Why are Events in 2023 Worth the Investment? (hint: Employee Engagement)

It has been a hot minute since I have had a chance to write a blog post. As I recapped my 2022 – it appears that last year was the busiest year yet for Jennifer James Events – and I know I’m not the only one. Live events are coming back – but what we observed in the last quarter for many businesses is that they hadn’t planned for holiday event season, and many were scrambling to find not only venues but reliable and?reputable event suppliers.

Employee Engagement Fun Facts

If you simply google?employee engagement?you will find countless studies have shown is that employees who feel engaged and appreciated at work tend to have less absences. The companies facilitating this tend to be more productive and more profitable as a result.

Four Key Pillars for Employee engagement:

• Connection
• Meaning
• Appreciation
• Impact

Live events are a great conduit to engaging employees and stakeholders in the four pillars. Here are some tips to help navigate 2023.

Planning Ahead for Events in 2023

Venues

After two years of uncertainty and working in less-than-ideal circumstances, events are back. January is when most venues give first right of refusal to the previous year’s clients for upcoming dates. If your organization hasn’t had an in-person event for a few years, this is a great time to reach out and see what might be available.

Teamwork

This is also a great time to start building your event team. The event landscape post-covid does not look the same. While there are still some great event related companies, many are rebuilding their teams. The farther out you can book key event partners, the better you can ensure that you have time to negotiate and less endure surprise costs.

Budget Accordingly

Speaking of costs, with inflation being a hot topic in the news these days – you need to know that?EVERYTHING?across the board has gone up since pre-covid. Working with your event planner, you can utilize their expertise and network to maximize your budget. A great event team can help leverage relationships to help create extraordinary events. Interested in learning more about event budgeting – check out this previous post –?Budget Planning 101!

Investing in People

I recently heard from a client that their budgets were cut during covid and haven’t been restored. If we learned anything from the pandemic is that we long to be together, to engage and to connect. For?Jennifer James Events, the events we have been planning are seeing higher numbers of attendees, less attrition and more active engagement. We are here to help you plan your next event and would love to share our ideas how you can help engage your people. Please reach out to us if you need any help or suggestions for your next event at?403-294-1644?or email us at [email protected]