CHICAGO, Ill.--July 20, 1999-- Enter the "new" world, where work and pleasure are blended into personal productivity recipes, where a steady stream of high quality "happy" workers is vital to successful growth of a company, and business partnerships may last longer than many marriages. This new-millennium world will make planet earth smaller than it is now, but with exponential options for leisure time activities, including dining, and travel.
Paint Me A Party Productions is among the exhibitors at this week’s TS2--the trade show for event and trade show organizers--being held now through July 23 at Navy Pier. CEOs and marketing executives are here from throughout the U.S. to sample the ideas for business events as new corporate communications approaches take shape in the era of high touch/high tech business to business marketing. Business entertaining and special event marketing will rise to the occasion and take a huge chunk of dollars out of the marketing mix smorgasbord, according to Chicago event planner Sally Schwartz, president, Paint Me A Party Productions. "At Paint Me A Party, we’re ready for the future, and for new business leaders to emerge at the dawn of the new millennium," said Schwartz. For business entertaining in this new world, the art of event production will be taken to a higher level. According to Schwartz, experiential events that win the hearts of customers will generate authentic passion for consumer goods and services through feelings of warmth, friendship, and humor. Product and service marketers will create one-of-a-kind corporate-sponsored performance events and travel, and continue to "one up" the high stakes game of winning and retaining customer loyalty. "The need to feel connected and in the loop will be greater than ever and allow businesses to provide forums for educating the public through hosting more seminars, conferences and special events," Schwartz said. Stepped up employee recruiting and retention efforts will raise the bar for companies who understand the value of creative, productive workers. Employee parties will enhance loyalty, and set the "feel-good" environment that keeps employees around as their stock vests. "This is another trend we spot coming from Silicon Valley where headline rock groups perform at private company parties and company ditch-day beach excursions are part of the lure top technology companies use to recruit and retain in the new millennium," commented Schwartz. Some of the commonplace components of business entertaining may seem extraordinary now but will be commonplace within the next few years. Schwartz’s special event and business entertaining predictions include:
New Venues. "Anything goes, the more unusual, the better. Laundromats, restaurant kitchens, rail-yards, corporate jets, bus stations, public works buildings, can be the sites for the most memorable and splendiferous gatherings," Schwartz said. Tents will transform off-site spaces into any kind of "stage set" decorated for parties, virtual exhibitions and product demonstration venues. Temporary Hollywood-style party sites will be created with custom-built tents creating elaborate fantastic or exotic locations to psychologically transport guests to any location, real or unreal. Party tents will be assembled with lego-like pieces of shrink-wrapped vinyl covered with silk-screened designs and custom colors to be snapped together in panels. Event planners will have new opportunities to create ambiance with unique design features, and to quickly and economically build snazzy spaces to showcase products.
Team and Community Building. "Team"--one of today’s biggest buzz words, becomes a greater reality in the new world. Team-building has come a long way from the corporate pep rally. Tomorrow’s team-building will incorporate incentive travel, well-planned weekend business retreats for mixing business and pleasure more and more. As the need to recruit and retain talented employees gets ever more competitive, events which forge bonds among staff and management groups will be more extravagant and sophisticated than they are today. "Cross-country Winnebago scavenger hunts, sailing races in the Great Barrier Reef, auto racing, here’s where creativity in the boardroom will count," said Schwartz. Companies will strive to create "virtual communities" as loyalty marketing combines the business-to-business marketing "us and them" into "we," bringing together airlines and their passengers, technology firms with users, distributors and partners, financial institutions and their customers/investors, and yes, even law firms and their clients will get chummier.
Invitation Media Expansion. "The U. S. postal system will play an expanded role in the delivery of event invitations and direct response pieces. As the cost of first class mail increases, and the cost of shipping packages decreases, the ’flat’ invitation piece will give way to larger scale communications in a variety of packaging," Schwartz predicts. Messages will be printed on everything from fabrics to foods to houseware items to human bodies. For virtual communications, personal invitations from corporate big wigs will be delivered directly to your computer screen, compelling response. With the advent of convergence phone systems will be integrated into computers and televisions. Guest phone numbers will be programmed and invitation messages will come direct to attendee voice mailboxes and computer screens, with a personal invitation from top executives or famous people in voice and image. Outdoor messaging will also expand and blur the old-fashioned permanent billboards with sculptural installations in prominent places, and more vehicles and airplanes capturing attention on the road. "YAHOO, the Internet directory service, has specially-painted cars traversing Silicon Valley now," says Schwartz, "taking a prompt from interstate highway delivery trucks."
