Boston Corporate Party Ideas
Companies in Boston, you have the opportunity to throw a corporate party for one of the most vibrant populations! We’d like to help you make the most of our stellar city and your company event with these corporate party ideas.
Trendy Boston Corporate Party Ideas
Pulling from our favorite 2015 Boston party themes, here’s how you can highlight the best aspects of your company with these trendy corporate party ideas:- Company pride: make your party “all one color,” and make that your company color. This theme gives you free reign to deck out the venue in your corporate colors and logos. It’s especially fitting for brand events such as product launches, rebrands, new store openings and open houses. We also love to see company colors and logos take center stage at corporate anniversary parties.
- Success stories: showcase your clients’ and company’s success with an inspirational party theme. Showcase moving stories, quotes and images on the walls with a projector and blown up into large posters...There are so many ways to turn this theme into a memorable event. Plus, it’s a great way to make your clients feel valued, motivate potential customers to work with your company and recognize employees’ hard work. This is also an ideal theme for a retirement party by recognizing individuals who helped shape your career.
- Going green: combine the outdoor garden, seasonal flowers and eco-friendly party themes by hosting a green event. This theme is always trending; and with such a positive impact, your event will send a positive message to all attendees—you just have to remember to promote the “green-ness” of your event.
- Giving back: no matter the celebration (but perhaps even more so when you celebrate the holidays), keep in mind that most people really do love to give back. That’s why we especially love giving back to a charity during your corporate event. Not only will it will boost the morale of everyone at the party, it will also help those less fortunate. Here are some Boston charities that might help you consider giving back to a local cause:
Bright Ideas for Your Boston Corporate Event
Awesome corporate party décor will help shape your guests’ experiences. Make sure your photographer does not have a problem capturing your top-notch event with these party décor and lighting ideas:- Branded centerpieces: for any type of centerpiece, we suggest incorporating your company’s logo in a clever and festive way that increases brand recognition. For example, do you have an edible centerpiece like a dessert tower? Have your logo frosted on to the top of some of the dessert treats for some appetizing branding.
- Lighting: lighting is one of the best (and easiest) ways to set the mood at your party, which is why we are crazy about it! Keep your venue bright to magnify the energy of your corporate party. Or, turn down the lights to spotlight certain décor pieces on the walls or your buffet/food station areas where you are trying to direct most of the party’s traffic.
- Furniture: your corporate party furniture and seating design plan should facilitate networking and socializing—or should promote your event goals should they be different from that. Make sure guests will be comfortable and ready to mingle whether that means using smaller pods of furniture, several two- and three-seat sofas or plenty of highboy tables for the come-and-go type cocktail hour functions.
- Swag bags: freebies (edible or not) can be one of your corporate event decorations that draw the most attention and serve as a brand reminder. If you are throwing an employee appreciation party or an awards event, upscale company branded gifts serve as both swag bags and thank you gifts.
Custom Menus and Drinks for Boston Events!
Show pride for your brand and customer base with these Boston event menu and bar ideas:- Community favorites: think “Boston.” A Boston corporate party menu favorite includes all of New England’s finest fare: clam chowder, fish and chips, homemade baked beans or Boston cream pie. These menu items tap into hometown pride and service the trending “late-night comfort food” fad that everyone loves right now (including us!).
- Corporate special: take a unique aspect of your company and work it into your custom corporate event menu. Creative companies will naturally want to offer a signature menu item that surprises and excites guests—whether that includes a particular ingredient that means something to your company, or inserting company names, mascots, logos or other important brand-specific vocabulary into the menu titles—make sure you customize your food and drink!
- Signature drinks: in addition to traditional popular beverages, offer innovative drinks served in custom designed company glasses. Upscale disposables can easily incorporate your company logo on each glass. Some events can even have custom ice cubes made and put into drinks.
Corporate Event Entertainment Ideas
When choosing your corporate party entertainment, first think of your event goals. Is this an upbeat, positive event or a cool, sophisticated type of party?Whether you choose lively entertainment or a jazzy ensemble, here are some corporate party entertainment ideas:- Live music: from pop to indie rock to jazz and classical, Boston has no shortage of great music and local entertainers. We are huge fans of live music, which includes quartets, big bands, garage bands or even employee bands (which is the coolest way to get your entire company invested in the event).
- Team building activities: even if your company party is not holiday themed, you can incorporate some of our company holiday party activities for Boston events. Any activity that gets the crowd interacting is a win for events everywhere.
- VIP guest: Boston has an impressive collection of local artists. From comedians to street performers, entertain guests and support our local businesses by hiring a Boston favorite.
