Gianna's Gems - Your Brain Needs a Break!

Hi there,

As a biology minor, (and Huberman Lab podcast fan) I love brain science… so I was thrilled when a reader shared this great article with me and suggested I work it into one of my blogs (thanks Trish Sowinski!). I hope this will spark interest in the way you think about breaks – both for your own productivity as well as when planning events. I promise, breaks will actually lead to more optimal results for you, even if it’s counter-intuitive in our always-on, more is more culture.

The Science of Stress and Breaks

Alright, let's get our nerd glasses on for a minute. Microsoft teamed up with some brainiac researchers to study what happens to our brains during back-to-back virtual meetings: It's not pretty.

Here's the TLDR:

• Back-to-back meetings can lead to stress buildup over time. It's like trying to stuff too many sequins on a dress – more is not more.

• This stress shows up as beta wave activity in the brain. Think of beta waves as the "I'm stressed and overthinking everything" waves. 

• But here's the kicker: Taking even a short break between meetings allows the brain to "reset," reducing this beta activity.

• In other words, breaks aren't just nice to have – they're essential for keeping our brains from turning into a frazzled web of stress and chaos.

Why Event Planners Need Breaks (Like, Yesterday)

Now, this research might be about virtual meetings, but let's be real – our job is basically one long series of meetings, calls, and high-stress tasks. We're juggling vendors, client and stakeholder expectations, and trying to create magic out of thin air. If anyone needs a brain break, it's us!

When we don't give our brains a chance to reset:

1. We might miss crucial details or make silly mistakes

2. Our creativity takes a nosedive (bye-bye, innovative event concepts)

3. Our stress levels skyrocket faster than a champagne cork at midnight which might make us more susceptible to illness (not good for the project), or giving us a short-fuse (not good for relationships)

By trying to squeeze more in, you may ultimately end up with results that are suboptimal or worse, that you regret which causes you MORE lost time in the long run.

The Art of the Strategic Break

So, how do we give our brains the breather they're begging for? Here are some of my tips, backed by science:

1. The 10-Minute Rule: Microsoft's research showed that taking even a 10-minute break between meetings can help your brain reset. So, when you're scheduling your day, build in those 10-minute buffers!

2. Pomodoro Method: I love using this for task-blocking during the day. You set a timer (like a red tomato one, hence the name) for 25 minutes, and focus 100% on one task. When the timer goes off, you must take a break and do anything to unwind for five before starting the next task block (like watching Marcel the Shell on youtube - don’t judge).

3. Meditation / Yoga: The study found that meditation between meetings led to more relaxed brain patterns. Try a quick mindfulness session using apps like Calm or Headspace. Yoga Nidra Deep Rest is another great method my husband swears by, though I’ve never gotten into it (sorry honey!)

4. Nature: Step outside for a quick walk. Research shows that nature can boost creativity and reduce stress. Bonus: If you weed your garden, you also get beneficial probiotics from the soil which will also reduce stress and enhance well being!

5. Move: Do some stretches, calf raises, or strike a yoga pose like cat-cow to improve blood flow and circulation. Getting your blood flowing helps your brain too!

6. Social Time: Chat with a colleague or friend. Human connection can work wonders for your mood and productivity. Five minutes of taking a break to connect may end up saving you time in the end by refreshing and re-engaging you after a pause. Plus, if you add in some laughter, it is a natural antidote to stress.

Putting It Into Practice: Event Agenda Edition

Now, let's apply this brain-saving wisdom to event agenda planning:

1. Build in breaks for your attendees. I recently spoke with an event planner who said her client cut all the breaks/social elements out of an internal event to “optimize the ROI by jamming in as much content as possible”. The result? Attendees were not engaged, didn’t learn as much or enjoy the event as much as they did previously (as indicated by survey results) and they didn’t even save much money by cutting the breaks and fun elements.

2. Vary session lengths to keep energy high. Mix it up with some shorter, punchier sessions and nix the 60 minute keynotes. My favorite formats to mix in include:

•  Lightning sessions where each speaker just has five minutes to get their concept across giving you a “snack” rather than a full deep dive.

• Community-share-circles featuring customers sharing their personal stories and opening up discussion with fellow customers/prospects

• Crowd-sourced content and unconferences

• AMA’s

• Talk-Show format

3. Include "reset" activities between sessions – like meditation or stretching breaks, “sandboxes” where attendees can explore interactive, sensory experiences, or even having quiet rooms for people to chill out and nap or get a foot massage to recharge!

4. Give an hour and a half (or more) for meal times so people aren’t rushed and have time to eat, socialize, even do a quick walk before sitting down for the next session. Plus, this is when many of the most important connections are made, not during content sessions, so don’t skimp on the meal breaks.

5. Consider adding nature elements or outdoor sessions if possible. Fresh air and greenery does wonders for the mind and keep people awake, inspired, and engaged.

The Gianna Gem Takeaway

Remember, taking breaks isn't just self-care – it's a science-backed strategy! It's like giving your brain a mini-spa day between the chaos of event planning and I can guarantee it’s going to make you feel better and do better in the long run than powering through like a martyr.

The next time you're tempted to eliminate a break to save time, remember what the brainiacs at Microsoft discovered. Your events (and your stress levels) will thank you!

Keep shining and giving that beautiful brain of yours the breaks it deserves.

~Gianna

P.S. I'd love to hear your favorite ways to take a break or incorporate breaks into your event planning. Drop me a comment or slide into my DMs with your best brain-refreshing tips! Let's create a revolution of well-rested, super-creative event planners!

Gianna's Gems - The Power of Relationships in Event Planning

Hi there,

This week I was lucky enough to literally have a front row seat at the SF Jazz performance of John Beasley’s Monk’estra, a big band orchestra that performs the pieces of Thelonius Monk. They kicked off Thelonius Monk weekend at SF Jazz, a tradition I’m proud to say was founded by my father and one that I hope continues indefinitely! As I sat close enough to high-five the woodwinds section of the band, I found myself overwhelmed with inspiration and awe as the performers listened to each other, took turns improvising and performing solos, and watching Beasley both play the piano and jump up between his part to conduct the orchestra with such enthusiasm it was contagious. It reminded me of leading a team to plan an event and how critical it is that everyone works together in harmony, sharing credit and taking turns carrying the baton to create beautiful music (aka the event).

This week’s Gem is about the key ingredient to successful event planning: Relationships….and why cultivating strong connections is the secret sauce to creating unforgettable experiences whether you’re a Brand Leader, Agency member, Freelancer, or Solopreneur.

Why Relationships Matter in Event Planning

Picture this: You're planning a massive product launch event. The venue's booked, the catering's planned, and your tech setup is state-of-the-art. But here's the kicker – without solid relationships, you're building a house of cards that could topple at any moment. After all, events are only as good as the people behind them and if even one team member isn’t happy or working collaboratively, it can affect the entire program.

Agencies and Clients: A Match Made in Event Heaven

Let's start with the dynamic duo of agencies and clients. Why is this relationship so crucial? It's all about trust, understanding, and shared vision.

For agencies (or solopreneurs):

• Building strong client relationships means repeat business. I’ve been interviewing agency members about what drives new and repeat business for agencies.  The unanimous answer: by building solid relationships and trust with their clients and delivering consistently.

• Understanding your client's brand inside and out leads to more authentic, impactful events, but knowing them personally helps you navigate and understand the nuances when it comes to solving their pain points, managing stakeholders, and flexing your style to meet their needs. I’ll never forget my mother, who owned her own interior design business, telling me once that she was delivering samples and ideas to a client who had a very different aesthetic from her own, but it was important to flex to meet the client’s style. That’s what a good event partner does - maintains strategic direction and guidance through the process, while personalizing to each unique client. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to propose the same type of event experience and style for C Level banking executives as to Gen Z creators.

• Open communication channels make problem-solving a breeze when (not if) hiccups occur. The biggest downfalls I’ve seen with agencies is not communicating when something has or is going awry for fear of upsetting the client. Most clients would much rather have up-front communication and be involved in the problem-solving, than hear about an incident after it’s too late for damage control.

For clients:

• A trusted agency or solopreneur becomes an extension of your team, not just a vendor and can provide you with a wealth of industry knowledge and creative ideas.

