At Raphael’s Event Works, we happen to have a large showroom space in the building right in front of our sister company, Raphael’s Party Rentals. We hold an open house – which can also be called a design showcase – once a year.
Here are 10 things to remember
- Pre promote with emails, invitations and press announcements. Identify and invite key influencers from the industry and reach out to those with high social media numbers to see about helping pre-promote the event!
- Consider a theme that will show off everyone in a unique manner – perhaps a pop up restaurant, or Hollywood Glamour. There are so many ways to go!
- Choose a time of year that makes sense for your area and your busy times. Some ideas include a Spring Fling, Jingle and Mingle or Trends for the New Year.
- Credit vendors before the event with their logos on emails and any collateral and the same afterwards.
- Partner with a local association such as the Chamber or ISES or even a media partner if possible. In this case, we had set up tabletops and Ceremony magazine came in in conjunction with the event to take photos, that way we amortized our time and effort!
- Crowd flow. Guided tours through your space are a great way for people to get to personally interact with your team and sales reps and see more of your capabilities.
- Make it shareable! Social media is a very visual media and everyone loves to take pictures. Make sure you have an event hashtag on all your promotions, as well as at the event where everyone can see it, and that you have at least three very Instagrammable visual elements.
- Education. Consider having a speaker from the community to make the event something that will resonate deeper with attendees while they are there, and in their memory. No doubt this person may have people he or she can promote the event to as well.
- Give everyone photos after, a dropbox with links to all the vendors and send to your key influencers and media so they can put the story on their sites, blogs and social media
- Have fun! This is an opportunity for our entire team to shine. Make sure you don’t stress too much. While we tell this to clients all the time, sometimes it’s hard for us to remember it ourselves!
Our Open House Partners
Food and Beverage
- John Little Catering — http://www.johnlittlecatering.com/
- Brothers Catering — http://www.brotherssce.com/ (@brotherssce_catering)
- The Wild Thyme Company — http://thewildthymecompany.com/
- Peartrees Catering — http://www.peartreescatering.com/ (@peartreescateringinc)
- Terra Catering & Events — http://www.terracatering.com/ (@terracatering)
- Event Beverage Solutions — http://www.eventbeverage.com/
- Snake Oil Cocktail Company — http://snakeoilcocktail.com/ (@snakeoilcocktail)
Floral, Design and Venue:
- Raphael’s Event Works
Rentals:
- Raphael’s Party Rentals — http://www.raphaels.com (@raphaelspartyrentals)
Draping:
- Dazian Creative Fabric Environments — https://www.dazian.com/ (@dazianfabrics)
Entertainment
- Oscar Aragon — http://www.oscararagon.com/
- Mobile Music – http://www.mobilemusicplus.com/