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You may know that your employees are not cows.But its important to LET THEM KNOW

                                                 www.udinc.in

A recent survey found that 70% of people are more likely to look for a new job after vacation. Realistically speaking, with the holidays and the accompanying vacation days just around the corner, there's a chance a few of your employees are looking to jump ship. And that's bad news for two reasons. First, if they're unhappy, that could reflect poorly on the company culture, morale and/or management. Second, it costs 20% of an annual salary to replace a mid-level employee, and it could cost 213% of a year's salary to replace a C-suiter.

Odds are, you lack the time, money and patience to recruit a new slew of hires, so we've done you a favour and rounded up tips and tactics for building employee retention and fostering a happy workplace that makes people want to stick with you.

"We don’t say we have a great culture because we have a keg, or do fun events as a company," says Alexis Lamster, director of people and culture at Carrot Creative, which has a maximum turnover rate of 3% in an industry that averages 30%. "Culture is about the shared values of a group of people ... By supporting our culture in hiring and in the brands we choose to work with, our employees have a stronger sense of loyalty and, in return, are more invested in their jobs."

                                        Have a Mission

Millennials, in particular, want to feel like their work is making a difference — they don't want to be just another cog in the machine. They're drawn to innovative young companies helmed by social entrepreneurs that are simultaneously cool and impactful.

"Have a purpose that’s bigger than your company," says Moon Kim, VP at M Booth, adding that your company should "make a difference in the world." But even if your business isn't built around an altruistic mission, you can bake social good into your business plan — you just need to be "mindful of others and seek to do good whenever possible," says Kim. Method brings water to impoverished areas, Chalk fly invests profits in teachers, Privy helps small businesses master web marketing and Greatist helps people be healthier.

You don't need to be Mother Teresa, but you should show you care about other people and your community, not just your profits.

                            Give Employees Ownership

Has anyone ever enjoyed being micromanaged? People work best — and are happiest — when they have ownership, when they can solve problems their way and express their individuality.

(By "ownership," we don't necessarily mean equity.)

"Benefits and perks are important, but from our perspective, it's all about empowering employees," says Zohar Dayan, CEO of Wibbitz. 

Especially in a small business, every person counts, and everyone's contribution should be both obvious and valued. "Whether it be an open-door policy on ways to improve everything from marketing to the product to the office atmosphere, or regular team brainstorms, 

when your employees feel that they can tangibly impact the direction of the company, they're more likely to throw themselves fully behind the cause."

when your employees feel that they can tangibly impact the direction of the company, they're more likely to throw themselves fully behind the cause."

 Employees should have a stake in the company — they're not just working for The Man. 

The #1 way we boost morale is by empowering people to do their best work and letting everyone act as owners, not just employees . 

That can mean any number of things, from sharing extremely detailed information about the company's finances and future plans, to letting people choose paint colours and decorations for our new office.

                        Get People Talking to Each Other

It's easy to fall into a silo and only talk to and work with people within your own department. If your company is growing quickly or has several offices or remote workers, some employees might not even recognise each other — but it's essential that they know and engage with one another. Whether you're using Skype, HipChat, Campfire, Slack or Honey, encouraging teammates to interact will make employees feel more connected to and informed about their company and one another. 

In fact, Honey was born out of necessity — it was built to meet parent company Huge's internal communications needs and saw great success, so it spun it off into a separate company in June and is now used by ShopKeep, EMyth, Lyft and Fueled.

Even a weekly videoconference can go a long way. Sure, it might temporarily dampen productivity to have the whole team in one big meeting, but on the upside, they get a chance to see what other departments are working on and how everyone's contributing to the overall mission (which also feeds the sense of ownership).

By creating a culture where employees know and respect each other, small businesses can boost employee morale, create better communication and collaboration and improve long-term results.

                 Provide (and Ask for) Regular Feedback

People dread yearly reviews because it's often the only time they get feedback — and what if they've been unknowingly doing something wrong in the 364 days since last year's review? Reviews are the exact opposite of ripping a Band-Aid off — a little tug here and there actually saves pain (and frustration!) in the long run.

