Free Article on Corporate Event Planning and Celebrations (by Dr. Sheila Kessler, expert in Employee Recognition and Celebrations)

Companies that play together stay together. Knowing how to recognize employees and celebrate successes is one of the most proven attributes of industry leaders (vs. industry laggards) according to the Gallop Poll research with over a million employees.  Those celebrations range from informal high-5's in the hall, to staff recognition for efforts well done to gala celebrations where the intent is to pump the sales force into even higher sales.  Doing recognition and celebratory events right is both an art and a science.

Poorly designed recognition events de-motivate rather than energize employees.  Have you ever been a part of the "token employee of the month" with the requisite parking space privilege. You get the feeling that the chosen person was plucked out of the recent memory of the supervisor who was desperate to come up with someone at the last minute. Or the annual Sales Meeting where the highest performers were rewarded with Harley Davidsons where the rest of the team who really made the high numbers happen languished in non-recognition. 

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• How to Plan Successful Company Celebrations (checklist)

A free monthly ezine (worth $99) on Employee Recognition is also included with your order. The ezine covers Best Practices from leading companies as well as hot tips to make your celebrations more meaningful and creative. All of your information is private and is only used for this transaction.  You will be able to easily unsubscribe if it doesn't meet your needs.

Other Corporate Event Planning Resources

Competitive Edge provides full service Corporate Event Planning with a specialty area in corporate celebrations. We can help you devise a customized theme, arrange speakers, and plan fun activities.  We also provide coaching and training on how to do special celebrations.

• Kudos Celebrations: Corporate Event Planning
• Customer Appreciation Events
• Kudos Sales Meetings

Kudos Celebrations: Corporate Event Planning

Knowing how to celebrate success is key to energizing employees, customers and cash flow.  Whether it is a low-cost ice-cream social to celebrate a recent sales bid win or a full fledge annual sales meeting, the planning and staging of the event either motivates or demoralizes employees. Competitive Edge has helped companies plan and add creativity to their celebrations for over twenty years. We also train internal staff how to keep this creativity and energy flowing through other events during the year. Industry leaders all know how to celebrate-the little successes as well as the big ones.

Customer Appreciation Events

Sample Customer Appreciation Events include:

 

	Customer Appreciation Day at NASA at Kennedy Space Center where the Harley Davidson keynoters kicked off a day of recognition and hype for extraordinary customer service.
	Customer Auction for a radio broadcasting company. Advertisers got to spend fake money on HDTV sets, trips, etc. based on how much money they had spent. Customers found themselves spending more so they could have more bidding options!

Kudos Sales Meetings

We can add the same energy and creativity to your sales meetings as you recognize excellence and introduce new initiatives and strategy.  One of the best examples I have seen in the nearly 120 Fortune 500 companies with whom I've worked was a Microsoft. Microsoft had a winning formula for how to combine education, training and celebration in its sales meetings. The formula included a combination of skits, games, motivating speeches, recognition and organized play sessions (skiing, roller skating, jet skiing, competition volleyball) etc.  At the end we were all charged up with new information, new tools, enhanced relationships and excitement to do our best. Once again, knowing how to put on this high energy meeting is an art and science.  Learn from the best.

Corporate Event Planning Coaching and Training

Many times companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on name entertainment when they could be spending far less and motivating their people far more with a little creativity. The best meetings, by far,  are those that integrate the theme, strategic initiatives and new information into games and skits and lively discussions. These meetings use an integrated set of:

	Themes and props
	Skits
	Motivating speeches (help you write them) or poems
	Games that incorporate learning new information or skills
	Round robins-input from the field that is rolled up
	Facilitation of the meeting or break-out groups
	Recognition awards, trophies, certificates, plaques