In the era of remote work and global teams, organizations have to work harder than ever to maintain company culture, motivate employees and ensure they feel connected to one another and to the business. And there’s one strategy that solves for each of those objectives: internal events. Whether it’s a meeting designed to galvanize the salesforce or a beach retreat that rewards staffers for their achievements, companies are leaning on team-building events to support—and retain—employees. Following is a look at some top tips for hosting internal events.
Enlist internal ambassadors.
If you want to foster genuine employee engagement, you have to know who your people really are. And for some organizations, that entails enlisting someone who’s in the trenches with staffers to monitor what’s working and where their needs could be better met. At Southwest Airlines, one or more dedicated cultural ambassadors in each of the brand’s locations are tasked with maintaining morale, organizing engaging internal activities and generally taking care of the staff.
“These culture ambassador roles are great. There are term limits, and they’re not in a leadership position,” says Whitney Eichinger, svp and chief communications officer at Southwest. “We ask that the leaders choose someone who’s not a manager so it brings up some more of those interesting ideas, gives that employee a sense of ownership and maybe a path to growth.”
From the perspective of Chelsea Sullivan, vp-people experience at Power Home Remodeling, investing in an internal events department is essential to building employee experiences that resonate.
“My team and I work alongside the employees every day so we can better gauge what they like, what they don’t like, what they want to see next. And it’s an investment that can help to elevate and personalize that employee experience. We’re staying on top of trends within the industry, attending different kinds of events for ourselves and trying to think of bigger ways to provide that one-of-a-kind experience.”
Host a high-energy kickoff.
Internal events are typically a mix of business and pleasure, but the atmosphere should feel celebratory, rather than transactional, particularly when the experience kicks off. A killer opening reception can set the tone for the entire event.
At Quest Software’s NXT internal sales conference this year, the brand festivalized its opening event and invited employees to let loose. In fact, the brand whipped up an entirely new visual identity and engagement strategy for the kickoff, which this year became “X-Fest.”
The multifaceted event took the shape of a block party and encouraged attendees to let down their hair. Among touchpoints was a performance by DJ X, who spun tunes throughout the night, giant LED swings built for social sharing, f&b, a live graffiti artist brought in from Los Angeles, and interactive photo ops.
The kickoff additionally featured a rage room where employees were invited to strap on a helmet, grab an NXT-branded baseball bat and step into the room to smash an array of old technology. Meanwhile, fellow attendees could watch the action, thanks to a TV planted just outside of the experience. Not your average corporate reception.
Incorporate non-traditional stages.
Amway’s annual Founders Council event serves as a landing point to celebrate the achievements of the company’s direct-selling health and beauty independent business owners. For the 2024 affair, Amway took its top-tier sellers to Switzerland for an unconventional internal event, which featured non-traditional stage setups.
Indeed, it’s the kind of audience you shouldn’t host in a traditional ballroom and deliver traditional watch-and-listen content. One of the general session spaces for Founders Council this year was held in The Dolder Grand’s ballroom, a circular venue without any screens, that was heavy, instead, on dynamic lighting and sound effects so that attendees could focus solely on the voiced message. Projected flower designs on the domed ceiling mapped back to the event’s “Bloom” theme.
Inspired by multisensory museum experiences and studies that show people in movie theaters synchronize their breaths and heartbeats, the creative team set out to build anticipation through these a/v moments as the attendees heard about the health and wellness initiatives and previews of products coming to Amway markets globally.
Throughout the event, the team simultaneously translated presentations in 10 different languages for the 250 people in attendance. –R.B.
Make it recreational.
There was a whole different kind of “board meeting” going on during the Desert Waves executive surfing experience at California’s Palm Springs Surf Club on Sept. 16. While not a traditional corporate retreat (execs from multiple companies were invited to attend), the strategy could easily be translated into an internal team-building experience.
At the center of the one-day, off-site networking event, presented by Hatch.IM, Breathe Media Network and Microsoft Casual Games, was state-of-the-art wave technology. That’s right, attendees of every skill level were invited to surf while doing business.
And surf they did. Execs from brands like Live Nation, Epic Records, Revlon and Warner Bros. could be found riding waves, many for the first time. Meanwhile attendees like Sun Bum’s and Outerknown’s cmos, both of whom are former pro-surfers, added some expertise to the mix.
Beyond surfing, attendees could enjoy resort-style amenities, other water park attractions and curated dining options. (Agency: Hatch.IM)
Choose a theme with legs.
Every year, Matt Woelbern, head of marketing, go-to-market at Zeiss Vision Care US, and his events team are tasked with conjuring an event theme for the company’s National Sales Meeting (NSM) that is not only motivational, but abstract enough to be woven into various aspects of the event. For its Miami conference, “Miami Zeiss” was selected as the theme, clearly derived from the NSM’s location and the company’s name. For Woelbern, it was both inspirational and playful enough to fit the bill.
A comical opening video introducing the Miami Zeiss theme, which then seamlessly carried into opening remarks on stage, set the tone for the entire event. The scripted footage included the brand’s president portraying the lead character from “Miami Vice” and vehicles racing through the “Miami streets” (but actually pre-recorded off-site). The brand even spliced in conversational pauses to make it seem like executives were rushing in from their Lamborghini adventures across Miami to meet colleagues on the stage—dressed in the same ensembles from the recording.
“A theme is usually a choice between something related to the [host] city in some way, or something that’s a corporate ‘rah-rah’ theme. We do both,” says Woelbern. “So the case with Miami… it was just a perfect theme. It worked really well in terms of, kind of flashy, still aggressive but you can spin it in a non-negative way. And we can always make our competitors the bad guys, right?”
More Internal Events Strategies:
- Small Conference, Big Thinking: How Quest Software Breathed New Life into its Sales Kickoff
- Amway’s Founders Council Incentive Event: Five Ideas for Your ‘Top Tier’ Attendees
- Zeiss Shares Five Ways to Make Sales Meetings More Fun
- Employee Engagement: Six Tips for Building Experiences That Deliver Emotional ROI