• Long-term relationships often lead to better rates and priority service, so maintain relationships with your top partners even when you aren’t under water. 

• Remember to listen to your agency team members rather than assuming you have all the answers. When you ask questions, you’re saying, “I don’t know everything, but I’m willing to learn.” That’s powerful, and people walk away from the conversation feeling validated and respected. it signals you’re there to learn and grow with them and this often leads to the most powerful outcomes.

• An example of how I put this into play is I often have a team member start our team meetings with a quote that resonates with them. It’s a great way to make sure everyone’s voice is heard in meetings and also provide insight into what might be on people’s minds, or their deeper values/passions.

The Client-Freelancer-Employee Trifecta

Now, let's talk about the magical trio of clients, freelancers, and employees. This relationship is like a well-oiled machine – when it's running smoothly, it's pure synergistic delight.

For clients:

• Treating freelancers and employees well ensures loyalty and peak performance. Listen as much or more than you speak because when you listen, people feel valued. That’s the kind of energy that makes teams exceptional.

• Happy teams are more likely to go above and beyond, turning good events into great ones.

• Building and maintaining a reliable network means you always have top talent at your fingertips and can staff up quickly when needed if you’ve invested ahead of time in building and maintaining relationships.

For freelancers and employees:

• Understanding a stakeholder's vision makes it easier to exceed expectations. I never start a program until I understand exactly what the client believes success looks like (and then I aim to exceed that in every way)

• Positive working relationships reduce stress and make the job more enjoyable. Event planning is often ranked in the top 5 most stressful jobs, so as a leader in our industry, I’m always looking for ways to change this statistic. Take time to meet with your freelancers outside the office for lunch or coffee, get to know them outside of just work meetings, build inside jokes and learn what makes each team member tick, be it playing Mariah Carey when you’re in the War Room, or making sure there’s Diet Dr Pepper backstage.

Events: The Ultimate Team Sport

Here's the thing, folks – events are not a solo act. They're a beautiful symphony of collaboration, and every player needs to be in tune.

Why teamwork makes the dream work in events:

1. Diverse skills come together to create magic. (Your AV tech and your florist might not speak the same language, but together they create ambiance!)

2. Quick problem-solving requires trust and open communication.

3. The energy of a well-coordinated team is infectious and elevates the entire event.

4. Shared successes (and challenges) build stronger bonds for future projects.

My Gianna’s Gem takeaway:

Remember, in this industry, building trust with your network is your net worth. Cultivate those relationships like they're the most precious flowers in your garden. Nurture them with respect, open communication, and maybe the occasional coffee or cocktail.

When you prioritize relationships in event planning, you're not just creating successful events – you're building a community, a support system, and a recipe for long-term success.

So, here's your homework: Reach out to a client, colleague, or vendor you haven't connected with in a while. Ask how they're doing, share a funny industry meme, or just say thanks for being awesome. Trust me, it's these little gestures that build the foundations for event planning greatness.  Until next time, keep shining bright and building those beautiful connections!

Gianna recommends (and for all my all-time favorite vendors and partners visit: https://www.giannagaudini.com/gianna-recommends):

• Zbiotic drink - One of my best girlfriends just shared her secret to how she attends wine-filled sales dinners and manages to never get a hangover (seriously, I was all ears!) She told me about Zbiotic, a drink that’s created from scientifically tested bacteria that help process alcohol faster (see how it works). So…I tried it and low and behold, woke up feeling fresh as a daisy! I’m sold. And with this link, you can take $20 off the product and put it to the test yourself before holiday season sets in in earnest!

• Podcast - Joe Rogan interviews Naval Ravikant: How to live your life in a happy way, while also retiring early. Lots of amazing gems in here. I listened to the entire thing and found myself writing down and pondering a lof of the great wisdom shared. 

• SF Jazz - I’m such a fan of this venue and the performances. But the best kept secret I want to share with those who don’t live in San Francisco it the brilliant ability to view every performance online!  You can get an online viewing membership here for just $7 a month and enjoy great video content streamed live from every performance.

• Nourish: I’ve been hearing promos for : AG1 for years and finally decided to give it a try. My only regret? Wish I’d done so sooner! It is delicious, so easy to add to my routine, and easily adds over 30 vegetables to my diet via a simple drink. I mix mine with matcha in a tea and it’s amazing. They also have packets that you can travel with which are perfect for those plane rides where you really want some nutrients without having to eat a huge salad.

Priceless Events - My secret sauce.

Hi there,

This week I’m going to address an AMA question from a follower:

Hi Gianna, My name is Dan (false name provided here for anonymity) and I work in tech. Our events are mainly catered to senior executives, often intimate retreats of 100 people or less. Can you share more on how to personalize the experience or which activities to consider for an audience that can buy anything they want? Thinking of cool swag for this audience without being wasteful has become increasingly more difficult. Are there any cool brands you love?

I love this question because this is my specialty: How to add real value that doesn’t equate to just throwing caviar and Dom into the mix (nobody does this anymore anyways for optics reasons). For an audience that can "buy anything," the key is to focus on experiences, connections, and exclusive access that money alone can't easily buy. 

When planning events for this type of audience, focus on providing unique, transformative experiences that offer: exclusive access or information, networking opportunities with equally accomplished or interesting peers, the opportunity to make an impact or achieve transformation, access to speakers and experiences that can't be easily purchased…and be sure to personalize the experience!

Remember, for this audience, the value often lies in the rarity, personalization, and transformative nature of the experience rather than just its luxury or cost. A common mistake is that people think they need the big name speaker or fancy hotel venue, when maybe it’s actually access to a specific company’s headquarters, a meal cooked together in a private chef’s home, and networking with others that they wouldn’t be able to curate themselves.

Below are a few ideas for events that cater to this need:

1. Intimate Thought Leadership Gatherings:

   • Small, curated dinners with world-renowned experts, thinkers, or leaders

   • I love a Jeffersonian-Style format to encourage a group conversation. Topics could range from future trends to personal growth to longevity and wellness.

2. Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Experiences:

   • Private tours of normally inaccessible places (private art collections, space centers, movie sets, private wine caves)

   • Backstage access and meet-and-greets with performers/athletes at major cultural or sporting events

3. Collaborative Philanthropy Events:

   • Hands-on volunteering experiences in exotic locations

   • Impact investment workshops with direct access to innovative social entrepreneurs

4. Bespoke Skill Acquisition Retreats:

   • Masterclasses with world-class artisans or athletes (fly fishing, watchmaking, culinary, wine, golf, falconry)

   • Intensive learning experiences (e.g., space training, survival skills)

   • Racing exotic cars with professional drivers

   • Heli-skiing, Running or cycling with Olympic athletes

5. Exclusive Preview and Beta-Testing Events:

   • First access to groundbreaking technologies or products

   • Opportunity to influence product development of luxury brands

   • This is also a great gift to address that topic above! I remember gifting Google Glass at events which was very high-valued to our audience as it wasn’t publicly available for sale.

6. Ultra-Personalized Wellness Retreats:

   • Cutting-edge health diagnostics and personalized treatment plans (My favorite brand is Canyon Ranch for their holistic and precision medical approach. See my Gianna Recommends for more details)

   • One-on-one sessions with leading health and wellness experts

   • Cold plunging and sauna with gurus

   • Meditation and yoga with influencer gurus in the space

7. Cultural Immersion Experiences:

   • Private concerts with renowned musicians in iconic locations

   • Curated art experiences with famous artists or curators (Think private tour of George Lucas’s art museum and then ask every attendee to share their favorite piece of art for a fun ice-breaker)

8. Culinary Journey Events:

   • Around-the-world tasting experiences with Michelin-starred chefs (I once attended an event hosted by Nespresso where they featured a 10 course meal where each Michelin-star chef prepared a course featuring a flavor of Nespresso!)

   • Foraging and farm-to-table experiences

   • Cheese, Pasta wine making with famous artisans (I once had a group of Google Executives make mozzarella with Michael Chiarello in his home in Napa and then share lunch with him there alfresco!)