When it comes to retaining talent, one tactic I've often found crucial is implementing informal weekly and formal quarterly check-ins prevents disconnects.

Don't wait till the end of the year to inform employees they weren't doing well, or not as well as their perception led them to believe.

One way to build trust and enable these honest conversations is to make a commitment to transparency — it'll open the lines of communication.

 At UD INC, every employee at every level has access to every board deck, and can ask questions of the founders and management team at monthly SpotLight meetings.

                                               Have a Culture Committee

It's hard to make sure your employees are engaged and having fun, so you should task a team to own "people operations" and culture. 

"We aim to make Carrot a home more than an office and a family more than a staff, with welcome drinks for new employees, large gatherings (i.e. Thanksgiving potluck dinner), a softball team, committees and subsidised perks," says Lamster, who adds that Carrot's committees aren't your typical corporate groups. "We fund people’s passions to help make the company better," she says. Bitches Be Bakin’ makes delicious treats to celebrate everyone's carrotversary, the Brew Crew Committee ensures the keg is always full, and the Carrot Cares Committee finds opportunities for the company to give back to the community. "These committees create a ground-up way for every person at Carrot to contribute to and be a part of making this the place they want to be."

Similarly, the spirit committee at M Booth encourages bonding across the agency and helps to make office life fun, whether it’s a wheel of fortune at staff meetings (previous prize: a Zombie Makeup 101 class) or a group outing to a Nets Game. "Our spirit committee keeps people happy because it shows that we want to foster community, we value each employee and are thinking about them," says Lauren Martiello, creative strategist and chair of the spirit committee.

Cashmere Agency in L.A. has a five-person culture club but also encourages the whole team to step up. "We have a very diverse range of employees with different backgrounds, so we create activities (inside and outside the office) that allow everyone to learn and understand the cultures their colleagues come from," says agency VP Ryan Ford. This includes an annual cook-off that requires ethnic dishes, as well as field trips to cultural events around L.A.

               Encourage The Team to Live the Brand

Your employees need to be passionate about the brand and your mission; thusly, your job is to encourage them to live the brand. This creates twofold results: It reminds them why they work for your company, and it ignites passions that can be shared with your customers.

"People are our most valuable asset, and the more we take care of them, the more they will take care of our guests," says Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of sweetgreen, a lifestyle brand that purveys salads and rallies around a healthy, passionate living and sustainability. "We want to build a company that creates unusual combinations that inspire, a company full of employees that truly live the sweet life." The employees have access to free salads, a concert and speaker series, community service opportunities, a running club, free fitness classes and a gym subsidy to help them embody the brand.

Likewise, Fancred, a social network geared toward sports fans, offers employees $200 per month for two tickets to any sporting event. "It reinforces our mission and sends a loud message that things are different here and we really believe in what we are doing," says Fancred CEO Kash Razzaghi.

At Plated, each teammate gets four plates per week — yes, it's free food, but it also helps the team become familiar with the service's offerings and recipes, so they can make knowledgeable recommendations and provide the operations team with direct feedback. They're always immersed in Plated and become even stronger brand ambassadors because of it.

                 Place a Premium on Employee Health

 It's not healthy to work like a dog. 

The companies with superior retention rates are the ones that recognize that wellness is essential to productivity.

The companies with superior retention rates are the ones that recognize that wellness is essential to productivity. Messaging platform imo offers a housing stipend for employees who live within walking or biking distance of work, has treadmill desks to keep the team active and subsidizes a free membership to Equinox.

“We have created an atmosphere focused on wellness within the workplace," says CEO Ralph Harik. "Finding time outside of work to exercise is often tough, and we've found that these benefits have helped increase productivity and boost company morale."

Wellness isn't just physical, it's mental, too. If you notice someone starting to burn out, nip it in the bud. Minshew recommends setting a cut-off time, when the person should turn off their computer and cellphone, in addition to encouraging vacation days and taking a lunch hour. "They're all small things, but they can help prevent burnout in the long run," says Minshew.

