Category: Events

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Three Key Takeaways

1. Joy is an employee engagement lever. Not a distraction.
2. What people feel determines what they remember.
3. Experiences that create shared joy drive better outcomes.

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The question caught us all by surprise.

It was the first time a new executive team was on stage together, and they invited their audience — 800 of the company’s leaders — to ask them anything. We knew questions might be hard-hitting. The execs were prepared.

It came from an attendee in the fourth row.

“So, I was wondering…” he began. “What do you all do for fun?”

The 13 leaders on stage expected questions about financials. Strategy. Compensation. AI. Acquisitions. But fun? Fun wasn’t in the talking points.

The executive team rolled with it. One talked about winning. One opened up about their family. Another about their love of carbs (same). Everyone wanted a turn at the mic. Their eyes lit up. They joked. They relaxed.

And the audience was… captivated.

As the meeting’s creative director, the question surprised me, too. But the reaction didn’t.

Why? Because I believe in the strategy of joy.

Even for the most serious of audiences, the most elite leaders, the most professional of professionals, I will pitch ideas designed to make people laugh, connect, sing along, or compete. A mockumentary. A lip sync battle. A funny story about your toddler. The degree and type of fun varies team to team, culture to culture. Context matters. But whatever the form, moments like these help cultivate something deeply powerful: collective joy.  

Sometimes clients resist this, and for valid reasons.

We don’t want to distract the team.

We need to be taken seriously.

We’ve got to hit our numbers before any fun is had.

But fun and joy aren’t frivolous. They are a vital part of gatherings that drive productivity, motivation, and culture (not to mention the ROI of your event).

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The Neuroscience of Joy: Why It Drives Results

One of the most fascinating studies on this comes from Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock and Joseph Allen. They videotaped hundreds of meetings, analyzed humor patterns, and examined outcomes. Their finding: laughter leads to more productive, goal-oriented meetings and stronger long-term performance.

In his talks and book on humor in leadership, author Adam Christing describes humor as a “shortcut to trust.”

One study even found that employees who watched a comedy clip before working were 10% more productive than those who just… started working.

There’s also neuroscience at play. When you experience fun and joy, your brain releases dopamine, which is tied to motivation and attention. If your people are having fun, they’re more likely to pay attention to business messages and rally behind your calls to action.

Fun doesn’t derail focus; it creates it.

The effect also goes beyond engagement at the event. Emotion is one of the strongest drivers of what the brain retains and recalls. Moments that spark joy are encoded more deeply than neutral or transactional experiences. In practical terms, when we create moments of joy, we’re doing more than capturing attention in the moment. We’re building memories that carry forward long after the meeting ends, and making sure your messages stick.

Perhaps the most powerful benefit is the way shared joy strengthens culture and connection. I think of watching the Chicago Bears’ epic fourth-quarter comebacks with fans at a bar. Laughing out loud with a packed movie theater. Or how the cast of The Traitors bonds so quickly through a shared game experience.

This is collective joy in action. And when you feel it in a ballroom, you know it. It radiates from the leaders on stage. You can sense you’re in the presence of a community that’s connected, energized, and excited to be together. Research backs this up: teams that have fun together are more engaged, collaborative, and creative.

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If You Want Better Results, Design an Experience Employees Will Remember

You can’t manufacture collective joy, but you can design for it. Authenticity, cultural alignment, and thoughtful execution all matter. And the better you understand a team, the more effectively you can create the conditions for it to emerge.  

Like most companies, our clients are navigating change and high-pressure market dynamics. In-person meetings are significant investments. The instinct is often to sideline fun, games, and human stories in favor of serious business topics.

But the clients who see the strongest results — boosts in performance, belief, engagement, and alignment — are often the ones willing to have a little fun along the way. 

The question isn’t whether joy belongs in serious business moments. It’s whether we can afford to design experiences people forget. If you’re planning a high-visibility meeting or event this year and want to design something your people will actually remember — not just sit through — let’s talk.

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Three Key Takeaways

1. Event preparation isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an ROI multiplier.
2. The best events are built twice: once behind the scenes, once on stage.
3. Expertise protects the attendee experience when time is tight.