When it comes to gifting, I always prioritize quality over quantity, and something they will use that features your logo. Tie it in with the theme of the event. I.e. if you are doing an outdoor adventure, a high quality Arcteryx jacket branded with your logo is something they will wear often and remember the experience they had with you. 

I also like to offer personalization. TED is famous for its gifting program, and they cater to a very high profile audience. TED always allows their attendees to select which gifts they receive, selected from sponsors like Theragun or high-end luggage brands. 

Finally, consider an on-site VIP giveaway shop where guests can select anything they want and you will package it and ship it home to them. Offer a selection of items for their spouses, kids, pets and they will love you as it gets them off the hook for having to pick up a gift at the airport!

If you need assistance with this type of event and don’t know how to approach it, I’m here to help.

Never Plan An Event Without this.

Hi there!

In speaking with new clients, I’m often shocked about the lack of a single SOT (source of truth) outlining the purpose of an event and why they are planning one. So for this week’s Gianna’s Gem, let’s talk about the importance of establishing an Event Brief before you start creating a pinterest board or reaching out to your first speaker.

Creating an Event Brief is crucial for the success of any event, whether it's an offsite, a product launch, or a large-scale conference, tradeshow, or even a dinner series. Creating a crisp, comprehensive 1-2 page Event Brief is important to establish a solid foundation for the entire event planning and execution process. 

It becomes your roadmap, guiding all aspects of the event and ensuring that everyone involved (both internal and external vendors) work towards the same goals.

Establishing this level of clarity and organization is one easy way to significantly increase the chances of hosting a successful and impactful event.

Need more convincing? Below are the benefits to establishing an event brief:

1. Set Clear Objectives and Measurable Outcomes:

• Includes/defines the purpose and goals of the event

• Ensures all stakeholders are aligned on KPI’s are and what success looks like

• Provides a basis for post-event evaluation (ROI/ROO)

2. Scope Clarification:

• Outlines the size, budget, and key elements to include in the event

• Helps prevent scope creep during planning and execution (see last week’s Gianna’s Gem’s on managing this via Cost/Schedule/Features method!)

3. Target Audience Identification:

• Clarifies who the event is for and who is is not for

• Clarification on key audience/s guide decisions on content, format, and marketing strategies

4. Resource Allocation:

• Helps in estimating and allocating budget, time, and team resources

• Aids in identifying potential for external support via freelancers, consultants or agency partners

5. Consistency in Communication:

• Serves as a reference point for all team members and vendors

• Ensures everyone is working with the same information

6. Risk Management:

• Identifies potential challenges or constraints early

• Allows for proactive problem-solving and contingency planning

7. Team, Stakeholder and Vendor Briefing:

• Helps share details internally, specially when onboarding new team members to the project

• Acts as a proposal document for getting approval from decision-makers

• Helps in securing necessary support and resources

• Offers clear guidelines for external partners and suppliers and obtaining accurate quotes and proposals

8. Creative Direction:

• Sets the tone, theme, and style of the event

• Guides branding and design decisions

9. Budget Management:

• Provides a framework for cost estimation and control

• Helps in prioritizing spending based on event objectives

10. Post Event Analysis:

• Post-Event Analysis:

• Provides a benchmark against which to measure the event's success

• Facilitates meaningful post-event reporting and lessons learned

• I also like to include links to previous event iterations surveys/photos in Event Briefs as a reference point.

There are organizations, like Amazon, which will not allow any project to move forward without a brief. This may sound extreme, but is great organizational hygiene for all the reasons outlined above. 

If you’re not sure what to include or where to start, shoot me a note and I can share my template with you. Go get ‘em!

Cost, Schedule, Features - Pick Two.

I've been spending a lot of time with founders, product marketers and most recently attended the 2024 Engineering Leadership Conference, which has me thinking a lot about a phrase my father (A former CTO and engineering leader) shared with me when I was early in my career. So this week’s Gianna’s Gem is all about trade-offs and how you can apply this phrase to stakeholder management for event planning!

The phrase he taught me was: "Cost, Schedule, Features - Pick Two!" 

The concept is well-known in project management and product development (my husband’s profession). It's often referred to as the "Project Management Triad" or the "Triple Constraint." 

To break down how it can apply to event planning, here is an overview of the Triad:

1. Cost: The budget or resources allocated to the event.

2. Schedule: The time frame for planning the event.

3. Features: All the details, bells and whistles, features, demos, breakout sessions, gifting, you name it!

The theory behind "Pick Two" is that in any project, you can optimize for just TWO of these factors, but doing so will inevitably affect the third. 

For example:

• If you want to stay on or below budget, and stick to the event’s planning schedule, you might have to reduce the event quality or the details, bells and whistles that you’re planning.

• If you want all the fun details AND a quick turnaround, it’s possible, BUT, it’s going to cost you more (you can always throw more labor at things!) This one I use often when I get requests to keep adding on, and when I share that YES, it’s possible, but will cost more budget, the requests are usually mitigated.

• If you want all the fun details BUT at a low cost, you may need to sacrifice your timeline or event date (ie. plan your wedding on a Wednesday rather than a prime Saturday!)

When working with clients and stakeholders, rather than saying no to requests, which rarely goes over well and isn’t a win-win, I instead suggest trying this approach. 

Most stakeholders understand that it's unrealistic to expect an event to be cheap, produced on-time, on the ideal date and fully featured with zero sacrifice.

This principle will help your team make informed decisions about event priorities and to set realistic expectations. It's a reminder that compromises often need to be made in event planning and execution.

Below is a detailed example for those who want more than the TLDR:

EVENT: Annual Tech Industry Conference

1. Cost:

• Venue rental: $50,000

• Catering: $30,000

• AV equipment: $15,000

• Speaker fees: $25,000

• Marketing: $20,000

• Staff: $10,000

• Total budget: $150,000

2. Schedule:

• Planning phase: 6 months

• Event duration: 2 days

• Post-event follow-up: 1 month

3. Features:

• 500 attendees

• 5 keynote speakers

• 20 breakout sessions

• Networking cocktail hour

• Product demonstration area

• Live streaming of main sessions

• Mobile app for attendees

• Professional photography and videography

Let's look at how "picking two" might affect the third:

Scenario 1: Prioritize Cost and Schedule

• Reduce budget to $100,000 and keep the 6-month planning timeline

• Features affected: Fewer attendees (350), 3 keynote speakers instead of 5, 15 breakout sessions, no live streaming, simpler mobile app

Scenario 2: Prioritize Schedule and Features

• Keep the 6-month timeline and all planned features

• Cost affected: Budget increases to $200,000 to accommodate all features in the short timeline (e.g., rush fees, premium venue booking)

Scenario 3: Prioritize Cost and Features

• Keep the $150,000 budget and all planned features

• Schedule affected: Planning phase extends to 9 months to allow time for cost-effective solutions (e.g., early bird discounts on venue, time to negotiate with vendors)

Pretty simple, isn’t it? Cost, Schedule Features…Pick Two. 

Happy prioritizing!

AI and Cake?...

Hi there!

People loved last week when I shared how AI can assist with events. These GenAI tools offer basic event frameworks and templates for ROI, etc. 

This is GREAT news as it democratizes playbooks for events so that more people/companies can leverage them to meet their goals. But it got me thinking…These frameworks are a lot like cooking recipes!

Hear me out…

Let’s say we want to bake a cake. Recipes now make these tasty treats accessible to all by providing a blueprint for how to create an outcome (aka cake). Similarly, you can now input what your goals are with an event into a GenAi and get a basic framework for how to go about planning.. 

But…just like these #nailedit cakes, following an AI-generated blueprint doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to end up with an effective event.

Just because you have a “recipe,” there are still many variables when it comes to how the finished product turns out (I mean, have you seen some of those #nailedit cakes?): 

There’s the quality of the ingredients (and whether any fresh ingredients are in season).

The quantity of each ingredient that needs to be added (you wouldn’t want to add 2 cups sugar and 2 teaspoons salt), so cake recipe must be specific.

The order in which you follow the recipe and mix the ingredients together, the temperature in which you bake the cake, and finally, how you serve the cake and present it. 

Would you enjoy a piece of cake served to you on a dirty plate, or without a nice plate and a fork? 

And finally, if the goal of baking the cake was joy, who are you eating it with? 

