Corporate entertainment activities New York City

You’ve booked your venue, selected a great activity for your group, and are ready to hit “Send” on the invitation distribution list. However, one important decision remains: how long should this thing go for?

This is one of those event planning questions which doesn’t come up immediately, but rather tends to bubble up to the surface somewhere along the line. You want to give your hard-working colleagues, loyal clients, or valued brand enthusiasts a positive, enjoyable experience, but how long should it last? What’s too short, or too long? These are very important questions you should be asking yourself if you’re the one in charge of putting the event together!

Corporate party planning is both a science and an art, and as is so often the case, there’s no straight answer here. Every case is different, and it ultimately comes down to several factors. I’ve laid the big ones out below, which I hope you will find useful:

• Who is Your Audience? – It always begins here. Who will be participating in this function? Hopefully, you’ve selected an activity which matches their interests, and is appropriate to their age/activity level. Assuming this is the case, how long should they be doing whatever you’ve got in store? Are they work hard/play hard types, or would they rather keep it simple? Also, how well does this group know each other? Do they work intimately together every day under one roof, or is this a rare time they’re together in a room? Take a good, hard look at your invitee list, and use this as a guide for determining just how much time should be allotted (Follow this link for another useful article on assessing your group’s behavior).

• What is the Event Context? – Just as important as the “who” is the “why.” What is the purpose of this shindig? Are we marking the achievement of a goal? Have we just come off of a particularly busy or rough patch? Another thing to consider: are there new people who don’t know others very well (or at all?). The ultimate goal is of course to give these people a great experience, so keep an eye on the “why” when figuring out how long the entertainment should last.

• What is the Time of Day/Year? – Important. You are asking these people to commit time out of their day, likely in the evening after work hours, when they could be doing – well, literally anything else. You’ve got to respect that, in order to ensure your guests have a great time. Is your function falling smack dab in the middle of the group’s “busy season?” Have you committed an entire half or full workday to this, and thus have more time to play with? Also, seasons: entertaining corporate groups in NYC and other temperate areas means the summers can be REALLY hot, and the winters REALLY cold. You don’t want to torture your guests by making them spend too much time outdoors, either in transit or during the fete itself.

• What Else is in Store? – By far the most common format I see is the afternoon or evening event, typically very informal, with a 2-3 hour time slot to fill. In this type of “happy hour” scenario, there is usually a chance to socialize before and after, with 1-2 hours of structured activity in between. However, if we’re talking about a retreat or full-blown “fun day,” there may be multiple activities planned, in addition to meals, transportation, awards, networking sessions, etc. All of this comes into play when working out the agenda, and deciding which duration to opt for with respect to each activity.

• What Are They Expecting? – Is this party something that happens regularly, or at least annually? If so, what has your audience come to expect in the past, and how much should you deviate from that? Remember, you want to meet (or even succeed) your group’s expectations, not the opposite! Do some informal research beforehand, and poll your intended audience. Find out what they’ve come to expect as far as the duration of the activity, but also find out just how excited they are about that. Maybe the structured holiday party activity is only 10 minutes every year because it’s always lame? Conversely, maybe attendance at the company’s annual scavenger hunt/boat race/ropes course triathlon is down because people really aren’t that enthused with the prospect? These are all things for you, the planner, to think about.

• Does Your Chosen Activity Have Fixed Times? – If you’ve got a performance-based activity planned, your performers likely have fixed performance times. At the very least, there is probably a time where they “max out,” either due to their own endurance levels or that of the room. In my case producing trivia contests, I rarely go over two hours (even though I certainly could). Why? I’ve found that people start to develop what I call “trivia fatigue,” meaning after two solid hours, they really don’t want to answer any more brain teasers. Conversely, if you are taking your group to a theme park or picnic or beach day, there’s really no limit to how much time they can “do” the activity. For you planning the event, ask your vendor about fixed times. (Bonus tip: ask about extensions! Is this possible, and if so what fees are involved – it’s nice to have some flexibility in your back pocket. And speaking of flexibility…)

• Be Flexible – When prospective clients call me up and ask me how long my trivia entertainment events for corporate groups in Manhattan and beyond last, I always tell them the same thing. We typically go between 1-2 hours, but that can easily be adjusted up or down if need be (click here for more on our trivia event experience). Why? Because the reality of corporate entertaining is that the agenda is rarely if ever firmly adhered to. Again, the overall goal is to give your group of invited attendees a great experience; it is NOT to cram as much activity as possible into every second of available time. Be flexible! Don’t get your heart set on doing “X” for this many hours, then “Y” for this many hours. Stick to the agenda as much as possible, but constantly take “temperature checks” with the room to see how things are going, and make any necessary adjustments accordingly.

Visit www.trivworks.com/corporate-entertainment to learn more.