     Recognise That Perks Are Nice, But They're Not the                                               Ticket to Retention

Yes, perks make people happy. You can't beat free lunch, free health insurance, unlimited vacation days or flexible hours. But people mistake culture with perks.

"People think culture translates to parties, vacation, and non-business-y policies. I disagree — culture is the personality of the business, and you have to mean it and stick to it inside and outside of the company," says Brandon Kessler, founder and CEO of ChallengePost. 

He says that there's not one magic formula for culture; in fact, he cites three examples of different cultures. Companies with a cutthroat culture (Wall Street), an open, transparent, and highly productive culture (many startups), and a highly secretive culture (Apple) have all managed to find success. "Studies show successful companies that actually have a culture and stick to it are the ones who win. If you are starting a company, you should be as focused on the culture you want to have as you are on your product. It's much easier and more authentic to define it at the beginning than later on."

At the end of the day, you need to value your employees and, importantly, let them know they're valued.

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When they say there is an event but a themed one and you need to wear a costume.

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When your HR calls you on to stage to collect your performance bonus

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Its GooD to have lazY employees in your business.

                                                www.udinc.in

For years, conventional business wisdom has told us that diligent, hard-working, obedient employees were the Holy Grail of human resources. This thinking has informed the way we evaluate students, workers and even managers for generations. And certainly, it has been a sound strategy for the majority of the last century where success in the industrial revolution model of business relied almost exclusively on time and energy in as the critical metrics as to whether an employee was productive and delivering value to the organisation. While work and its supporting processes were linear, measuring progress was actually pretty simple. But the linear nature of such business also ensured that change was less volatile and easier to prepare for and manage. But that is hardly the commercial environment we live in today. The digital revolution is disrupting business models left and right, which means that value and productivity are likewise being determined by vastly different factors. In fact, in this age of hyper-connectivity and rapid change, diligent, hard workers may in fact be a liability. The reason for this is that these workers are less change hardy and adaptable that we require. They have a tendency to ignore distraction and put their noses to the grindstone, even when that grindstone may be outdated and even taking us in the wrong direction. Contrast this with what we sometimes describe as “lazy” or “high-maintenance” employees. Historically, these people have been a source of managerial headaches and hair loss. They question processes, they look for short cuts, they actively seek to get thing done with less of effort in less time using fewer steps and a minimum of human capital. But it turns out; this is precisely the kind of employee that is critical today’s changing market place. Of course no one want employees who do nothing at all. Clearly there’s a distinction between dead wood and smart albeit lazy employees. However those who still achieve results whilst expending less effort or whilst identifying “cheats” or short cuts are key to the innovation and mental agility that allows organisations to not simply manage change, but to drive it – deliberately and congruently. In fact, they’re precisely the kind of people we need to be considering for leadership within your organisation. What these employees foster is a more intrapreneurial culture, or hubs of innovation, that are not only less threatened by change, but see it as critical to their engagement. More importantly, they represent an acknowledgement of a fairly common bias towards the path of least resistance and this aligns more fully with general human nature. The truth is, we’re all lazy from time to time – the key is how we make this work for us. It is in human nature to favor simpler and easier processes, to expend less energy that we have to and to achieve more with less activity. But this has hardly been popular with leaders and managers in days gone by. Far preferable was the employee who looked industrious, even if they turned a half-day’s work into an eight-hour shift. However, by aligning with our natural tendencies, and learning to embrace the right kind of laziness, we not only achieve more with less, we also drive greater engagement.

[udinc-blog]

Keeping your employees happy is not that hard ....