Happiness takes pleasure and adds people, so a cake eaten alone may have the opposite of a cake shared with others.

This week’s Gianna’s Gem is about why How you plan an event is as important as the framework that you use for your strategy in ensuring a positive outcome. 

Let’s break it down using the cake metaphor:

Quality/Quantity of the Ingredients: 

Quality is one of my favorite ways to ensure a successful event and should be considered in everything you’re planning: The quality of attendees, of your content and speakers, or your swag or gifting, your food and beverages, and your venue. 

When planners try to do too much, invite too many people, produce too much content, etc. I often see quality sacrificed and as a result, the experience suffers. Worse, it could result in a negative brand perception, impact deal renewals or closures, or create low NPS and negative word of mouth. 

Consider where you want to focus and make sure those areas really shine, that’s the blueprint for your budget. I had a friend who stopped giving away free food at his event because he didn’t have the budget to produce high quality food and so his event survey scores always tanked as a result. Instead, he started bringing in local vendors and letting attendees buy their own food. 

He also let sponsors provide F&B experiences or hosted meals, which led to wins for the local economy and even with no “free meals”, the scores on surveys went up! 

If you don’t have time or budget to hire and train high quality speakers, why not host Unconference-style sessions? Studies have shown that event planners can only predict what content attendees want to hear about 40% of the time! 

By allowing attendees to share what they want to learn about IRL and then volunteer to lead community sessions, you are learning what your audience cares about and driving engagement by enabling them to be experts and forge bonds by sharing their knowledge with peers. It also saves a lot of planning time and budget for planners!

Rather than trying to get as many attendees as possible to your event, consider who you really want there and why and consider reducing your invite list, using the saved budget to provide higher quality accommodations or food/gifting. 

These smaller events where attendees are highly curated often lead to excellent outcomes because attendees are carefully curated and form bonds that last beyond the event since they have more time to get to know each other, and the extra budget allows planners to create a more memorable experience for them.

Adding Ingredients in the Right Order and Understanding How to Serve and Savor it with Others. 

Now you have the right people, and the right speakers… but that doesn’t guarantee a successful event.

Consider the attendee journey and the order in which you present activities, sessions, and meals at an event. There is not one “right” order, but you need to be clear on what your goals are and how the correct ordering will impact your results. 

For example, when I used to produce Google Cloud Next, we would often plan the Hands on Demos and “Genius Bar” right outside the keynote and technical breakout rooms so that attendees would first hear about our product launches or watch a technical demo, and could then walk out the session right up to get a hands on demo of the product, or ask an expert a question after a demo. 

Consider openings and closing and make sure you don’t open with a “pain point”. I remember attending a TED Women event where they hosted the opening keynote in the evening because they knew many women were mothers who had to travel that day and couldn’t get to a morning or afternoon session for Day 1. 

To “set the scene” for the experience to come, they tray-passed champagne, chocolate and caviar to attendees as they entered the General Session room. 

Have you ever attended a keynote that starts with champagne, chocolate and caviar? I hadn’t either, but it sure made my neurochemistry light up and go on high alert because this was unique and different and quite delightful, especially given it was the evening and the session would go right into dinner afterwards, so some light snacks and champagne were a perfect appetizer to the socializing to come!

Share the cake to get the most out of it!

Have you ever eaten a cake by yourself? It’s not nearly as fun as sharing it with friends and family. 

Cakes by nature are meant to be shared, so be sure to share them properly. 

When you serve a cake, consider all the details: 

• What will you use to slice it and serve it? 

• Do you need candles (is it a birthday), and does it pair well with ice cream? 

• If it’s a very sweet cake, does it need some salty icecream to offset the sweetness? 

• What temperature should the cake be at - does it taste better warm or cool (i..e cheesecakes are NOT good warm, but a molten lava cake sure is!) 

These small details can make or break the enjoyment of a cake, just as thinking through every aspect of how you execute the details of an event can make an experience exceptional for an attendee, or fall flat. 

Don’t underestimate the details! Poke holes at your plan and walk through the Run of Show several times to make sure you’ve thought through everything. Athletes do this with “mental rehearsal” so they can envision exactly how they will perform and nail it.

And remember - if you’ve gone through all the trouble to produce an excellent event, by all means, it’s better shared! 

In this day and age, it’s easier than ever to automate content from events. 

Leverage speaking sessions in podcast or audio format and share on your website, or newsletter. 

Hire a photographer and share photo albums with attendees. 

I once hired a famous professional photographer to take headshots of CEO’s at my Founder’s Summit and they had these as digital “gifts” after the event which were useful, unique, something they couldn’t have purchased themselves, and reminded them of the premium experience they had with us. 

I also make sure my company’s branding is generic rather than “event-specific” so we can use the beautiful photos of our stage for marketing materials and our website. Even if you have a private, exclusive event, take notes and extract key learnings to share with attendees afterwards, or with your internal team, who often can also benefit. 

And there you have it! The basic “recipes” for events. Be thoughtful, add a human touch, and by all means, make sure everything is high quality and well-executed!

Now…I think I will use the apples I just harvested from my garden to bake an apple cake with my son!

AI for Events - everyone says they’re doing it but does anyone really know what it is?

AI is the buzzword of the year…and I’m pretty sure I’m not the first piece of content you’ve read this week that’s focused on it. 

“A.I. is like teenage sex,” says Frida Polli. “Everyone says they’re doing it, and nobody really knows what it is.”

Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration…but I still think it’s worth diving into practical applications of AI can help with events. TLDR; I prefer to liken AI as a “co-pilot” rather than replacement for humans…at least for now!

There are diverse perspectives regarding the use of AI and whether it will replace human capital in its current form. I still remember attending a TED event in Vancouver where scientist, Kai Fu Lee presented on AI and the future of work. 

I’ll never forget when his slide which listed ten careers he felt would NOT be replaced by AI. 

The two I remember vividly were: 

1) CEO 

2) Event Professional

These roles were said by Kai Fu to be AI-proof because they require a high degree of emotional intelligence to navigate the high-touch, complex, interpersonal navigation required for the role. 

A great Head of Events is like the Conductor of a Symphony Orchestra who takes many instruments and leads them to do more than simply play notes. A great conductor inspires with passion, inflection and harmony in the individual musician, causing them to listen to each other and create a body of music that moves both those listening and those playing.

AI is like a highly intelligent intern to support your event planning. In today’s climate of reductions in workforce, remote teams, and a demand for  great ideas, often without a team in the same office, AI can help generate ideas, frameworks, review data, or cut back on monotonous tasks that don’t require a high level of human oversight.

Below are the top ways I’m currently using AI to support my clients and my own practice and a few vendors you might be interested in checking out:

Timeline and task management:

AI can create detailed timelines and task lists, automatically updating and adjusting schedules based on progress. It can send reminders and flag potential conflicts or bottlenecks.

I love Anthropic’s Claude Pro for this! I’ll upload a few key documents and it can help combine and organize my key dates. It does still take my oversight to establish which are true “break points” and check for accuracy (think spell check - you still review the suggestions), but can help get the process started, which is often the hardest task.

AI-enhanced project management tools like Airtable, Asana, Trello, or Microsoft Project are also great and I have a sweet spot for Airtable since I formerly led their events and leveraged Airtable as a relational database that established relationships and dependencies between work streams on my events and flagged this to us once we programmed in the AI to do so.

Venue and vendor selection:

AI can analyze large datasets of venues and vendors, matching them to your event requirements, budget, and preferences. It can provide comparisons, ratings, and recommendations based on past events and reviews. I love BoomPop and Events.com for finding venues, evaluating competitive events and sponsorship opportunities.

Guest list management and communication:

AI can assist with creating and managing guest lists, sending personalized invitations, tracking RSVPs, and handling guest inquiries through chatbots or automated responses.

Check out my favorite platform for this, Gatsby, and if you mention the code: GIANNAISAWESOME20, they’ll even give you 20% off your first year with them! Gatsby can also configure your table seating plans based on “personas” and “rules” you create. I sure could have used it for my wedding!

Budgeting:

AI can help forecast costs, track expenses in real-time, and estimate budgets based on inputs like venue contracts and menus. It can also analyze past event data to predict potential budget overruns and areas for optimization.