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The New Reality of Live Event Timelines

Event timelines are shrinking, and so is the margin for error. With tighter budgets, stacked calendars, and fully booked venues, production teams are often working within compressed schedules that leave little or no time for load-in, tech, or rehearsal in the actual space.

The result? More risk, more stress, and an event experience that can feel improvised instead of intentional.

Here’s the reality: the “just do it live” mindset sounds agile, but it’s rarely a viable alternative. If you’re trying something for the first time in show, the element is unfinished by definition. You don’t know its pacing, emotional arc, or operational demands. That includes everything from the timing of a reveal to how long a speaker will actually take once the adrenaline hits.

A rehearsed moment has a defined beginning, middle, and end. An unrehearsed one doesn’t.

For high-stakes events, that uncertainty doesn’t just make the production vulnerable.

It impacts the audience experience and long-term perception of the moment.

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What’s at Stake: The Risk You Don’t See

The biggest risks in live events are the ones that stay hidden until show day. When rehearsal time is cut, those hidden issues tend to surface as distractions for your audience: AV glitches, missed transitions, awkward stage cues, confused speakers, unexpected technical hiccups.

None of these moments are catastrophic on their own. But each one breaks audience focus. And once attention slips, the message you’ve worked so hard to deliver starts to lose momentum.

That’s the real cost.

Not embarrassment.

Not stress.

The ability to connect with your audience — the true measure of event success.

When an event runs smoothly, people stay present and emotionally engaged. When something goes wrong, that connection fractures. This is why a flawless show depends on preparation: the walkthroughs, simulations, rehearsals, and contingency planning that happen long before doors open.

That unseen effort is what ultimately protects your investment.

TL;DR: Sometimes you plug things in and they just don’t work. And by then, it’s too late.

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How AJ Protects the Experience When Time Is Tight

Preparation is an event ROI multiplier. That’s why AJ’s event team has engineered production tools and systems that protect quality even when time is limited.

Visualization before execution (Pre-vis)

AJ uses screen guides and graphics run-of-show tools to map every cue, transition, and content shift before load-in. This allows design, video, and production teams to identify potential issues before we step into the venue.

Simulation-based show planning

When physical rehearsal time is limited, we run “show simulations” — collaborative sessions where creative, design, and technical leads walk through the entire experience on paper. These sessions drive alignment, reduce risk, and ensure flawless execution once we hit the stage.

Technical excellence

Compressed timelines and schedules demand expertise. Our technical directors, lighting designers, production riggers, and stage managers know how to problem-solve on the fly for a multitude of scenarios and pivot when needed under pressure.

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Real-World Example: Building Readiness Even When the Venue Isn’t Ready

The Event: A partner meeting for a global consulting firm

The Challenge: The ballroom wasn’t available. The venue was still under construction. And the schedule allowed almost no time for rehearsal on the actual stage.

The Solution: Instead of waiting, AJ created a new path to preparation, running a fully simulated show before the space was even ready. Using our event graphics guide, our creative, design, and production teams pre-planned every cue and transition while the stage was still being built.

The event’s opening moment required nearly 50 people to move in a complex pattern on stage. To prepare, we taped out a full replica of the stage in the Expo Hall — confidence monitors, camera marks, and all — and rehearsed with participants to maximize the limited time we would eventually have on the real stage.

By the time the ballroom was ready, the show had already built muscle memory.

The Result: A confident client, calm speakers, and a standout opening moment delivered with zero surprises because the hard work had already happened behind the scenes.

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Recap: Three Principles That Shape Standout Event Experiences

The most memorable events look effortless, but we all know that’s not the case. Here are the event production principles that our team lives by:

1. Preparation isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an ROI multiplier. Every hour spent planning, simulating, or rehearsing is insurance on your investment. Preparation reduces risk, sharpens delivery, and elevates the experience your audience remembers.
2. The best events are built twice: once behind the scenes, once on stage. The difference between world-class events and average ones is in the details. Every cue, transition, and preset builds confidence for presenters, producers, and attendees.
3. When time is short, expertise matters most. When schedules and timelines are compressed, detail-minded experts become your safeguard. Skilled operators, technical directors, stage managers, and production partners buy back control, confidence, and consistency when time is limited.

