Welcome to the world of extravagant events where every detail sparkles with sophistication and allure. In this exclusive blog, we’ll unveil a 3-step Super Formula for creating event themes that shines.

Prepare to be enchanted as we guide you through the art of choosing captivating themes, adding delightful twists, and activating your vision into a mesmerizing reality with enchanting designs and interactivities. Indulge in the extraordinary as we reveal the secrets to hosting unforgettable gatherings that leave your guests in awe.

STEP I: CHOOSE OR CREATE A THEME

Choose or Create a Theme that most people involved like. You are already quite familiar with this step.  You bat around ideas & perhaps do a little pinterest or blog dive to unearth some less obvious ones. Some people say you should skip a theme entirely. The reason I disagree is that a theme gives you an organizing principle to give cohesion to all the puzzle pieces. 

If you don’t want a traditional theme like Gatsby or Under the Sea… at least choose an adjective or emotion or color palette… something to design around.

The Client Event I’ll use for Example/illustration was a company party & the theme they chose was Superheroes.

STEP II: COME UP WITH A TWIST

Yes, I said twist! Why? Because all the good themes have been done before so many times. If you want your event to be less obvious & more unique then the next 2 steps are how you break away from the pack & accomplish this. Some possible twists include making a classic or vintage theme futuristic, or adding a retro twist to a modern theme. You can also choose a color pop or adjective as your twist.

Our Example Event chose a Pop Art twist to their superhero base theme. They were a biotech company so baked into the event was a 2nd inherent twist of Science.

STEP III: ACTUALLY ACTIVATE YOUR THEME THROUGH BOTH DESIGN & INTERACTIVATIONS

It is common to lean heavily on the decor to communicate your theme but there are many other tools that can help bring it to life & equally important; make it inviting & engaging to your guests.  Activities, Music & other live Entertainment are highest on this list. Food & Beverage, lighting, signage, video/multi-media, & staff outfits are some other elements that can help. I also highly suggest sending guests a compelling synopsis narrative on their invitation so they all know the theme & feel encouraged to nod or bow to it in their outfit. If it is a hard theme to dress for, consider having wearable gifts or face painters to get guests into the spirit of it.

Experiential marketing companies or creative entertainment production companies are often ideal partners in helping the theme come to life through activations & live elements. If you don’t have the budget for fancy designers & entertainment then bring in some young people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives (perhaps from a local arts high school or college) & ask them for their fun ideas & then bribe them to help realize the best ones. 

Our Example Event brought in us (Catalyst Arts) to animate the theme & create multiple interactive media activations so that there was plenty of things to keep guests involved & amused throughout the party. We had superheroes greeting, posing & warming up the dancefloor. We created a black panther zone with live actors, a super science themed media installation with on-theme props, live actors & gif hostess, & a virtual reality superhero training zone. They also brought in digital caricature artists & an augmented reality climbing wall.

If you care to see the Short Sizzle VIDEOS of this Super Event, you can click the links below. (only 30 secs each)

Wondering how experienced-based event companies are innovating in every aspect of an event? Keep on reading to stay updated on the trends and be inspired for your next event But what has changed in this industry so much that it keeps grabbing people’s attention? Well, it is simply because of our advancing technology.

Experiential events are elevating like never before. They are bringing more people together & exceeding guests’ expectations. These are buzz-generating happenings, people love talking about them with their friends & family, posting about them on their social media, & creating similar events themselves. But what has changed in this industry so much that it keeps grabbing people’s attention? Well, it is simply because of our advancing technology. 

Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality 

Virtual reality has been around since the 80s, but it is only now that we see more people using them for their own entertainment & even more in experiential events. Our advanced technology has allowed companies to use VRs to bring people together,  allow their guests to experience, see, & do things they never have before, & win prizes in escapade competitions. The company Perrier hosted a digital scavenger hunt to promote the Perrier x  Murakami collection. Perrier is a sparkling water company that originated in France 150 years ago. Murakami is a global corporation for manufacturing rear-view mirrors & cameras for automobiles that were born in Japan 135 years ago. Making this collaboration a unique experience for its guests. The scavenger hunt allowed fans to customize their avatar & be in extraordinary worlds to look for the company’s merchandise collection drop in a certain amount of time. Whatever the fans found during the scavenger hunt they were able to keep. Fans won T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, & more. The scavenger hunt not only helped the companies promote their collection, but also promoted it in a very interactive & enjoyable experience for their fans. 