Food of All Kinds. People are cooking less and less but when they do cook, it’s to entertain. "People are more experimental and open to trying exciting foods -- ethnic traditions in food will blend, a child's taste will be indulged, and breakfast will be served for dinner. Some samples of a corporate menu: Chile Blini’s, Salsa & Fontina Crepes, Peanut Butter Pancakes," said Schwartz, "This has been the millennium of contact." The New World gave Europe such common fare as corn, potatoes, chilies, chocolate, and tomatoes. From the East, Europe gained spices, sugar, and rice. Americans have continued to change the way they eat with each new immigrant group that arrives. Today’s fusion cooking celebrates this cultural mix at the table, and our party foods are evidence of the exchange of tastes among the people of the world. More chefs will be performing tableside, service will be more family style, with tasty options for all dietary restrictions.
Transportation. Limousines continue to be seen as awkward and ostentatious by those well-traveled, recognizable sorts, so cars, trucks and vans will be tricked-out for corporate schlepping, and on-the-road business presentations. Ho-hum cars with comfy custom interiors, top quality sound systems and Internet access devices, offer privacy and security for executives. Look for the Range Rover fleet in most major US cities.
Music and Entertainment. Entertainers at events will be of the "freak show" variety -- people will be open to startling and strange performers, from contortionists, fire-walkers, animal acts, inventors, computer ventriloquist dolls, stuntmen, trapeze artists. "Music will more and more mobile, with performers being flown-in from other parts of the country and world, and utilize cultural instruments, such as diggerydoos, sitars, and mouth-harps," said Schwartz.
Not-your-mother’s Floral Arrangements. Flowers will continue to be genetically altered, producing purple daisies, black orchids, turquoise roses, leaves of different colors. Centerpieces will incorporate more natural and found objects, such as rocks, wire, wood, glass, and other construction site or science laboratory materials. Taller and more spectacular floral arrangements will proliferate from the ceiling of the room down to the table tops. Bragging rights demand that components, such as orchids from the Philippines, are flown in just for the event.
Olfactory Expansion. Fragrances and scents will enhance event venues and product promotion. Loyalty marketing proponents will espouse the persuasive benefits of scent in pulling up good memories. Custom designed scents and mass olfactory manipulation, especially for merchandising and special events will be a mandatory component in the new world.
Atop a Table. Table tops for meetings and dining will feature their own integrated power sources, for mid-table lighting, laptop and multi-media presentations. Linens may be hand-painted spandex wrapped and draped around the table, legs and chairs. Schwartz says watch for stackable chairs in the lightest, ergonomic aluminum, with inflatable seat and back cushions. Shapeable tables will be available in different materials such as plexiglass, with matching dishes, glassware and silverware. As beautiful boomers age, considerate businesses will provide flattering light.
Public Relations. Publicity stunts will be bigger, bolder, brash
and x-rated. "Performance art meets marketing and promotion," quips
Schwartz. Lingerie fashion shows on the morning commuter train --
co-branded events with models wearing Burberry Raincoats, only to remove
them to reveal nothing but "somebody’s secret" lingerie underneath.
Business leaders will continue to assume super-star and cultural icon
status through the expression of personality.
Charismatically-challenged CEOs will rely increasingly on consultants to
develop media-friendly environments to provide the "wow" factor.
Paint Me A Party Productions, Inc. is one of the country’s top special
event planners, recently collaborating on parties to honor filmmaker
Roberto Benigni, honored by the Anti-Defamation League; to celebrate
the Financial Times, the London-based business daily, expansion to
Chicago, and to celebrate E! Channel’s Talk Soup. Paint Me A Party is a
complete special event, meeting planning, incentive travel management
and production company. The company consistently provides creative
solutions to business problems, and operates worldwide. Founded in 1985
by Sally Schwartz, a veteran of the Chicago advertising world, PMAPP
serves companies who recognize the importance of consistent, integrated
marketing messages and positive bottom-line impact of a professionally
planned and executed event.
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See us at TS2