
The latest from Kennedy Events’ expert production team
What You’re Getting Wrong: Best Practices For Creating Conference Name Badges That Get It Right
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.
How to Mix It Up Virtually: Kennedy Events Talks Mixology Experiences with Avital Tours
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!
Measuring the ROI of Virtual Events
Are you having trouble justifying your event budget to your leadership because your Return on Investment (ROI) is hard to track? The success of a virtual event can be measured in many different ways depending on the purpose and nature of the event.
Creating a Path to Customer Success with Adobe
As event planners, our client’s success is our success. Partnering with Adobe for a multi-show and multi-format program spread globally across several time zones gave this small team the opportunity to provide significant impact, supporting our client each step of the way. In this case study, we’re sharing the challenges of reaching a global audience and how we overcame them to reach Adobe’s vision of success.
Team Introductions: Meet Event Planner Eric Dong
When Eric Dong joined the Kennedy Events team as an event planner, we knew he would be a natural fit for our team. Eric is a ray of sunshine brightening our clients’ event horizon and we are legitimately jumping for joy to introduce you to him.
Securing Extraordinary Spaces: Our Favorite Bay Area Venues of 2021
Kennedy Events Creative Director and Senior Producer Marianne Jackson recently sat down with three of our favorite venue managers to dig into these dynamic partnerships and discuss the top venue trends they foresee for 2021 and beyond.
Arm Yourself to Successfully Make the Case for a Bigger Event Budget
Investing the time and money required to pull off a large-scale event can send stakeholders running for the hills, or smaller bottom lines. Don’t be discouraged. Securing stakeholder buy-in can be a cakewalk given the proper preparation, fully baked ideas, and the fundamental fixings for a perfect event plan mixing.
Event Spotlight: There’s No Keeping Connection at Bay
We all faced more than our fair share of twists and turns thanks to the pandemic. For the Bay Alarm Company, the challenge was how to pull off their annual awards celebration in the virtual realm. In order to ensure the same heart and soul was poured into the virtual event, Bay Alarm partnered with Kennedy Events.
The Core Values That Drive Our Team and Our Events
Communication has always been a pillar of Kennedy Event’s foundation, but it took a pandemic to show us that it clearly deserved a place among our core values. Delivering any kind of information deserves its due diligence and we believe communication is our greatest asset. We’re excited to share our core values, including our newest addition.
Helpful Hints: Navigating the Nitty-Gritty of Venue Selection and Contract Negotiation
Are you planning an event for the fall season? Look to book now. Live events were canceled left and right as COVID clutched the world. Now clients are eager to get back to live events as venues are being inundated with requests and those calendars are filling up quickly. With new health and safety regulations to consider, here are just a few tips that will guide you to successful venue selection while keeping those contracts in check.
Delivering Items to Your Remote Attendees: Opportunities to Delight + Challenges to Deliver
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!
Meeting and Event Trends for 2021: Paving the Way Back to Live, In-Person Events
As the light at the end of the tunnel—live, in-person events—resurfaces as a viable option, the question remains: How have the expectations of audiences and attendees shifted with the seasons spent in lockdown? Kennedy Events is sharing the trends that will influence event planning through the rest of 2021 and beyond.
Bringing Experiential Elements to Virtual Events
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!
The Magic Behind Entertaining Guests at Virtual Events
Have you been wondering how to keep audiences engaged through a screen? KE Creative Director and Senior Producer Marianne Jackson recently sat down with mentalist and illusionist Wayne Hoffman to chat about the adaptation of his live show format to entertaining virtual event attendees. Wayne has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Watch this video to see the magic unfold.
Event Spotlight: How a Bit of Creative Kindling Ignited a SPARK
Looking to ignite a creative spark for your next corporate event? The KE team has the kindling and the match to ignite flair and finesse into your conference. When we were approached to inject some creativity into a software procurement conference, we knew the keys to success would be having a clear vision and providing compelling content. The beautifully branded, two-day SPARK Conference was so successful attendees didn’t want it to end.
The Most Invisible Yet Crucial Position On Your Virtual Events Team
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 our production partner and 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.
Your Attention Please: The Dos & Don’ts of Agenda Building for Virtual Events
Studies show that if you don’t keep your audience engaged, you’ll lose the average adult viewer in less than 10 minutes. Want to guarantee an experience that can make you proud and also do service to your brand? You’ll need to construct an agenda that works specifically for the virtual world.
The Most Invisible Yet Crucial Position On Your Virtual Events Team
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.
Tips from the Pros: Six Strategic Steps to Avoid Post-Event Pitfalls
Whether it’s a conference attended by thousands or a virtual picnic party for your team, every event involves a myriad of moving parts that don’t all come to a stop at the close of the festivities. Before you archive your event files, you need to make sure you’ve wrapped up everything properly. The Zoom room may be closed, but that doesn’t mean the to-do list is done.
Summertime Solutions: Introducing the Virtual Picnic Party
In this video, Kennedy Events Senior Producer and Creative Director Marianne Jackson and Foxtail Catering’s Business Development Manager Patrick Hamilton chat about our Virtual Picnic Party Packages. Learn how we can help you build an immersive party experience while keeping your team members safe and socializing across multiple time zones.