That said, I have found that it often takes a hum Event Pro to optimize budgeting when it is customized and takes into account nuances that only a planner would know (like this specific venue over-serves by 5% and/or attendees at my company generally skip the breakfast, so we budget for 75% of the attendee count for that meal). But eventually, AI will get smart enough to learn this as well!

Offsite and experience design:

AI can analyze attendee data and inputs from planners (like cost, desired activities, location, personas and preferences) to suggest personalized experiences, such as tailored session/speaker recommendations, networking or activity opportunities, or menu options. It can also help create custom event apps or interactive elements to enhance engagement.

I love platform MarcoExperiences for this (drop my name and Marco will give you a discount). Others I have tried and enjoy are BoomPop and Retreat. For virtual offsites, I love working with TeamClass to plan custom activities based on what has resonated with attendees most in previous events (they will also give you 10% off if you mention my name). 

Content Generation, Capture and Repurposing:

Honestly, this is a whole other blog post! In short,  AI is excellent for drafting outlines for content, suggesting topics and speakers, and finding ways to “atomize” your content post-event. 

I love the platform Gradual for customizing content for specific community members and personalizing sessions and content to meet attendee needs (drop my name for 10% off their services). Even OpenAi uses Gradual for their virtual events, so you know the Ai is high quality.

There are bespoke platforms to help with Automated transcription and translation (i.e. Otter.ai), AI-powered speech recognition can transcribe speeches, panel discussions, and presentations in real-time or post-event. 

AI algorithms can analyze long-form content (such as conference talks or day-long events) and generate concise summaries to use for post-event reports, social media content, or quick recaps for attendees (check out Hubilo’s snackable content hub and use my discount code for 10% off here). Similarly, AI can analyze video footage to identify key moments, based on factors like audience reaction, speaker emphasis, or specific keywords and then create highlight reels or short clips for social media. It can also be used to personalize content recommendations for individual participants (and so much more)! 

If you’d like my help navigating the brave new world of leveraging AI for your events, help auditing your current program or event tech stack, shoot me an email and let’s connect!

Offsites are the New Offices - How to Optimize Them

This week’s Gianna’s Gem is on Optimizing your Offsites.

But First…Why they Matter:

• Forbes recently published a study that 81% of corporate millennials consider in-person communication to be vital to their success. With the new reality of remote-first workplaces, offsites become a critical bridge to drive collaboration and business success.

• Offsites are beneficial for creating new relationships or creating cross-functional alignment, and also strengthening current relationships within one’s own team/org.

• Offsitesinspire new ways of thinking and ideas that will help a company succeed. Remember my post about Steve Jobs getting his best ideas while on vacation? There’s something about stepping out of our regular environment and away from our computers that enables our minds to find the space to think bigger and more boldly, especially when we can brainstorm and feed off other colleague’s ideas. In fact, ~34% of workers have claimed getting their most creative ideas while on a company retreat. 

• Fun Fact: Company retreats have been so successful in forming bonds and promoting innovation, that some companies are considering purchasing destinations to provide offsites throughout the year.

If I’ve convinced you that offsites are important for your company’s growth and employee productivity and retention, read on for how to optimize them:

Offsite Optimization Step 1: Establish a Theme to Focus Agenda and Activities

Depending on the demographic, size of the group, location, budget,  etc, it’s helpful to establish a theme/purpose for each offsite to help tie the experience together. Here are some examples:

• Adventure: Promotes team-building and bonding and also inspire problem-solving muscle-building. Great for extraverted and competitive teams like Sales, and also for teams from the same org. Activities could include:

• Escape rooms, Ropes courses, Scavenger hunts, Kayaking, Hiking, bike touring, bob-sledding, dude-ranch activities 

• Leverage speakers like Mount Everst climbers or other athletes who have blazed trails, or have former olympic or well-respected athletes lead an activity session for a special magical moment (I’ve had Olympic swimmers, bikers and runners lead Executives in group exercise in the am before and it was a peak experience for them)

• Thematic enhancements: Make your own trail mix bar, personalized bandanas and/or cowboy hats, ice baths, branded canteen water-bottles

• Creative: Excellent for creative, brand, comms, or experience teams (also engineers), teams with more introverts, or executives

• Art classes (painting, pottery, etc.), Cooking, mixology or winemaking, Improv/comedy workshops, Music-making, weaving, writing class, etc.

• Use an icebreaker on a related theme such as: Visit an art gallery and have everyone share which is their favorite painting and why.

• Gifting - custom aprons, label/bottle wine produced by the team in a custom “blend”

• Volunteering / Give-Back: Great for people/comms teams, holiday offsites and organizations who value giving back to community (also great for brand building)

• Community service i.e. home-building, graffiti cleaning, mentoring local students, Environmental clean-up efforts, or team shopping competition for family’s wish-lists around the holidays

• If you’re in a local community for the event that is not your own, welcome local vendors in for a “local gift bazarre” and allocate a certain amount of budgetfor purchasing a gift from local vendors. If the offsite is in your own community, donate any materials/food/swag from the event to local community afterwards. 

• Wellness: Great for teams who have just completed a major project, event, initiative and need some R&R. Also great for teams who are burned-out or need to recharge.

• Ideas include: Yoga or meditation retreats. Spa days, acupuncture (they even have mobile acupuncture now), sauna/ice bath, healthy foods and beverages: spa water, mock-tails, bone broth bar, make you brown tea sachets, or foraging in the forrest for adaptogenic herbs and flowers to add to food

• Gifting may include: branded eye masks, heating pads, scented essential oils (or blend and take home from the event), and healthy snacks/treats.

Offsite Optimization Step 2: Establish Goals and Priorities:

Assigning a weight to each goal which will help advise how you structure the agenda:

• What % of the offsite if dedicated to bonding/teambuilding? 

• What % of the offsite if dedicated to business needs (strategy, education/training, creative ideation, etc)? 

• What % should be focused on cross-fuctional networking?

Offsite Optimization Step 3: Establish Your Budget, Planning Timeline and Plan for Execution:

• Determine your budget (per attendee) and then you can back-into which locations, dates, and activities are realistic for your team/company. This helps reduce the amount of options + constraint often leads to better focus and creativity.

• Establish dates for the offsite, lock them in via contract/calendar holds and start planning communication and logistics backwards from there. Make sure you get a save the date and RSVP out ASAP to confirm attendance so you don’t pay an attrition penalty.

• Determine whether to use an event pro (like me) to assist with strategy/planning, or leverage internal team, or an external offsite planning SAAS platform (see Gianna Recommends for vendor suggestions)

Offsite Optimization Step 4: Evaluate the Success of your Offsite, and establish a frequent cadence of offsites

• The end of your offsite is only the beginning! Make sure you measure the success of the offsite (email me if you need help with how to do this), so you know what resonated most/least with attendees.

• Establish an annual offsite calendar/cadence so you can get ahead of booking optimal dates/locations, maintain a drumbeat of social connection, innovation and company bonding, reduce budgeting (further out usually means better rates), and signal to attendees that this is a normal operating expectation.

In summary, when planning, consider: Team preferences and personalities, company culture and goals, budget constraints, balancing teambuilding with productive outcomes, and be careful that the offsite is inclusive to everyone attending. 

Happy summer campers!

Storytelling is Social Glue

This is most likely the final Gianna’s Gem post before I jet off to Sardinia for my husband’s 50th birthday celebration! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of great Gem material after all the celebratory events in Italy so stay tuned for that in July!

With 50th birthday toasts galore for us these next few weeks, the theme of “storytelling” is on my mind, and it is inherently part of being human, arguably more important as we grow older and wiser with valuable insights to share.

Storytelling is social glue. It’s a social “meme” that has been used for generations to pass along information in a way that people remember more than any other format. 

Storytelling has evolved to be more and more complex in modern times: From movies and TV, events and experiences, startup pitches at events like Tech Crunch Disrupt or Shark Tank, storytelling is a powerful skill and one that not many people do well…but should: It’s a superpower and I wish they taught it in school!

But fear not - today’s Gianna’s Gem is about Storytelling and events - what to do to captivate and engage your audience, and tips for how you and your speakers can prepare.

