5 Tips for Making the Most of an Awards Event

An awards ceremony is an opportunity to express your company or organization’s culture. Not two are exactly alike, and they come in all shapes and sizes. There are corporate luncheons, industrial trade shows, glorious galas, and everything in between. Since awards events are unique to each organization, there isn’t a cookie-cutter approach that can be applied. Your event will have its own style, so there are lots of things you can do to ensure everyone has a great experience. At the same time, you can maximize the opportunity to gain valuable positive exposure for your organization, the honorees, and more. Here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your awards events.

Making the Most Out of an Awards Presentation

Connect with the Crowd

Making meaningful connections and networking are the main reasons people want to attend professional events. Make sure to incorporate some time for attendees to socialize and mingle. Allow some pre-ceremony time or a pre-dinner cocktail hour. Consider seating arrangements that will help promote conversation and communication between attendees. It may also be a good idea to design your layout so that a refreshment area or bar is away from the main event. This will provide a space for people to chat without disrupting or being distracting to others.

Make It Fun

Even formal ceremonies don’t have to be stuffy. You are presenting awards that honor greatness and victories. It’s a celebration, it’s okay to loosen up a little bit and have some fun, especially if your awards event is designed to be social. There are ways to make sure everyone has a good time without sacrificing the event’s integrity. Providing live music, hiring a comedian, or some other type of entertainer can help keep fun in the air. Depending on the nature of your organization, you can use a fun theme for the event.

Make It Sharable

Many businesses see an awards event as something they can leverage for positive press. With today’s social media interactions and influencers, it’s a lot easier and inexpensive! Set up photo stations. Use a branded backdrop. Designate space for photo-ops. You may choose to set up a traditional photo booth or recreate a red-carpet photo spot. Do all you can to facilitate social sharing. It will highlight your brand and attendees’ smiling faces and maximize your reach by making it easy to connect and engage.

Share Award-Winning Stories

The suspense of waiting to see who the honoree is in a live, envelope-opening moment can be exciting. However, it’s not always feasible. There are a few practical reasons why you might want to notify your award winners and other honorees before the awards event. One of the benefits is being able to share their success stories. This involves the recipient in the promotion of the event. You can include honoree photos, bios, and achievements in the event’s program. It also makes great content for your company website, newsletter, press releases, or social media.

Be Creative with Award Categories

The tried-and-true classics and traditional award categories will never go out of style. Awards are designed to celebrate as well as incentivize achievements. You’ll always have room for top sales, outstanding leadership, attendance awards, and service awards that honor dedication to your company. These types of awards are popular for good reasons. But you can go beyond these classics. Add some innovative awards that are unique to your brand. Keep things fresh by adding new categories each year.

Let Suburban Custom Awards Celebrate Your Honorees

Are you ready to start planning your awards event? Let Suburban Custom Awards help! We’ve been providing high-quality trophies, crystal awards, and plaques for awards events since 1964. We keep a large inventory on hand so that production times are faster than average. Call us and let us know about your upcoming event. Let us help you honor and celebrate your event’s honorees.