                                                    www.udinc.in

When it comes to running or owning a business, your employees are everything. You can’t have a successful company or business without successful employees. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you hire the right people. However, it doesn’t stop when you finish hiring people. You need to make sure that you keep the employees that you have happy and productive. This is sometimes easier said than done, especially if the job you have your employees working is a bit dull or monotonous. Keeping your toys have been entertained is extremely important for the future success of your company or business. Knowing that does not help you know how to keep your employees happy. It’s not as simple as throwing a bunch of balloons at them and hoping they’ll celebrate. You also don’t want to be a push over and start giving everyone raises. If you’re trying to figure out why you need to keep your employees happy and entertained, we have everything you need to know in order to succeed. Here’s why it is so important:

You might be wondering why it’s so important you to keep your employees happy and entertained. You might understand why could be beneficial, but you may not be sure why you should bother doing it. One of the main reasons why we consider this a necessity when it comes to running a company or business is the fact that it’s really not that hard to do. Just a few simple touches here and there is usually not to keep your boys quite happy and quite productive. You don’t need to go out of your way to hire a clown or add a bounce house to your office.

This is another important reason why you should consider going through the effort of keeping your employees happy and entertained. If your employees are entertained while they are working, this will make them more productive. The bored employee find themselves restless and drifting. They might go pull up a game of solitaire on their computer or just start shooting rubber bands at their next cubicle neighbour. Obviously, if they’re doing these sorts of things, they’re not working. This is why keeping them entertained and focused will help them be more productive on the job. Productivity leads to money, so you should always want to do this. 

If you don’t go through the effort of making sure that your employees are entertained and happy, you’re going to find things go sour quite quickly. People might start complaining, which can lead to people quitting, which obviously leads to your company suffering. Keeping the employee happy keeps them working for you. If you go through the effort of making sure that your employees are satisfied, you can pretty much guarantee that you will be more successful than your other competitors. Caring about the employee is caring about the company. It’s not something you can afford to skip.

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That moment when your HR is the event host.

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You wouldn't believe if I said social media can play a big role at an event

                                                 www.udinc.in

After many long efforts to convince corporates we(UD Inc) have finally incorporated the social media into corporate events .

How ?

Networking Photo Challenge

Set tent cards around your networking event with different photo challenges. Not only does it serve as an ice breaker, it encourages attendees to get social! Make sure your hashtag is included on the challenges. Some examples to consider – “Take a photo with someone new you’ve just met!” “Take a photo with someone wearing the same colour outfits as you.” “Take a photo with someone who shares your birthday month.”

Larger than life hashtag

Who doesn’t love big signage? Give your attendees the perfect backdrop to their Instagram photo as well as a big reminder of what your event hashtag is. In fact, put the hashtag on all of your signage, branding and even on attendee name badges!

Mirror Selfie Stations

Everyone will have to use the bathroom at some point. Bathrooms also tend to have exceptionally good lighting, perfect for taking selfies! Create removable stickers to brand the bathroom mirrors – especially full body ones – with your event hashtag, quote bubbles, or emojis.

Mobile + Social = Besties

Best friends do everything together! Make sure to take advantage of all the ways a mobile app can enable the social experience. Prominently feature the event hashtag on your splash screen and banner ads. Use push notifications to remind attendees to share. Ensure all social icons are linked to your brand’s accounts as well as encourage speakers, attendees and exhibitors to link their social accounts to their event app profiles.

Social Swag

Your event hashtag is almost as important as your brand’s logo when it comes to swag. Ensure it is on all swag items and consider giving out swag that encourages social behaviour. Some ideas to consider – device chargers, “Tweet Me” / “Snap Me” stickers for name badges, selfie sticks, photo booth props, pens with stylus or hashtag temporary tattoos.

SocialWall

Integrate the social content being generated by your attendees as part of your event design with SocialWall. This event technology displays the content on your event hashtag practically anywhere using a projection screen or TVs. Attendees sharing will get excited to see themselves on “the big screen” and attendees not participating will want to join in on the fun!

#GoodEats

Food and beverage are integral parts of your event planning process and people love to take photos of food! You can keep it simple by incorporating the event hashtag on napkins, glassware, or even on the food itself. Get more complex by hosting a “name this dish” contest or have attendees vote via a Twitter poll on what should be served at the after-party.

