Incorporating traditions into your corporate event strategy is a shortcut to building belonging. Great events foster a sense of community among attendees. Traditions give returning attendees something to look forward to and help foster trust with people who are newer to your brand. They help build a shared culture.
Related: 5 ways to incorporate traditions into experience design
Workplace traditions might be quick moments, like ringing a bell when a goal is met. They can be seasonal, like a summer potluck. Or they can be motivating, like milestone recognition. Offering an annual incentive trip to top performers can be seen as a tradition, too. Within corporate events, traditions help keep your event fresh and turn first-timers into lifelong fans. We’ve outlined what to consider communicating at each phase.
Pre-event communication: Introduce attendees to the tradition
Retaining familiar touchpoints delivers emotional impact. But activities with unspoken symbolic significance can leave new attendees scratching their heads. If strategic event planning involves mapping what you want people to think, feel, and do—preparing them can help them participate more fully.
Just think of the seventh inning stretch at baseball games. Sure, the break gives spectators a little longer to grab one last beverage. But when the whole crowd stands to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (a tradition since 1976), each person feels part of something special. The home team becomes their home team. Imagine if you couldn’t join in the anthem because you didn’t know the words?
Mentioning traditions in pre-event communications gives first-time attendees helpful insight and reminds repeat attendees of what to expect. For instance: “Don’t forget your dancing shoes! Our closing event always ends with a live band.” Or, “What started as a spontaneous pre-event golf outing has turned into a tradition. Reserve your complementary branded golf shirt with early bird registration. This year, we’re drawing names to share a cart with the CEO.”
Related: Boost event registration with these clever communication tactics
Pre-event communication: Give tradition examples from past events
Event marketers strive to keep annual gatherings feeling fresh. Although it may sound counterintuitive, event traditions inspire creativity. They don’t need to stay exactly the same to provide continuity from year to year. Connect the tradition to the company’s core values, then continually reinterpret it to tie to that year’s theme or location.
For example, if your event always includes a give-back opportunity, have the activity benefit a local community partner. In pre-event communications, you might include a highlight reel from previous years’ service activities with stats about impact and give clues about the upcoming activation. This builds excitement about getting involved.
Related: Planning around traditions is one way to help evolve a program for intergenerational audiences
On-site event communication: Remind attendees why key traditions happen
Repetition rules. That’s one of the leadership lessons our team brought back from Cvent CONNECT, an annual ERM software user conference. To paraphrase one piece of advice that we heard from keynote speaker Jennifer Morgan: When you’re tired of saying it, people are finally getting it. Anything worth saying is worth repeating.
Morgan, one of Forbes’ most powerful women in the world and technology, spoke about the power of leaders repeating themselves to internal teams. This holds true for event audiences as well. Repeated exposure to a message enhances recognition and improves retention. Continue to remind the audience of the purpose behind key traditions across channels. This reinforces what you’d like them to think, feel and do.
If an event tradition involves recognizing sales leaders, explain the why behind the celebration. Ensure remarks from the stage highlight what they did to earn accolades. Emphasize how important this achievement is to the organization’s success, and what people in the audience can do to see themselves on stage next year.
One tradition that builds excitement at this phase involves incorporating clues on next year’s location into the closing dinner. When we hosted a program in Scotland, the wine served and placed on tables was from Puglia, Italy. Each bottle hinted to where the event was headed, before the host confirmed the announcement on stage. Another program held in Hawaii invited Irish Dancers into the finale to help announce they were going to Ireland the next year.
Post-event communication: Offer ideas to extend the experience
Capture event traditions in multimedia formats to make memories last longer. Embedding photo galleries and videos in post-event communications is a standard way to encourage attendees to reminisce and share about the event. But for live events held in beautiful locations, elevate the experience.
Commission an artist to depict the scene and the energy surrounding it. Sending home an archival-quality framed print of work inspired by their trip keeps the experience front and center. An ITA Group account executive saw the staying power of excellent event art when he walked into an attendee's office. Displayed on his credenza was a custom John Bukaty art piece from a live painting activation on a recent trip to Switzerland trip. Imagine the gallery wall attendees could build from their travels to your annual events!
Find more ideas to map attendee communications to their journey in our comprehensive guide to event strategy.