end of the year, or have a smaller, more intimate ‘thank you’ event, or to pull out all the stops and start the year with a massive thrust, with the help of your events team, your staff will walk away from the event feeling closer to each other, more connected to the business objectives, activated and energised, and ready to handle whatever the year ahead throws at them.
Here’s to a great Year End, and a fabulous 2020.