Feb 16, 2018 Events That Build Relationships: Lessons from a President
Entertaining to create breakthrough conversations is not something new. Thomas Jefferson was a famed entertainer during his tenure as President, using dinners to soften his foes and to build consensus with his political allies. He understood that the critical discussions weren’t likely to happen in the state house, where politicians kept their armor on and defenses up. The real conversations happened in not-so-obvious ways, around a table.
When it comes to C-level corporate events, building relationships is a key goal and creating environments to support these conversations is top of mind. At Wilsonwest, our tagline is this: Events that Build Relationships, and we’ve built our business around this concept.
How do you do this? There are three elements to relationship building at events: convene the right audience, deliver compelling content, and design environments to encourage and support conversation.
When we walk into a crowded room, our first reaction can be anxiety. We wonder what we have of value to share. Or, what’s safe for us to share? To get past this, event strategists need to design environments where people can relax and have real conversations.
We recently produced a banking conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel; the corporate event was a three-day conference, with all the content supposedly happening in the ballroom, where leading financial gurus delivered their strategy. Thankfully, our client understood that the event wasn’t solely focused on what they had to say from the ballroom stage.
It was about their audience.
It was a tough crowd – investment bankers and some very sophisticated banking clients. We understood that most of the important conversations would happen in the off-hours, during the breaks, lunches and dinners. So we needed to create intimate opportunities for the guests to relax together and open up discussions.
For one of the evening events, we created a sensory feast of bars – chocolate tasting, cigar tasting, a fragrance bar, and tequila tasting – all set to the beat of Latin music. We invited Julio Bermejo, the most noted authority of tequila in the world, to host the tequila tasting.
By having someone speaking to the guests and engaging them, and creating a relaxed, learning environment, the dialogue flew. The photo above is the proof: people engaged around Mr. Bermejo and most importantly, around each other.
This sort of relaxed but upscale event broke down barriers.
How do you create an environment that facilitates these conversations?
It begins with a deep understanding of your audience. Start there.
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