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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this video, Kennedy Events’ Senior Producer and Creative Director Marianne Jackson chats with Joel Costa, Director of Sales and Marketing at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, to talk about his experience working at the iconic Half Moon Bay property during the lock-down and get some insight into their re-opening plans.

How do you stop attendees from zoning out during your virtual events? Kennedy Events shares a few tips and tools to make sure you are keeping your audience engaged and glued to your presenter.

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.

Want to hear about the time we thought it was a challenge to take an established fundraiser out of a country club ballroom and move it onto a grass field normally reserved for puppy training classes? Naturally, we hit it out of the park; delighting both the client and their guests during a beautiful evening spent outdoors raising money to support Marin Humane. Of course, in 2020, an evening with 350 guests—even an outdoor gala—simply wasn’t an option.