Ever wonder why TED talks always open with a story? There is a science to this.  Ever hear the story of the Elephant and the Rider?

The Elephant represents our emotional side – vast, powerful, and often driven by instinct. In comparison, the Rider, perched on the back of the elephant, symbolizes our rational mind – analytical, planning, but small relative to the enormous elephant.

There is a secret formula to engagement and that is: Imagine + Feel = Change

This is because the Left Brain gets fatigued by too much data. The Right Brain (aka the elephant) will always win out, so feed the right brain and you will be able to influence attendees.

If YOU are the Speaker, or coaching a speaker, here are strategies for crafting a more engaging presentation:

• When Preparing your speech or presentation: Consider, where is my target audience now? Where do I want them to be after my presentation?  

• Remember to never introduce yourself or give housekeeping notes. There is a cognitive hallowed ground in which to capture your audience’s attention and you want to create a “file-folder” for them to remember you by starting with something they’ll remember like a story.

• Use metaphors: Anyone who knows me knows I favor metaphors and use them often to help convey ideas. Metaphors are awesome because they help the brain link an unfamiliar idea with something more familiar. When crafting metaphors, consider: sports, nature, animals, building, travel, transport, auto, music, games, pop culture, food for ideas that are relatable to all audiences.

• Don’t Be the Hero - Be the Catalyst. Speakers do better with audiences when they’re more relatable and/or share the same goals or struggles as the audience. Many comedians know this secret. If you listen closely, they often begin with material that is self-depracating by design to warm the audience up to them!

• Wrap Data in a Warm Blanket of Emotion: Remember the formula above to evoke emotion if you have to present data. For example - Use a headline to grab attention before presenting data. Or a phrase like “imagine you’re the world’s biggest/richest/smartest xxx”...to get people to feel/imagine before sharing data.

• Consider using a prop to prove a point or grab attention. I recently had the famous swimmer, Diana Nyad speak at a corporate event and she was incredible. You’d think her story (festured recently on Netflix) would sell itself, but she went above and beyond to tell the story so vividly using all the tactics above, including bringing a bugle horn she played to elicit the visual of how early her father used to wake her up in the mornings to swim before dawn. It certainly grabbed our attention and evoked emotion to cement her story into our memories long after the event ended.

Remember - storytelling is the art of creating emotions that lead to memories that drive actions:

Emotion -> Memory -> Action

Storytelling is one of THE most important skilsl for anyone to have.  If you need support in honing your craft, reach out and I’ll help you kickstart your storytelling magic.

Slow Down to Move Fast

Have you ever wondered why you suddenly get that “Big Idea” when you’re sitting at a beach on vacation?  Or while hiking in nature? 

I’ve been having a lot of conversations with my clients around this phenomenon lately - a trend that people seem to be warming up to. Did you know both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are both famous for taking retreats where they totally detached to come up with their biggest ideas?

"Steve would be on vacation, and he would be pondering where the next product, the next direction for Apple, new technologies, things he's reading,"...He used that vacation as a time to kind of expand his thinking and get outside of the Apple day-to-day." - Tony Faddell, who invented the iphone.

His team shared that they expected not to hear from Jobs for the extent of his trips. But while that was true for the first 24 to 48 hours, vacation proved to ignite Job's creative juices more than anything else and they’d end up getting calls from him 5-6 times a day to research or brainstorm the big picture ideas he was coming up with.

So This Week’s Gianna’s Gem, just in time for summer is: Slow Down to Speed Up. 

Slowing down to speed up could mean being conscious of the many distractions that bombard you and keep you from getting to where you want to go in a shorter amount of time. 

Slowing down to speed up may mean eliminating a lot of unimportant things you do so you have more time for the important things.

It can also mean taking time to plan an event for your team, your leadership team, or your entire company to connect, spend time building relationships, and coming up with moonshot ideas or solutions to increase organizational efficiency and flow. 

What this looks like for companies: 

Spending just 2 days together at an offsite can end up generating your next big breakthrough product, eliminate major inefficiencies and improve team communication so that your company can improve how it works and drives business results (AND, a great morale booster)!  

Some might protest it’s too costly from a budget/team/resource perspective to invest in these kinds of events for their own teams, but I argue that’s a penny-wise, pound foolish approach. 

By slowing down to build the foundation RIGHT, you can build a higher building (or skyscraper if you have big dreams) on top. But a weak foundation will cause any new additions to your building to crumble, or at a minimum be unstable or unreliable. There are plenty of creative solutions if budget, time, location, etc. is daunting to you (just reach out and I can help you optimize what you are solving for).

What this looks like for events: 

Events have so many tasks and deliverables, it’s easy to get caught up in getting them all done and as quickly as possible. But when we move to “execute-mode” too often with events, we sometimes fail to see creative solutions and ideas that might end up saving us a lot of pain/budget/time and improving the attendee experience. 

I recently helped a client shave hours off their weekly planning and hundreds of thousands off their budget by auditing their event (EVERYTHING, I mean budget, team structure, timeline, contracts, staging and creative…) and rebuilding the foundation of the event for them even though they were midway through planning.  

We had to pause on the forward-movement and rebuild the foundation (estabish clear team structure, ROI measurement, budget structure, operating process, exec reviews, etc), but after two weeks of building a strong operating structure, we started flying! 

Decisions were being made swiftly because we had operational efficiencies in place, clear structure for reviews and clarity on which ONE person was the ultimate decision maker and which ONE person was performing the task, and clear objections which allowed us more focus and prioritization and ultimately a much more successful event.

What this looks like for you:

Many of us are Type A’s (guilty as charged) and never seem to have enough hours in a day to do it all. We are often overloaded these days with so much content, noise, activities, that it becomes distracting to our bigger-picture vision and ability to see clearly our real priorities each day, let alone each year. But like the slow-food movement, which encouraged people to stop eating on the go, and savor food with appreciation, I think people are finding the same to be true with how they are approaching how they connect and engage with the world and each other.

Here are some tips if you can’t take a vacation TODAY (because honestly, that R&R is a good investment in your future success!)

Ground yourself in nature: Even 10 minutes walking in nature can reduce cortisol and help you take a step way from your screens and have space for creative solutions and ideas.

Sleep: You will probably be more efficient, creative and effective if you get an extra hour of sleep rather than spend an extra hour on emails (and we all know you’re also on social media - not helpful before bed!)

Meet: Spend time getting out with friends, going to events, museums, whatever nurtures your soul and connects you with others. It will pay off to take a break from your screen and share ideas and get inspired from being in a new environment. That’s why we all love events ;)

The Magic of the 95:5 Rule

Do you have a friend who seems to be able to eat whatever they want when you go out to dinner with them, and they maintain a great physical body? 

I do too…and his name is Garrett, my husband (sorry honey). 

After 15 years being together, I realized his trick is 95% of the time he eats healthy (smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch), but then 5% of the time, he eats whatever he wants, and he doesn’t hold back, as long as it’s something he really wants and high quality (donut right out of the fryer, mone-made pasta, really stinky french cheese or a perfect woodfired pizza).

And so, he never feels deprived, his health doesn’t suffer, and he enjoys life. That’s what I call the win-win-win, my favorite strategy in life, and especially when planning events for my clients!

So how do you apply the 95:5 rule to events? 

There are plenty of ways, but a few of my gems below to whet your palate (see how I carried the food theme all the way there?!)

Gem #1:

• For those clients / brands who are afraid to take the moonshot, consider ONE bold idea that you want to try that only takes up 5% of the budget and 5% of the total resources that go into planning the event, and test it out while keeping the rest of the event plans similar to how they were previously.
  

• Why this works: First of all, I love science and this is a great way to tease out if a new concept is moving the needle.
  
  If you throw too many new ideas at a tried-and-true method, how will you know which one worked?
  
  Or perhaps too many ideas together will overwhelm your attendees, but just one great idea has the power to capture their attention?
  
  And if it doesn’t work, you’ve only sunk 5% of the cost/budget into this.
  
  I once had an idea to spice up the team-building breakouts in the afternoon by building some nostalgia into the afternoon with “yurts” that served as “breakout rooms”.
  