- Charity station: this speaks volumes about your company’s values and leaves guests with a giving spirit. Choose a charity your company has a good relationship with, or ask employees to vote on the charity they wish to support this year. Then, incorporate donation stations throughout the event to raise money, resources, awareness and encourage volunteering.
Measuring Your Return on Investment for Hosting Corporate Events
How can you tell if your corporate events are worth the investment? How can you measure their success?Firstly, as you already know, there are so many reasons to host an event, and that’s where this entire process begins! Some of those celebrations might include:
- Product launch
- Grand opening
- Employee appreciation
- Holiday party
- Milestone celebration
- Client appreciation
Ways to Measure Corporate Event ROI
When it comes to being able to measure ROI, all events must begin with event objectives. After all, you need to know what figures you’re interested in measuring to determine your return!Some examples include:- Increase productivity levels.
- Boost employee morale and engagement.
- Introduce a new product to key clients.
- Build brand awareness.
Measuring Corporate Event ROI: Pre- and Post-Event Surveys
Companies looking to boost or maintain high levels of the aforementioned can incorporate pre- and post-event surveys for their line-level and manager-level employees.Employee appreciation events include, but are not limited to: holiday parties, annual picnics, quarterly parties, company anniversaries, retirement parties, etc.Countless publications offer tips to positively impact things like employee morale, productivity levels, psychological health and well-being, employee engagement, company culture and happiness levels. Those tips frequently involve celebrations, events and employee recognition/rewards.Some of the most successful companies have a strong link to healthy levels of the above-mentioned. This leads us to deduce that the most successful businesses are the ones that host events!How to Measure the Success of Your Appreciation Events:
Select a sample of employees and give them your survey before the event. Make sure you are asking questions that specifically quantify what you’re measuring (the above list is a good start).
For example: ask survey responders to place a value on unquantifiable things, such as their energy levels and feelings. Use a 1-10 rating scale.
After the event, give the employees who answered the pre-survey the same (or a similar) survey, once again asking them to quantify those intangibles. Assess the results to determine how successful your event was in boosting morale, improving employee engagement and in bettering the overall well-being of your company.
There are pre-made surveys that can help you quantify these difficult-to-measure factors, but we recommend creating your own survey and setting it up through an online survey program that will sample your selection so that your responses are custom to your company.Measuring Corporate Event ROI: Financial Statement Comparisons
Financial figures are some of the more basic tools you can use when measuring your event ROI. Most often, if your numbers increase over the past year (all other things considered staying relatively the same), then your event was probably a success.However, that’s obviously not the best way to compare your event’s success because there are other factors that would impact the actual ROI and financial statements. You can break down your measurements even more so that you can determine how successful your event needs to be in order to prove a return on your investment.Assess Your Financial Statements with These Modifiers:
If you’re interested in measuring productivity increases or sales impacts, narrow down the time frame in which you’re collecting data to compare the results. For example, after your first quarter employee party, measure pertinent financial figures over the next two weeks. Compare those results to last year’s results during the same two weeks, or you can measure the results from the month following the annual company picnic with the results from the same month in the previous years.
Are you launching a new product or celebrating a specific brand achievement? Often times, these are public or invitation-only events. Therefore, you would need to measure the success of the event based on your event’s launch or brand interaction goals. It is simple to measure whether or not you reached those goals by the event turnout, number of sales at the event (i.e., product launches or client appreciation events) and the amount of social media interaction (i.e., facebook likes, tweets, hashtags, etc.). Plus, you can measure several other quantifiable marketing tools, such as increases in website hits for the next several weeks, promo codes used, etc.
Measuring Corporate Event ROI: Behavior
Launching a product? Opening a new location? Interested in running a sales competition?In general, measuring the return on events involving your employees’ or clients’ behaviors is relatively straightforward and easy to measure when using promotional codes, materials or offers. In other words, you are measuring their behaviors as a result of the event.Measure your sales at the actual product launch or grand opening celebration.
This one is a little backward because you will see the return on the promise of an investment first, with the actual event coming second. Reward staff with an event when they meet certain sales goals; the event is now the motivator.
As a thank you for attending your client appreciation event, send guests home with a promotional code or offer. In addition to the increased brand confidence and association, you will learn from a well-run event that you can measure the calls to action through those special offers.
Measuring Corporate Event ROI: Focus Groups
Focus groups are expensive and time-consuming; however, the results derived from them are often worth it.How You Can Measure Using Focus Groups:
For those very large events with goals involving employee morale or engagement, consider conducting a focus group with employees after your event to see how effective your execution was. For an additional fee, you can hire third-party groups who specialize in conducting these types of studies.
For large events with goals involving brand awareness, brand loyalty, etc., consider conducting a focus group with clients and/or event attendees to assess the effectiveness of your event execution.