Create Social Currency

Challenge your attendees to think of tweets as dollars and Instagram photos as upgrade passes. Set up a Twitter activated vending machine that dispenses whenever an attendee tweets a specific hashtag and username. Create a photo challenge that can only be completed on Instagram and once completed “unlocks” a pass upgrade for a VIP area.

Interactive Polling

Stop asking attendees to raise their hands! Instead, launch in-app polls to instantly receive attendee feedback or facilitate a Q&A during breakout sessions. Try embedding real-time in-app poll results into presentations to create a more social event experience.

#Help

Have a dedicated area where attendees can access social media and mobile experts for help with everything from stepping up a Twitter account to posting to Facebook from their mobile device. Hold an #AMA (Ask Me Anything) style in-person chat to answer questions for an audience that’s at various levels of social media savviness.

[udinc-blog]

Preventing Employee Engagement's Premature Death

                                                  www.udinc.in

We are in danger of killing employee engagement with cliche strategies and over used activities

Here are five things we (UD Inc) ask you about when it comes to your employee engagement:

1. Do your thinking preferences affect the way you relate to certain employees?

Do you connect with certain people more easily than others? Do you pay more attention to their ideas than others? Do some employees struggle with your directions while others have no trouble? It’s natural to, in essence, “speak to yourself” from a thinking preference standpoint. That works great for those who think just like you do, but the most effective engagement strategies are those which value diversity of thought and know how to engage everyone.

2. How well do you know your employees?

Do you understand their expectations, job needs and preferences, and what they bring to the table? Most of us have a wealth of “untapped resources” in the people we work with. We(UD Inc) are the bridge to engage with the way they think and they will feel more valued and motivated – meaning they can contribute in more meaningful ways, which of course is what every corporate wants.

3. What are the thinking requirements of the work?

Corporates align people with the work they do best and find most stimulating and we(UD Inc) help people stretch outside their mental comfort zones when the job requires it. It’s a good time to re-evaluate job descriptions and assignments to make sure we are setting people up to feel mentally energised by their work, not drained by it.

4. Are you helping people bring their best thinking to work?

The complexity of the environment means everyone has to be more agile in their thinking. Rather than allowing employees to become consumed by chaos, Our(UD Inc) designs of engagement encourage and give them the tools to use thinking to their advantage, to draw on all their mental resources as needed so they can make sense of the noise.

5. Are you inspiring ownership and including everyone in the process?

Now more than ever, we need the diversity of the organisation’s thinking working to solve problems and find better ways of doing things. That means listening for and valuing all the thinkers on the team, even especially those whose perspectives are different from your own. If we engage employees’ thinking, and they’ll likely find efficiencies an outside observer would miss.

Now more than ever, to engage people we have to know how to engage their thinking—before it’s too late!

What are you doing to create a culture where everyone’s thinking counts?

Let me guess.... contact www.udinc.in.

[udinc-blog]

End of the day, we are all humans.

                                                www.udinc.in

While planing an event we'd be aware of the six human needs

Whatever corporate event we(UD Inc) are after, whatever theme we(UD Inc) design - Product launch, pampering investors, annual event, Product promotion -- whatever you think your nirvana is, there are six basic, universal needs that make us tick and drive all human behaviour.”

Certainty/Comfort: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure

Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change and new stimuli

Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed

Love/Connection: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something

Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding

Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others

We understood these needs and they helped us create new patterns that lead to lasting fulfilment.”

Personalisation makes people happy

The Journal for applied psychology published a fascinating study about personalisation involving waiters and mints. Entitled Sweetening the Till: The Use of Candy to Increase Restaurant Tipping, three control groups were monitored:

The first group had waiters hand out mints alongside the check while making no mention of the mints. This increased tips by around 3 percent against the control group.

The second group had waiters bring out two mints by hand (separate from the check), and specifically point them out to tables. This saw tips increase by about 14 percent.

The last group had waiters bring out the check along with a few mints. Shortly thereafter, waiters came back with another set of mints and let customers know that they had brought out more mints just in case. This group saw an increase in tips by 23 percent.

Do unto others...