  We sent the C-level attendees into the yurts with trail mix and the assignment to brainstorm in teams and they loved the intimate camp-like environment so much we had rave reviews about the breakouts, a session that was usually the lowest-rated AND some pretty incredible ideas pitched as a result (probably because people are more creative when you put them in an outside-the-box setting)!

Gem #2:

• If you’re planning an event and wondering where to invest in a paid speaker, consider the two most important parts of an event: The “peak” moment, and the close and if you are paying a speaker, consider these two moments for placement.

• Why this works: If you maintain your speaker budget for 95% of the content by leveraging your internal experts, friends of your Exec team (ask me about how to do this graciously and effectively), and customers, but splurge on a special keynote speaker for the very end, the audience is more likely to remember it as their last impression of you, leave inspired, and in the right emotional state to take action, accept a request for a meetings, etc. (so long as the speaker was good!).

  Not only will the audience be more likely to remember the paid speaker by using them to close the event, but it will also motivate people to stick around until the end of the event rather than leave early.

  I once attended Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Health Event and she left the closing keynote in the agenda as “surprise celebrity guests”. I was a new mom and thought I had initially considered leaving the event early, I couldn’t resist the pull of who she might have on stage!

  She didn’t disappoint: It was not one but 3 A-List celebrity friends of hers and it was a peak moment AND the closing! The entire keynote was packed and I ended up sticking around for the afterparty as well because it had me so energized!

  
  Gem #3:

• Let’s close with budget. If you maintain a tight budget for 95% of your experience, you can use the last 5% on something truly magical.
  
  That one truly magical thing will probably make a much bigger impact than spending average budget on a lot of mediocre things.
  
  Example: For a big birthday celebration (let’s just say 40), you keep the food menu pretty standard, but splurge on having a very special vintage bottle of 1983 champagne served. It is an expensive, memorable treat that people wouldn’t usually expect but feels celebratory, and unique plus reminds people of why they are celebrating.
  

• Why this works: It’s ok to splurge occasionally as long as you run a tight ship most of the time. This is true for so many things in life - it just takes restraint, focus, and prioritization.
  
  I like to build some “surprise/delight” budget into my budgets with 5% of the budget held for this so when we get that big idea, we can actually make it happen. By actively cutting back on other costs so you can add surprise and delight, your guests win, and you are still in control. Win-win for the win!

A next-level event doesn't have to break your budget

Hi there!

This past week, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with clients that need help with creating VIP experiences on tighter budgets. Sound familiar? 

Lucky for you, I’m going to share some strategies for “smart luxury” with you in this week’s gems so you can create more of those win-win premium experiences while keeping you on-budget and driving the results you want! 

But first…I love this quote:

“Luxury means just giving more; hospitality means being more thoughtful”.

Take a minute to let that sink in. 

What does that mean? 

Example #1:

• Rather than spending $100 more on caviar for every attendee (p.s. Not everyone even likes caviar), investing in an “event concierge” who will sending a personalized email to every attendee before a special dinner to ask them if they have any special requests, dietary restrictions and also share with them who they can expect to meet at the event, what the format is, and how much you’re looking forward to making personalized intros to them. 

• Why does this work? If you take the time to invest in getting to know your attendees and showing you’re invested in their personal experience, they are
  
  1) more likely to show up
  2) be engaged
  3) remember you
  4) take the action you want them to take after the event…especially if you follow up with a personalized note afterwards!

Example 2:

• Rather than providing fancy but generic gifts for VIP attendees, do a little time “researching” them and their hobbies, families, passions, and personalize a welcome amenity to set the tone for the event.
  
  For example: I once bought out the W Hotel in San Francisco for an event at Google, and they sent up a “blind tasting” wine experience to my room when I arrived since I had recently passed the Court Master Sommelier exam.
  
  They had researched that about me. It was so fun to not feel rushed/stressed when I checked in before the big event, but to have a playful moment where I got to taste wine and guess what they had selected for me (it was a Robert Sinsky pinot gris and yes, I still remember 10 years later because it was so personalized and unique!)
  

• Why does this work? That bottle of wine cost them roughly $30, but the thoughtfulness that they put into covering the bottle, printing out a blind tasting test from the Court master sommelier site, and delivering it with some nuts/olives and a fun note made such an impact on me, I’ve shared this story so many times!
  
  They could have instead sent up a $150 bottle of champagne, but I probably wouldn’t have opened it and also probably wouldn’t have remembered it from all the other bottles of champagne I’ve received. Fancier isn’t always better and thoughtfulness counts!

Example 3:

• Invest in people and training vs “stuff”.
  
  When you go to a fine dining restaurant, they will sometimes research every guest in advance so they can address you by name as you enter the restaurant, have some knowledge about you, and customize the menu to meet your needs.
  
  At Eleven Madison Park restaurant, the staff was trained to listen in to their guests and if they mentioned something like “gosh, I have had such a great experience in New York, but I never got a chance to try a hot dog”, they had a staff on hand who would go buy a hot dog and present it (plated up nicely) as a surprise and delight to the guests.
  
  This hot dog only costs them $5 but you can be sure they felt it was magical and special because the restaurant was listening and cared about hospitality and providing the most top notch service.
  
  Similarly, I was once managing a Google Executive event where we weren’t serving soda in cans to be more sustainable, but I noticed in our event app’s chat one attendee was complaining that he was really craving his afternoon Diet Coke fix. So I went to the nearest vending machine on campus, and bought a diet coke to hand deliver to him with some help from ID’ing him from my Sales leads.
  

• Why this works: People want to be seen and heard from the time we are children through adulthood.
  
  That Google client was so surprised and delighted that we had seen his message and then delivered exactly what he was craving in the moment, that he booked a meeting with our SVP afterwards and ended up closing a major deal! Now the coke didn’t cause the deal to close, but it sure made him stick around the event and had we not gotten him that coke, who knows, he might have left, or at least not have been a happy guest. 

So you see…hospitality is about making your guests comfortable, it’s about anticipating their needs, or listening to them and then delivering a personalized and delightful experience.

It can involve luxurious treats, but doesn’t need to.
All it takes is time, intentionality and good old fashioned hospitality.

If you need more ideas or help with personalized outreach and “event concierge” service, reach out and I’ll help you make some magic happen: calendly.com/gianna-gaudini.

The ONE thing that will make your event successful!

Hi there!

90% of what makes an event or gathering successful is put in place beforehand. True or false?

If you answered true, you’re correct! 
By the time your event rolls around, you should be sleeping soundly knowing you’ve put everything in place for a successful event. 

That simply means you’ve taken the appropriate steps to de-risk it, and now have the mental bandwidth to quickly quash any last minute curveballs thrown your way (and we know there are always one or two!)

But how can you ensure the right plans are in place beforehand, you might ask?

So glad you asked because I’m about to share my secret sauce with you …

My planning process that builds the following:

• “Prime” your attendees before they get onsite so they know what to expect, what to prepare, and what you’re going to deliver.
  
  This ensures everyone shows up with the right intentions, goals, and also helps ensure you’re reducing day-of attrition by giving people a heads up on what is expected of them and what they will get out of the event. It’s an art, and I can help you with this.

• Plan a 2-hour attendee-journey session with everyone involved (key stakeholders, agency, cross-functional team members, an event consultant, etc.) to ensure you poke holes at every aspect of the experience. 

• Where might there be pain? If there are any pain points,  turn them into surprise and delightful moments instead.
  
  i.e. at registration offer people wellness shots and protein balls with conversation cards attached with toothpicks to assuage their hunger and boost their immune system (and also strike up a reason to get them chatting)

• Where are you lacking clarity? If there is anything left unanswered, make sure you figure that out onsite. You want to walk into your event knowing you’ve alleviated 100% of the outstanding questions so you’re not scrambling onsite.
  
  This can be as simple as: If the product team is demo’ing a product to attendees, knowing who’s taking notes and capturing the questions the attendees are asking so Sales can follow up. (hint: Maybe pair a member of Sales with Product demo-ers so they can take notes and follow up with more detail to close or accelerate the deal after the event).

• Think of your opening and ending with intentionality. It’s true - people remember the beginning and ending of experiences and a crucible moment, so get them right.
  