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In summary

With time to rehearse and prepare, delivery improves and the story gets stronger. When presenters feel familiar with the environment, flow, equipment, and team, nerves settle and confidence rises.

These are the conditions that allow them to focus on what matters most: connecting with the audience.

Because event preparation isn’t just about logistics. It’s about people.

Preparation creates calm for presenters, confidence for producers, and clarity for attendees. When everyone feels supported and ready, the room changes. The energy shifts. And the moment becomes memorable for all the right reasons. That’s the magic our team works to deliver every day.

All engagements should have a purpose—a central reason for being. When creating an event engagement strategy, it’s vital to start with why and build each component around that purpose to best reach your return on investment (ROI). So many events start with “let’s have an event” and the purpose is difficult to find.

How can you infuse purpose into every aspect of your event?

1. Setting Appropriate Event Goals

Setting meaningful goals isn’t always easy but important when determining purpose. Tying purpose to your event is crucial to invigorate (or reinvigorate) your audience’s connection with your purpose. With the right goals, your purpose will drive audience engagement and meet your company’s needs.

How can you pick an appropriate set of event goals to fuel the objective of the event? It helps to use a goal-setting framework such as the SMART framework to identify goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

For example, a training event for employees in a company could have the following goal: “By the end of the event, 90% of the attendees should be able to identify four key benefits or features of our new product.” The goal is specific in that it identifies who is being targeted and their outcomes, measurable by percentile success rate, achievable in that it is a simple knowledge goal, relevant in that it relates to the company’s products, and time-bound because the deadline is the end of the event.

Narrowing Down Your Event Goals

When planning for an event, the hardest part of setting goals might not be finding a fitting goal to adhere to, but rather narrowing down the largest priority. It is common for an organization to have numerous initiatives that compete for your (and thus, your audience’s) attention.

Attempting to pursue too many goals at one time will be just that — an attempt. The end result will leave your audience wondering what they should do or turn them in a completely different direction than you intended. Consider the following organizational objectives when prioritizing your event goals.

• Level of impact on your organization’s overall strategy.

The availability of resources to address each organizational goal.

• How recently another event addressed each goal.
• Requests made by your leadership.

Evaluating Your Event Based on Its Purpose

After the event ends, be sure to evaluate how effectively you communicated the purpose of the event and drove your audience to the right outcomes to match your purpose. Did the event meet your goals driven by your purpose? Or, did it fail to do so because of common traps like:

• Delivering messages with a lack of clarity.
• Telling stories in a voice that feels inauthentic.
• Not understanding your audience’s pain points or points of pride.
• Losing sight of your purpose partway through the event.

This evaluation is vital for ensuring that future events remain focused on purpose by identifying what did or did not work.

1. Constructing Events Around Your Goals

If the first step in event management is choosing the right goals, the next step is constructing the event around those goals. To inspire movements that put your purpose into practice, it’s important to infuse that purpose into every aspect of your engagement.

Consider the nature of your event goals, your audience, and how to convey the message you want to send. For example, what are your audience’s top priorities and concerns? How do those priorities relate to your business’ goals? How can you craft a message that makes your event’s purpose relevant to your audience? What’s the best way to keep the audience engaged with your event’s main purpose throughout the entirety of the event?

These are just some of the critical questions that you’ll need answers to when crafting each piece of your event, such as:

• Announcement Emails and Social Media Posts: Prepare your audience to align their expectations with your event’s primary purpose.
• Event Ambiance: Non-presentation aspects of the event can help drive the event’s purpose home by creating an appropriate ambiance for the event’s purpose.
• Post Event Communications: Communications after the event help to reinforce its message and purpose.
• Technology: Custom apps and other resources can be effective for engaging audiences and making them feel connected to the event’s primary purpose.

For each and every component that you add to your event engagement strategy, consider how you can infuse it with your event’s primary purpose or incorporate other tools to help communicate your purpose to attendees.

Corporate events hold significant potential to leave a lasting impact on participants, the environment, and communities. Embracing sustainability in corporate event planning underscores an important message: a commitment to minimizing ecological footprints, promoting social inclusivity, and ensuring economic viability. This shift reflects the understanding that corporate events are more than just business transactions; they are opportunities to embrace values that resonate with stakeholders and contribute positively to society. Integrating sustainability into corporate event planning is not just a trend but a strategy aligned with responsible business practices.

