United by a vision to continue connecting audiences while delivering engaging—and delicious!—events, Kennedy Events and Foxtail Catering have teamed up to create a customized culinary and virtual party experience. KE Senior Producer and Creative Director Marianne Jackson recently sat down with Foxtail’s Business Development Manager Patrick Hamilton to chat about the Picnic Party Packages. It’s all the summer party fun without the ants and the sunburns!

We’ve all been there: you’re watching a virtual event when suddenly the speaker's WiFi starts to fade in and out, or their lighting is so bad that they appear as a dark silhouette against a backlit window, or (maybe worst of all) the audio is so poor, even the wisest words can't be heard. Just one of these issues is enough to make you want to move on—and chances are you aren’t the only attendee who’s given up and moved on either. So, how do you avoid these easy-to-make mistakes during your own virtual event? Check out this video featuring KE Partner Paige Buck and our go-to videographer K'Dee Miller as they discuss how to make your virtual presentations and events shine.

The rise of virtual events created a unique obstacle for performers. Challenged to tweak their content and modify their delivery to keep audiences enchanted at a distance, the pivot required more than a few tricks to succeed. KE Creative Director and Senior Producer Marianne Jackson recently sat down with mentalist and illusionist Wayne Hoffman to discuss the evolution of his show format from engaging live audiences to enrapturing virtual guests with his entertainment expertise.

Were you underwhelmed by the presenters at your sales kick-off? Was your normally charismatic CEO less than dynamic during her speech to your investors? Going virtual means even the best presenters need some help to be engaging. Kennedy Events Partner Maggie Kennedy recently caught up with our go-to Communications and Performance Coach Kelsey Crouch to find out her secrets for guiding presenters to success in the world of virtual events. Without an engaging presentation, your audience is going to tune out or click away.

Want to toast with your colleagues, but keep it virtual? KE Partner Paige recently shared a lively conversation all about cocktails with Avital Unger, the founder of the culinary experience company Avital Tours. Watch this short video to learn from Avital's experiences hosting thousands of people through live mixology sessions. You can still bring people together in a shared virtual experience while avoiding the pitfalls of delivering cocktail kits to your attendees' doorsteps!

After a year of social distancing, is there anything more appealing than finding a package—that you didn’t order!—sitting on your doorstep? With audience engagement at the top of the list of virtual event concerns, the team at Kennedy Events has found that you can get a lot of traction from a branded package delivered to attendees prior to your event. KE Partner Paige Buck recently sat down with Senior Producer Shelly Kim to discuss the opportunities—and challenges—involved with shipped items. Watch and learn how to make your pre-event deliverable a hit with attendees!

Are you producing a massive conference, excited about how many attendees you’ll have in a digital platform, but struggling for ways to deliver value to your event sponsors or provide opportunities for your attendees to engage with one another outside of a chatbox? Maybe you’re interested in hosting a fun event for your team this holiday season—while socially distanced—and simply don’t know where to start. In this video, Kennedy Events Partner Paige Buck and Senior Producer and Creative Director Marianne Jackson had a lot of fun talking about the why and how of what works for meaningful social engagement during virtual events. Yes, it’s possible to thrive even when it’s not live!

As the world transitioned from live, in-person to virtual events almost overnight, an indispensable figure emerged on the KE events team. KE Partner Paige Buck recently sat down with KE Technical Director Steve Ratcliff to discuss the technical elements of virtual event planning and production expectations after the pandemic period. Though restrictions are lifting, we foresee his role becoming no less valuable in the future of event planning.

When hosts of in-person events had to switch to virtual experiences over the past year, most were not up-to-speed on what that involved. They may have had previous experience with Zoom or other forms of video conferencing, but the familiar solution isn’t always the right one. Even in a simplified video conferencing setup, making a program look like it’s more than your average “Monday-morning-all-hands-on-deck” meeting (with clunky screen shares, dropped audio, poor lighting, and that inevitable moment with someone forgetting they’re muted while the rest of the staff yells, “you’re on mute!”) actually takes a lot of effort. In this video, KE Partner Paige Buck breaks down three common virtual event misconceptions and shares a few ideas that will help lead you to virtual event success.

What happens when a luxury hotel has to grapple with a new event landscape? We could only imagine the challenge that so many of our favorite venues and hotels faced during the pandemic; with seemingly endless months of canceled bookings and empty rooms. Now, as restrictions are beginning to lift and we prepare for the possibility of live events in the coming months, Kennedy Events is staying on top of new regulations for in-person events that will keep our clients and their guests safe and healthy.