  (i.e. ask attendees to write a note to themselves that they want you to mail to them in 6 months. This gives you an excuse to reach out to them after the event while also reminding them of how thoughtful you are and what a great time they had at your event).

• Whatever you do, don’t start or end the event with logistics! There’s nothing that makes me cringe more than an Executive starting off their keynote with housekeeping notes!
  
  Take care of these before people enter the general session, or at the very minimum, have an Emcee handle them so the keynote can make a big slash at the cognitive hallowed ground that is the first 1-5 minutes of the session.

Need more help with your event?

I can audit your event plans, lead your attendee journey audit session, help you strategize how to intrigue people and capture their attention before, during, and after the event.

Reach out and book time to share what you need help with via my calendly here: calendly.com/gianna-gaudini.

Slow Down to Speed Up

Have you ever wondered why you suddenly get that “Big Idea” when you’re sitting at a beach on vacation?  Or while hiking in nature? 

I’ve been having a lot of conversations with my clients around this phenomenon lately - a trend that people seem to be warming up to. Did you know both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are both famous for taking retreats where they totally detached to come up with their biggest ideas?

"Steve would be on vacation, and he would be pondering where the next product, the next direction for Apple, new technologies, things he's reading,"...He used that vacation as a time to kind of expand his thinking and get outside of the Apple day-to-day." - Tony Faddell, who invented the iphone.

His team shared that they expected not to hear from Jobs for the extent of his trips. But while that was true for the first 24 to 48 hours, vacation proved to ignite Job's creative juices more than anything else and they’d end up getting calls from him 5-6 times a day to research or brainstorm the big picture ideas he was coming up with.

So This Week’s Gianna’s Gem, just in time for summer is: Slow Down to Speed Up. 

Slowing down to speed up could mean being conscious of the many distractions that bombard you and keep you from getting to where you want to go in a shorter amount of time. 

Slowing down to speed up may mean eliminating a lot of unimportant things you do so you have more time for the important things.

It can also mean taking time to plan an event for your team, your leadership team, or your entire company to connect, spend time building relationships, and coming up with moonshot ideas or solutions to increase organizational efficiency and flow. 

What this looks like for companies: 

Spending just 2 days together at an offsite can end up generating your next big breakthrough product, eliminate major inefficiencies and improve team communication so that your company can improve how it works and drives business results (AND, a great morale booster)!  

Some might protest it’s too costly from a budget/team/resource perspective to invest in these kinds of events for their own teams, but I argue that’s a penny-wise, pound foolish approach. 

By slowing down to build the foundation RIGHT, you can build a higher building (or skyscraper if you have big dreams) on top. But a weak foundation will cause any new additions to your building to crumble, or at a minimum be unstable or unreliable. There are plenty of creative solutions if budget, time, location, etc. is daunting to you (just reach out and I can help you optimize what you are solving for).

What this looks like for events: 

Events have so many tasks and deliverables, it’s easy to get caught up in getting them all done and as quickly as possible. But when we move to “execute-mode” too often with events, we sometimes fail to see creative solutions and ideas that might end up saving us a lot of pain/budget/time and improving the attendee experience. 

I recently helped a client shave hours off their weekly planning and hundreds of thousands off their budget by auditing their event (EVERYTHING, I mean budget, team structure, timeline, contracts, staging and creative…) and rebuilding the foundation of the event for them even though they were midway through planning.  

We had to pause on the forward-movement and rebuild the foundation (estabish clear team structure, ROI measurement, budget structure, operating process, exec reviews, etc), but after two weeks of building a strong operating structure, we started flying! 

Decisions were being made swiftly because we had operational efficiencies in place, clear structure for reviews and clarity on which ONE person was the ultimate decision maker and which ONE person was performing the task, and clear objections which allowed us more focus and prioritization and ultimately a much more successful event.

What this looks like for you:

Many of us are Type A’s (guilty as charged) and never seem to have enough hours in a day to do it all. We are often overloaded these days with so much content, noise, activities, that it becomes distracting to our bigger-picture vision and ability to see clearly our real priorities each day, let alone each year. But like the slow-food movement, which encouraged people to stop eating on the go, and savor food with appreciation, I think people are finding the same to be true with how they are approaching how they connect and engage with the world and eachother.

Here are some tips if you can’t take a vacation TODAY (because honestly, that R&R is a good investment in your future success!)

Ground yourself in nature: Even 10 minutes walking in nature can reduce cortisol and help you take a step way from your screens and have space for creative solutions and ideas.

Sleep: You will probably be more efficient, creative and effective if you get an extra hour of sleep rather than spend an extra hour on emails (and we all know you’re also on social media - not helpful before bed!)

Meet: Spend time getting out with friends, going to events, museums, whatever nurtures your soul and connects you with others. It will pay off to take a break from your screen and share ideas and get inspired from being in a new environment. That’s why we all love events ;)

Predictions for the Events Industry 2024

My thoughts on key trends for the event and hospitality industry as we close out 2023

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2024 is going to be an exciting year for events and a busy one for event and hospitality professionals. In-person events and the appetite for experiences and travel will grow to pre-2019 levels. Below are a few of my predictions for 2024:

AI is now ubiquitous - it’s hard to imagine that just a year ago we were explaining it to our Mom’s at Thanksgiving and now there are fewer companies that don’t have or promote some type of AI-washing or integration. It will become more rare to attend an event that doesn’t use AI than ones that do leverage it in some capacity (seen or unseen). With so many people now using AI, companies will need to be more discreet about how they arousing it and leverage it in interesting ways that are truly helpful, not generic. Using Chat GPT to write an event script or invite no longer cuts it. Best use cases will be data synthesis and analysis that will help save planners loads of time rather than “doing their job” for them, and helpful ways of enhancing the attendee experience so they get more personalization and meet more of the people they want to meet rather than wasting time at events listening to session or meeting with people that aren’t relevant to them.

Virtual event platforms will need to specialize and find their niche in order to thrive. Whether that’s focusing on becoming a webinar content-generating machine (like Hubilo), or focusing on community (like Gradual), marketing very specific use cases will help the winning platforms focus and rise to the top. There will be consolidation in the industry and some key players who will be able to be full-service platforms, and also succeed for planners who want to reduce their tech stack and onboarding time for vendors. Virtual events will be hyper-targeted to top of funnel events that are more about brand exposure and lead gen than deep middle and bottom of the funnel engagement and deal-making. 

People crave in-person experiences and are willing to travel to them, especially if they are in a location that promotes other activities of leisure. “Bleisure” travel is surging and continues to motivate people to travel further to events that promise more experiences than just content. People who just want content will do that from their own homes or travel locally, but those who want experiences and to truly engage with others are willing to do so in unconventional formats and locations. Wellness is another key activity that is helping attendees maintain their health (or restore it) while traveling including everything from ice baths to meditation to healthier foods and group exercise programming. Many want to leverage events as a way to rejuvenize so we will see a lot more health-focused activities and inspiration and less of the unhealthy activities and food/beverages of former events.

People are craving more experiential activations rather than the standard corporate conference format in a ballroom or convention center. People have been starved of experiences during the pandemic and this combined with the explosion of social media has people craving experiences that they can remember, share, and revisit after they invest in attending them. Everyone is “press” at events now since there are so many influencers and social sharing is ubiquitous and must be built into the event experience before, during, and after the event. 

ROI must be proven for everything we do. There is never an excuse these days to not have benchmarks in place for success. Planners must be able to justify every aspect of their event/experience and how it supports their business goals. Planners are getting smarter by reducing more of the “fluff” and focusing on fewer key experiences that will really drive the ROI they need to prove success and ensure marketing budgets are maintained. Teams are relying on consultants like myself and freelancers more and more to support their teams and help with everything from strategy to budgeting to execution. Many corporate planners have either left the market and turned to contracting or have lost their jobs due to downsizing so event teams are being tasked to do more with much smaller teams. Thus many are budgeting sizable amounts of for external event support. AI is helping, but event portfolios are exploding since events are proving more and more ROI, so teams can’t keep up. Events are finally starting to sell out again as companies are willing to host larger and larger events and in new regions.

2024 is going to be exciting and will catapult the industry to new heights. I’m here for you event professionals - if you need me, you know where to find me! GiannaGaudini.com