How to Plan an Amazing Awards Ceremony

Whether you are planning an end of season sports banquet, a quarterly or an annual awards ceremony for your corporation, it can be easy to slip into a rut. Maybe you’ve been out of the loop and not been responsible for planning awards presentations for years. Either way, we’ve collected a few tips to help prevent it from being boring. Here are a few tips for planning an outstanding awards ceremony everyone is sure to enjoy.

Decide on a Theme Related to Your Program

It’s easy to forget a generic awards ceremony that is just the status quo. Creating a theme specific to your unique program is vital. There are many exciting themes to choose from to keep your event from being boring. Popular choices include a masquerade, black-tie formal, medieval, or Vegas. Any of these themes can be customized to the unique qualities of your program. It may take a little creative thinking, but you can match a theme to your industry and organization.

Make the Invitations Matter

When you are planning any kind of event, every detail matters and your invitations are not an exception. If you think about it, invitations are extremely important as it is the first impression your invitees will make of the event. It will set the tone for their mood and they will carry that to the event. Make sure invitations reflect your organization and are consistent with your goals and award program. All the elements like color, messages, and styles should match your core values and the reason for the awards ceremony. But they don’t have to be bland. They should spark interest and be exciting for attendees.

Create an Exciting Program

Whether you are planning an employee recognition event, sales awards for the year, sports awards, or some type of industry competition, remember it’s a celebration. It is up to you to ensure everyone has fun. Here are a few ways to make sure attendees have fun.

• Keep it Short! One of the most common complaints about awards ceremonies is they are too long. The longer the event, the more difficult it is to keep your audience engaged. Reduce the number of awards and have a specific timeline and time restrictions for speeches to ensure it is inside time limits.
• Provide Additional Value. Of course, the main focus of the awards ceremony is award announcements. These can be spiced up and improved by incorporating additional engaging activities. You may invite an industry leader, motivational speaker, or even a comedian to speak at your venue.
• Remember Your Expectations. Something like a pre-event survey can help you build a more targeted program for your event. You can ask potential attendees what types of entertainment they prefer, what they hope to get out of the program, or other questions to help you gain ideas for the awards ceremony.

Tips for Award Ceremony Presentations

When an award ceremony drags on, you can lose your audience. But there are a few things you can do to break it up and make sure they stay engaged. For instance, utilizing multiple award presenters can help keep your audience interested better than just one presenter talking and handing out awards. You may also want to use an assistant who can help pass out the awards. This will keep the event flowing well. You should always use at least two volunteers who can assist winners to the stage and pass out awards. You will also want to hire a photographer or videographer to capture memories that will last for years. Attendees will enjoy seeing (and stealing) photos they are tagged in online.

Conclusion

Creating a unique corporate awards ceremony will help your guests remember it for a long time. Use these ideas to help ensure it’s a stellar event they’ll be talking about at the office for months to come. Of course, no award ceremony is complete without outstanding high-quality awards. Please contact Suburban Custom Awards for award and presentation ideas. We can also help with the wording on personalized awards. Let us help you create a memorable event!