Planning for Impact

I met with a client last week who was speaking about past events we have hosted for his company. I was asking how, from his perspective, we are different from other event companies. His response took me back. He said ‘a wine tasting is just that: it’s tasting various wines. People are rarely going to remember what they tasted, producers, vintages, whatever, but they will remember how the event made them feel. Acquire is an expert at making people feel something.” This is honestly one of the highest compliments I have ever received. 

This got me thinking about the difference between an event and an experience. An event is an obligation, an experience leaves a lasting impression. I take part in so many corporate gatherings and have seen a shift in the way in which we gather in recent years. Culture is incredibly important. Vulnerability from leadership is not only acceptable but expected. The way we make people feel is paramount, from both an internal and external perspective. At the end of the day, people crave authenticity. We spend so much of our lives at work if we can bring the human element to this space, it enriches the lives of everyone involved.  

When crafting an experience, we try to think, from every angle, about how to have maximum impact by making people feel something, by giving them a takeaway that is bigger than just: I learned about a product and a bit about wine. 

Here are a few things to consider:

Know Your People- Who is attending goes deeper than demographics. We often bucket our attendees into certain ICP’s. I challenge you to know intimately who your guests are. Where are they from? What are their interests? What the event is is determined by who is coming and what the desired outcome of the gathering is. “Connecting the dots” is a term we use in restaurants. We garner knowledge about our guests in an effort to create impactful moments. We research our attendees individually. We have hosted events where, no joke, we know that one of our guests was a pescatarian in 2011, so we make sure to ask them if they would like a customized pescatarian menu instead of what is being offered and we make sure that our Chef is prepared ahead of time to execute any possible outcome. Call people by name. It's so simple but has such an impact. We create an event guide that we give to our staff ahead of time with people's names, titles, and faces so we can call them by name upon arrival. This makes people feel special because they feel remembered.

Create Moments of Authentic Connection- Connection is about leading from the heart, not the head , which can be tricky in a professional environment, where the acceptability of vulnerability is blurred. Connection, in its deepest form, is seeing one another in our truest states, which often doesn't happen without a little prompting. This can be admittedly complicated in a work environment where identity is worn like a mask. Achieving authentic connection is about truly listening and looking for ways to connect deeper, rather than keeping the conversation on the surface. If you’re planning a retirement dinner, for example, ask everyone to go around the table and tell a story about how they know the person retiring. This allows for vulnerability and not only creates uniquely personalized moments for the guest of honor but will, maybe more importantly, have an impact on the tone of the engagement and the way people feel when they leave.

Follow Up With Personalization- It doesn’t have to be expensive to be impactful. We take guest notes at all of our events, which we pass along to our clients. It can be as mundane as ‘Joe is a Giants fan’ to information that came up in conversation about what product their company is currently using that they are unhappy with. These nuggets of information, that guests willingly share, can be used later for personalized follow-up. Imagine learning that an important prospect was married at Silver Oak in June of 1994 and sending them a follow-up gift of a bottle of 1994 Silver Oak with a handwritten note that says “Happy Anniversary! I loved getting to know you at the _____ dinner last month.” We call this ‘surprise and delight’ and this element is majorly impactful when it comes to building and maintaining deep relationships.

Executing a beautiful dinner is important , but how we make people feel is what leaves a lasting impression. Creating personalized moments of authentic connection is what makes for an unforgettable experience. 

Learn more at acquire-wine.com