You’ve probably been reminded of the Golden Rule throughout your entire life: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” While that’s sound advice, is it applicable to your company?

Absolutely.

According to author Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, if you do something for another person, they’ll likely return the favour. This idea of reciprocity can be employed in business, such as by giving away branded coffee mugs, free 30-day trials or as simple as a photo with CEO during the event.

Even saying ‘thank you’ can be a small but important way to build a community of loyal advocates for your company.

Provide a novel experience

We (UD Inc) believe that people have a need for the unknown. In fact, scientists have long backed up this claim.

“It is a well-known fact amongst scientists that the midbrain region regulates our levels of motivation and our ability to predict rewards by releasing dopamine in the frontal and temporal regions of the brain. We have now shown that novelty activates this brain area.”

This explains why people wait in line and pay hundreds of dollars for a new iPhone even when they already have a perfectly functional model. They want the newest features and a novel experience.And thus we (UD Inc) target that part of an employee's brain diverting his motivation to productivity and make him see his work place with a new perception.

Tell a story

Stories, it turns out, are not optional. They are essential. Our need for them reflects the very nature of perceptual experience, and storytelling is embedded in the brain itself.

Stories don’t just take us to another world, they are able to activate the parts of the brain that are associated with our senses, such as sight, sound, taste and movement. And they light up our emotional brains, which can impact almost every decision.

We(UD Inc) create stories with every event and each story represents their existence in the company and vice-versa.

[udinc-blog]

Internal corporate Branding. Yes that's a thing.

                                                www.udinc.in

Think branding as usual, and most companies and marketing men will wax eloquent about how critical it is to establish a brand in the minds of consumers and other stakeholders. What's not so often realised, is that it's just as critical to establish a company's brand to those who produce it, deliver it, and live with it — employees.

A wise man once said "It's the employees who bring a brand to life,"

While companies have realised the importance of branding, and now spend large amounts on advertising and publicity, I believe they may not be getting it perfectly right. A brand image, is about a logo, physical attributes, etc, but only up to 20 per cent of image is created this way. The rest is all about behaviour, and that makes employees the brand's ultimate custodians — from the top management down to the front line.

A lack of consistency in how a brand projects itself and what goes on inside the company, will ultimately, cause brand values to crumble.Inspiring passion in its employees is what a brand should be about and this edict, when ignored, is always disastrous.

Lets take a quick example of our client, which, as part of a drive to promote its brand as "young and innovative", wanted to address employees to reinforce this image within the company.The board of directors, however were all grey-haired and middle-aged. What do you think the impression would be, if he talked about how innovative and young the company was?

Employees' eyes would simply glaze over.

The company therefore, was advised to walk its brand new talk. On the day of the internal presentation, employees gathered inside the hall, expecting one of the 'fuddy-duddy' directors to address them. And in walked a 21-year-old woman, an employee of the firm. She represented all the company wanted to project about itself, put forward to the employees in a very forceful way. And when she talked about the company's mission, it worked like a charm.

According to UD Inc at least 10 per cent of revenue should be devoted to branding within the company. There are numerous tales of how companies invest money into a completely new advertising strategy, and make grand promises for the brand. But just deciding to invest is not enough —companies need to systemise the process.

Employees will always ask 'What's in it for me?' It's human nature. You need to develop a case for your brand strategy change, or revival, and sell it internally. Tell them how they can benefit. Make your case a compelling story. Branding is as essential here as it is outside if you want the employee to be motivated, and willing to meet expectations.

The firm also has to display commitment from the top, emphasise open communication, be willing to share the story on brand development, and continually reinforce this in management processes. This at times requires a complete attitude upheaval , but UD Inc believes that the resulting openness is well worth it.

Now let us peek through the companies which succeeded in making their employees loyalists of the brand — Orange, Virgin and Reuters, to name a few. Another company that successfully aligned its employees as faithfuls, is the London arm of Warner Brothers. While tying up the distribution rights for the film The Matrix: Reloaded, it managed to get all the distributors, including the theatres and HMV, the owner of the music rights, to invest money upfront, over three months before they would realise any revenue from the film.