As a part of the team responsible for planning these events, you have a unique opportunity to make a real difference. Here are the top tips to help you make your event eco-friendlier:

Sustainability in Event Planning: The Power of Messaging

Incorporating sustainability into event planning does more than reduce environmental impact; it reinforces an organization’s values and commitment to a better future. This aspect of sustainability can be an important tool in corporate communication. By hosting events prioritizing eco-friendly practices, companies exhibit environmental stewardship and align themselves with the growing public concern for the planet.

Sustainable events become platforms for companies to showcase innovation and leadership in corporate responsibility. This can enhance brand image and appeal, especially among environmentally conscious consumers and partners. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity for meaningful engagement with attendees, who often appreciate and resonate with green initiatives. The message is clear: sustainability is not an afterthought but a core element of the company’s identity and mission.

Tips for Intentional Green Event Planning

Making your events unforgettable for both your attendees and the planet becomes simpler by integrating eco-friendly practices throughout every event planning stage. As an eco-friendly event partner, our dedicated ‘Green Captains’ team is here to guide you through this process. We turned to them for their best sustainability planning advice, and here’s what they had to say:

1. Start with an Audit

A sustainability audit gives you a detailed view of your event’s environmental footprint. It pinpoints where you can make significant changes and assists in setting achievable, effective goals for your eco-friendly transition.

1. Research Sustainable Venue

The right venue is key to planning any green event. Research a variety of venues and choose one that aligns with sustainability values. Look for places with a LEED certification badge or those offering environmentally friendly outdoor spaces. Venues with eco-friendly amenities such as LED lighting are a big plus.

1. Opt for Green Transportation

Encouraging attendees to use public transport, carpooling, or providing shuttle services with low-emission vehicles can significantly reduce the event’s environmental impact.

1. Choose the Right Food and Beverage Partner

Choosing the right food and beverage for an event is important. Not only do you want everything to be delicious, you want it to be eaten. Food waste has a major impact on the environment. When working with a local caterer, plan portion sizes carefully to avoid excessive waste. Ask if they partner with local shelters or food pantries if there are leftovers.

1. Minimize Waste Reduction

Implementing waste reduction strategies, such as recycling stations, composting, and minimizing single-use plastics, is standard practice at corporate events.

1. Consider Ethical Gifting and Swag

There are many options to choose from when it comes to attendee gifts and swag bags. Instead of generic, environmentally unfriendly items, opt for sustainable and meaningful tokens of appreciation, such as plantable seed cards or reusable bamboo products. If there are leftover items, consider donating them to local shelters. You can also ditch them altogether and donate to a sustainable charity.

1. Select Recyclable Print Materials

Consider using banners and signage made from recyclable paper for your print materials. Not only are they environmentally friendly, but they also add a distinctive visual element to your event. And there’s a sustainable bonus: you can donate unused materials after the event. This way, you’re not just minimizing waste but also contributing to a broader cycle of sustainability.

1. Embrace Technology and Sustainable Connectivity

Adding digital elements for your event is a nod to sustainability and fosters a connected experience. Going digital – from invitations to event apps – reduces environmental impact while keeping your audience engaged. These digital tools offer seamless information sharing, ensuring everyone is in sync. It’s about creating a unified and interactive environment that resonates with attendees, making your event sustainable, inclusive, and connected.

Sustainable corporate events are more than just gatherings; they reflect a company’s commitment to a better future. By prioritizing eco-friendly practices, from sourcing to execution, businesses can lead by example, showcasing their dedication to the planet while providing engaging, innovative experiences. With the right approach, every corporate event becomes an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in sustainability and make a positive impact on both attendees and the environment.

The role of the event producer is one that brings with it a lot of confusion. “Does he oversee creative?” “Does she spec the staging elements?” “Does he manage the account?” “What does she do?” The short answer to all of these questions is, “Partially, and then some.”

Having spent the early years of my career as a producer, and then the bulk of it as an even less-easy-to-describe executive producer, I have wrestled with just how to explain what it is we “do.” And we all know we aren’t just sitting around waiting for the magic to happen!

