How To Throw An Amazing Repeat Event

If you’re someone who hosts repeat events, it can be a nightmare trying to think of new ideas that are going to impress the same crowd every time.

Finding a venue can be exhausting, thinking of a new theme that everyone will like – exhausting too! And – racking your brains as to how to make it more awesome than last year – EXHAUSTING!

We are so lucky here at Event Flair to have many repeat clients – we love helping people who regularly host events to make them awesome every time, without the stress. And you know what? We’d like to do this for you too.

Here are our tips on how to keep those regular events interesting, without the hours of effort every time, so you can throw an amazing event again, and again, and again! 

1. Venue

First of all, when you are choosing your venue - if it ain't broke, don't fix it! (stay with me on this….). If you find a great venue which ticks lots of boxes, there's actually nothing wrong with booking it again, and it will work in your favour for a few reasons. 

• Have you ever been to an event and been stuck going around the block in your car thinking “where on earth is this venue??”? I’ve been there and it SUCKS, and admittedly put me in a bad mood before even walking in the door. If you're using the same venue again, guests have already done their dues finding the place. They also know where to park, they know how to get there - things are easy and they walk in feeling good. Tick!!

• It's a lot faster to collect all the info that you need for the event, as you already know the requirements of the venue

• A lot of venues these days have introduced rewards clubs, so if you've thrown a massive function the year before, you might actually have a pretty good discount or credit waiting for you

• If your event repeats annually, your venue would have had a year's worth of events similar to yours, and therefore gained experience about what things worked and what things didn't for groups your size and style. Because they’ve hosted you before, they know what they're in for, so can be better prepared and therefore make amends to run the event smoother than the previous
  

2. Theme

It’s a new year, so that means a different theme and therefore completely different decorations and entertainment, right? 

Sometimes thinking of a whole lot of new ideas and sourcing new contacts is very time consuming, heavy on the brain, expensive and can come with a lot of operational obstacles. For starters, here’s a video link for some ideas on picking a theme here, and as for the rest - you don't have to change anything. (again, stay with me….)

If you go with the same entertainment structure, not the same entertainment, the same entertainment structure, your life will be so much easier. The costs will be similar, and the event will still seem very different each year.

So what is an entertainment structure? To help explain, let’s take two services that Event Flair offers, starting with The Red Carpet Welcome.

• The Red Carpet Welcome (more info here) is really awesome because it creates an amazing first impression. Who wouldn't want to be welcomed like they're on a red carpet? It's an instant win. This service also makes for a great photo opportunity because let’s face it - these days, a new profile pic is very important!

• After a great welcome, the Main Event service is something for guests to look forward to later in the night, and works as a great tool to break up a long evening. Here’s some more ideas on what you could do for this here.

Both of these services can be moulded to anything (they're quite chameleon-like really). We've used both of these services together for events themed Hawaiian, circus, Vegas, enchanted forest, Pulp Fiction, fiesta, you name it - and although the structure is the same, every event felt different and could stand alone.

Using the same entertainment structure makes things a lot easier if you're using the same venue, because you'll know exactly what the venue's capabilities and restrictions are from the previous year. You'll know what works and what doesn't, and be able to put together something great, with ease.

3. Follow up post event

We’ve saved our most important tip on throwing an amazing repeat event for last - put a reminder in your calendar for a week after your event to make a list of what went well and what didn't, and refer back to it when planning your next event. Your future self and staff will love you for it, as you’ll have in writing every little detail that you loved and didn’t before starting the planning, resulting in only improvement for the next event.

If you're planning an event and need some flair, it would be our absolute pleasure to help you with entertainment ideas. This is a free service that Event Flair offers, so take advantage of it! Flick us your details and what you’re planning here, and we’ll do the rest.

We hope that this information has helped you to throw an amazing event again, and again, and again! Stay tuned for more awesome event planning blogs coming soon!