The company, manages to create a sense of ownership even among its external partners. It is something that is entirely possible and it reflects that old truth: give the people ownership, and they will put in that extra mile. You will have employees who care what happens to their company.

and some #s follow......

[udinc-blog]

How NOT to make a cliché corporate event

                                                www.udinc.in

A common denominator in event planning is creativity. No one sets out to coordinate the “most uninspired meeting of all time.”

We(UD Inc event planners) want to be remembered for integrating originality and imagination into events. Often times though there is a boundary to our creativity. It could be a limited budget or a conservative theme that leaves us wondering where we can sneak in a dash of personality.

To help conquer situations like this, I’ve listed outlined some of the nearly-infinite event components where we (UDInc event planners) can add our creative touch. Next to each one you’ll see an example of how to invigorate these details beyond the standard fare.

Event Title

Your title is the first thing that sells prospective attendees on your event.

Standard Example: The 23rd Annual Black & White Ball

Creative Example: 23 Years in the Making… Tuxedos under Twilight

Invitations

This is another first impression element that should effectively market your event.

Standard Example: White card with plain text in a white envelope.

Creative Example: Bright envelope with image-rich postcards that describe the occasion.

Venue

A special location can spark excitement weeks before the event takes place.

Standard Example: Hotel meeting room.

Creative Example: Restaurant or private suite at an arena or ballpark.

Catering

Every meeting and theme can be partnered with a unique food experience.

Standard Example: Grilled chicken with rice.

Creative Example: Chipolte BBQ chicken loin served with mashed sweet potatoes.

Lighting

Lighting is one of the most basic elements of design, and it can be used in ​a variety of ways.

Standard Example: Spotlights on stage.

Creative Example:Colourful uplighting to illuminate walls and white linens.

Seating Arrangements

After registration, the next top concern for guests is where they will be seated.

Standard Example: Round tables of 8.

Creative Example: Crescent rounds of 6 to eliminate guests having their backs to the stage.

Design Props

Props come in many different forms, from simple stage ferns to detailed scenery motifs.

Standard Example: Backdrops and banners on the stage.

Creative Example: Themed inflatables set outside the room or venue entrance.

Staff

Greeters, servers, and registration staff can integrate the theme of your event into their uniforms.

Standard Example: Monogrammed polo shirts and khakis.

Creative Examples: Sports uniforms, construction hats, or costumes tailored for the event.

Stage Design

The stage is the focal point throughout the event so keep it visible and engaging.

Standard Example: 8x12 rectangular stage centered on the wall.

Creative Example: Runway stage that extends into the audience for more engagement.

Table Linens

Napkins by themselves have the capacity to become a visual design element.

Standard Example: White table linens with burgundy flat-folded napkins.

Creative Example: Floor-length table linens in a solid colour with contrasting napkins in a pyramid fold.

Chair Covers

Even the nicest banquet chairs look complacent at a large event.

Standard Example: White linen chair cover with bow tie.

Creative Example: Spandex stretch covers that match the table linens.

Guest Speakers

Speakers and their message represent the content of your event and thus are tied closely to its success.

Standard Example: Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Creative Example: Celebrity or outside presenter who can tie past success with your company’s objectives.

Entertainment

Entertainers can perform before or after the content to add another unique element to the occasion.

Standard Example: DJ or Jazz Trio.

Creative Examples: Music independent cover artists or talented performers from other entertainments.

Center-pieces ​

Whatever sits in the center of each guest table will be viewed for hours. Don’t waste opportunity!

Standard Example: Fresh cut flowers or potable plants that can be taken home by guests.

Creative Examples: Ceramic artwork, picture collages or fiber optic centerpieces.

Table Cards

These are the signs placed at each table to identify the table number or guest seating position.

Standard Example: Printed card stock.

Creative Example: Framed table numbers that match the décor of the table.

These are just some of the nooks and crannies where we (UDInc event planners) can add a creative touch to events. The truth is that just about any facet of event production can be customized in some manner.