The producer’s #1 job is to manage the process of the entire event—from pitch through concept, development and finally execution. As such, yes, we are involved in the creative and the staging and partner closely with client teams. But, ultimately, we are not “in charge” of any of those specific aspects, nor do we do it without our dedicated teammates whose jobs it IS to run those facets. Rather, we are here to ensure that all those elements ladder up to an event, program or deliverable that is on-time, on-target with its messaging and creative activation, and on-budget.

The Most Effective Producer is Basically BASF

Remember those BASF commercials from the early 2000s? We were never really told what BASF was or did. Their tagline was: “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better.” This has resonated with me ever since.

Essentially THAT is the definition of my job. I don’t develop creative, but I help ensure that what goes on screen or on stage fits the clients’ vision and their budget. I don’t design staging, but I make sure that what is designed fits within the guardrails providing the right intersection of creativity and value. I don’t manage the account, but I need to be plugged closely into those relationships so I can keep their needs and wants foremost as I make suggestions and recommend solutions throughout the development process.

The role of event producer can be a bit like the wizard behind the curtain—before it gets pulled back. When all the buttons and levers of an event or program are running smoothly, no one is the wiser. But if that role isn’t solid, or doesn’t have the right mix of experience and skill set… well, if a little dog could bring down the powerful Oz, you can only imagine how quickly excessive scope creep or missed deadlines could derail an otherwise flawless event, or worse yet—client partnership.

Ten Tenets of an Effective Event Producer

Everyone loves a listicle, so here is what I have found to be “10 Commandments” of being a value-added producer.

1. Start with a sound budget.

This is where you set the resources for each aspect of the project. It’s important to be realistic and establish priorities, even at the early stages of development.

1. Balance the timeline for development and production.

You don’t want to shortchange either. It’s important to allow for enough time to build a solid foundation of strategy and creative, but it’s equally critical to leave enough time for production with room for the course changes and additions that are likely to occur.

1. Assemble a winning team.

Get the right mix of skills and humans. The guest list often determines the success of a party!

1. Don’t be afraid to shake it up.

While all producers have their go-tos for teams and vendors, it’s also vital to grow and develop new approaches and relationships. The best projects have a mix of old and new.

1. Communication is king.

Keep information moving appropriately with clients and team members. Everyone needs to be kept in-the-know, but avoid endless meetings that get in the way. Set regular meetings internally and with clients, but vary attendees based on stage of project.

1. Be more than a “Budget Buddy.”

Yes, producers are stewards of the budget and schedule, but this is not just making sure the project is on-time and on-budget. The best processes have a flexibility to them, and as such require an experienced producer who can manage through the nuances of knowing when to borrow from one element for another without sacrificing client priorities.

1. Pull back the curtain.

You’ve got a great team, don’t keep them a secret. Allow clients to hear directly from and develop relationships with your team. That interaction can spark new insights and infuse energy into the project, making the end result better for clients and more rewarding for the team.

1. Don’t start fires.

Being transparent with your team and your clients is top priority. However, as producer, it is our job to bring solutions to the table. Taking a breath and a step back, plus a small amount of time to pause, can bring clarity so you can present the new solution rather than embroiling everyone in the issues.

1. Make it enjoyable.

Ours is an exciting, exhilarating and fun industry, full of creative, smart people on the agency and client side. Finding what you love about it and reminding yourself of that will get you through the 800-line spreadsheets and the 4:30 a.m. call times (although I must admit I do love a monster spreadsheet!).

1. Stay calm… and carry on.

Being unflappable is key. As producer, you set the tone for the larger team and, just as it happens with kids, they will pick up on your level of tension. Things are going to happen; whether or not there is screaming and anxiety or calm and resolution is completely up to us.

Mind the Details, but Be Open to Magic

Every project is organic. It is a living breathing process that requires a holistic viewpoint to be effectively managed from the first strategy meeting to the final second of load-out.

Yes, we live and die by the event production schedule and the budget spreadsheet, but the magic happens outside of those areas and that is how you deliver programs that are successful, meaningful and deserving of earning the kinds of long-term client partnerships that are a hallmark of an organization such as AJ.