Company-sponsored social events have always been an important predictor of how high employees assess culture and their desire to stay. Intentional work-sponsored events will become even more important in the coming years. With limited social gatherings during the pandemic and a future that’s leaning toward hybrid work, leaders will need to be more conscious about structuring events to build team cohesion and culture in order to retain top talent. We know the alternative can leave you overwhelmed, stretched thin, and focused on securing a new workforce rather than your bottom line. Find out how you can make the case to secure the necessary budget for your next internal event!

While offsite meetings are a great opportunity for teams to come together and collectively solve a larger problem or plan out a period of work, you’ve likely also discovered that loving the idea of a company offsite and implementing a company offsite are wildly different. An offsite’s success is largely determined by what takes place before it convenes. Use this checklist to make sure you’re ticking off the big-ticket items for your offsite.

It’s not always clear what the ROI is when an offsite is said and done. If created intentionally, with the right people in the same place at the same time —whether virtual or in-person or both— with clear heads and sustainable mental energy, offsites can provide space for everyone to focus on big picture issues that will drive the needle for your business the following year. If your offsites have felt sluggish or lacked clear indicators of ROI, use these key strategies to build your next winning offsite format.

Maggie Kennedy founded Kennedy Events in 2000 and has been Chief Everything Officer ever since. She loves any occasion to celebrate and she brings fun to every function. While she now leaves the event planning to her talented team, she is busier than ever running the business side of Kennedy Events. We’re excited to introduce you to the fierce redhead at the helm.

Managing both live and virtual audiences can quickly become overwhelming. Virtual events should be just as interactive and engaging as the events hosted in the physical world, but as these worlds begin to blend there is little margin for error. Here are three of the key challenges to overcome when planning hybrid events.

With so much uncertainty and an ever-changing landscape regarding safe events, Kennedy Events has been directing focus towards future-proofing events for safer gatherings. Implementation of COVID best practices and safety measures in every part of the planning process continues to be a vital measure to ensuring client and attendee safety. Here are just a few of the important issues that you might need to address if you’re considering an in-person event.

Finding, sourcing, and vetting platforms to determine which is the best for your virtual or hybrid event needs can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Technology has become increasingly integral to events; between the rapid shift to virtual over the past two years and the addition of hybrid event elements, identifying and assessing new technology has become even more critical to a successful event.

You probably have staffing for your face-to-face conferences and events down pat, but what about the staffing structure for your virtual events? It’s hard to plan when you aren’t certain what your event staff is supposed to be doing, and what roles are critical for a virtual event. The value of face-to-face interaction will never go away, but there are times when going virtual is a necessary part of your event program. With these top seven positions, any robust virtual event should include, you’ll be positioned to have an outstanding event.

Though she may be working her magic behind the scenes from her home in Vermont, Jess’ presence is never far from notice. Whether through an enthusiastic email or a timely response to a request for help, you can rest assured that every last detail is accounted for with dedicated systems to boot. Her savvy and attention to finessing the finer points of any project keep every event running smoothly and that’s why Jess is our indispensable organization maven, workflow wizard, and juggler of logistics.

A virtual event is vastly different from an in-person event. It can be fraught with pitfalls for planners who are inexperienced with the format. All the logistics—and potential glitches—of pulling off a virtual event can stop even the most experienced planners in their tracks; especially as attendees’ expectations for elevated experiences and content production continue to grow. We understand how stressful it can be to navigate the realm of virtual events as that bar is set higher and higher. We’re sharing the five biggest issues standing between you and success.

The pandemic created a plot twist for just about everyone, but the truly remarkable stories are how the obstacles were overcome. For Hamilton Families, the challenge was how to pull off their fundraising events while elevating the donor experience for a virtual realm.

Whether she’s creating a branded winter wonderland out of a blank slate venue or bringing a Bali-esque dream to life on an open field overlooking the San Francisco Bay, you can bet that Senior Executive Producer and VP of Strategic Partnerships Marianne Jackson has tackled every last event detail with creative flair. Her zest for travel and adventure, cuisine, and aesthetics is visible in every event—whether in-person or virtual—that she produces.

On a tight deadline to produce a virtual event with minimal budget and no clue where to start? You don’t need to throw the towel in just yet. Today, we’re sharing personalized, simple solutions that won’t break your budget, or force you to learn an entirely new set of technical expertise to build the engaging, virtual event experience you’re envisioning.

Nothing quite bridges the gap between the virtual and physical realm like using tangible items that tie back into an experience your attendees will share during the event. Whether the goal of your event is team-building or connecting with your customers, session boxes with tailored swag or activity contents deepen the sense of community and encourage active participation. Your attendees won’t be gathering in person, but incorporating the five senses into the event will ground them in an experience they’ll remember.

Claire Morrison joins the Kennedy Events team from Florence, Italy. She’s a Bay Area native but moved overseas to pursue her undergraduate and graduate degrees. Though positioned abroad, her heart still remains tethered to home, and working for Kennedy Events allows her to maintain ties to her California roots.

We have seen over and over attendees light up at the experience of enjoying thoughtfully items shipped straight to their door. From tie-dying kits for team building to revealing their winnings off scratch cards during a financial presentation to toasting together after creating an elaborate cocktail under the tutelage of a mixologist, to props for a virtual photo booth, items big and small can make an enormous impact. We’re here to help guide you through all the pitfalls of shipping and ensure your event is remembered long after they sign off your virtual event.

As the reality—and necessity—of socially-distanced celebrations settled in last Fall, we were contacted to create a virtual holiday party that needed to take place in less than three weeks. The challenge was not only creating a fun and engaging event in a serious time crunch but to do so across four different time zones.

As we like to remind ourselves every year, there is no such thing as planning too early for the holiday season. So, how do you get through another season of uncertainty? One sure-fire way is to plan for a virtual celebration. With in-person events continuing to be in question, you can still bring people together in a shared virtual experience to ring in the holiday season; not to mention satellite offices and team members that you want to include in the festivities.

As a networking tool, a name badge that is thoughtfully designed provides a powerful opportunity for participants to learn, connect, and engage​​. Corporate events that successfully help people generate the right personal and organizational outcomes start with interactions, and your event’s name badge should facilitate making new connections. To learn how to create the best name badges out there, read on.

DonnaRose Kohl, better known by all as DR, comes to Kennedy Events with nine years in the business as a certified meeting planner. We’re so pleased to introduce her, and we know you’ll soon be singing her praises too.