Experiential event companies also use virtual reality to design media zones for many themed events. One of the companies is Catalyst Arts, a woman-owned experiential entertainment company that is based in San Francisco. Catalyst Arts did a virtual reality zone as a part of a superhero-themed event for a biotech company. These zones had different expertise levels to ensure that no guest felt left out from participating in this exciting virtual reality experience. The VR zone could either be used for an individual guest or as a multiplayer experience, allowing guests to interact however they were most comfortable. Not only did Catalyst Arts design multiple virtual reality zones but they also created interactive installations for the guest to make the experience more authentic. For one of their events, Catalyst Arts installed a scientific-themed set with a moving media attendant.  

Not only experiential event companies are designing different ways their guests can interact with each other & the hosting companies, but individual artists are also raising the bar as well. An artist in France named Anna Zhilyaeva designed an augmented-reality painting for her Youtube channel. She accomplished this by combining mixed-reality footage using a virtual reality software called Tilt Brush, similar to real painting on a canvas allowing her to create masterpieces in the air in any kind of creative or simple locations whether it be in her living room floor or the middle of a lake. She intended to make an effect to make the painting appear alive in AR. Tilt Brush is a 3D VR painting app where the user would need a VR headset & a touch controller to use a variety of brushes, effects, & tools to create 3D illusions. Viewers can see the finished piece in an online gallery, allowing viewers to see the painting in 3D. However, Anna is not stopping here, she is exploring experimentation with animation to take art & creativity to the next level. Not only artists like Anna can use this app, but experiential events can also use it to help them explore their creativity in a foreign way & allow their guests to interact with each other to create art masterpieces.

Art Installations & Media Installations

Art installations have existed since the late 50s. However, 2023 is taking it to the next level, including media installations. Art installations have mostly had deep meaning tied to them or are intended to symbolize a value, an emotion, an expression, etc. Even though these are still important & seen, they have become more interactive with guests at events. Whether they are a walkthrough, a projector, sculptures, etc. our technology has made it possible for these art installations to connect with the guest, host, or company. Reddit, an online social discussion platform company did a collaborative event with The Communi-tea Bar to install a crystal ball that generates honest conversations that are happening in Reddit to practically “spill the tea” on what is going on in the guest’s communities. The company’s motive for doing this was to help the guests to deepen their existing relationships & to make this event an easier way to network. 

Creativity in art has evolved tremendously to the point where people don’t need to travel to a different country to see their favorite artists’ art pieces. Instead, people are able to view them through media installations that are being installed in local residential areas. This is not only being seen in the United States, but internationally as well. In the city of Mexico, Frida Kahlo’s art pieces were projected in three different spaces. The induction space, main hall, & interactive space. The induction space is a small room where guests first visit the exhibition to give them the background of what they will experience in the main hall. The main hall is where all of Frida’s paintings are projected surrounding the viewers with music & a sitting area. The interactive space is filled with games & sets where the guests can take pictures. This created a multi-sensory experience for visitors by turning her art pieces into a monumental scale, adding music, sculptures, & interactive & digital animation to bring her paintings to life & allow visitors to create deeper connections than ever seen before. Frida is not the only artist with an immersive exhibition, Van Gogh has an immersive exhibition as well that is located in various countries such as France, Japan, the U.S., & more. Van Gogh’s exhibition has very similar components to Frida’s exhibition but only lacks an interactive space. However, Van Gogh’s exhibition has a space that tells the story of Van Gogh’s life allowing his admirers to gain more knowledge of who he was as a person. His admirers were able to connect & understand his artworks on a more meaningful level. These exhibitions are uniquely made for the artist’s admirers so that they can connect, understand, & feel their artworks similarly to how the artists felt when creating their art pieces.  

The photo booth was first invented in the 20s called the “Photomaton” & it functioned fairly the same as how one would today, however, the process of printing out the photos took 10 minutes which now only takes 5 seconds. But, the evolution does not end there. Today, people can use a big space & incorporate props, include live actors in their photos, & have an extravagant background. Catalyst Arts have used this dynamic photo booth in some of its events making the guests’ experience more memorable & more interactive with each other. They created a science lab scene with backdrops & props for the guests to use to depict them as wild scientists who are making mind-blowing discoveries within the space of a photo booth. Catalyst Arts added live actors to enhance the realism & interactions of the photo booth. They also incorporated the ring light iPad into the booth to capture photos & gifs. Each theme that Catalyst Arts creates is customed for the client & the company.   

Elevated Food & Beverage Experiences

Food has brought people together for centuries, it is where people put their differences aside & come together to be in the moment. Art & science has always been seen can be seen in food & drinks created by an expert chef, but now experiential businesses are taking food experiences to another level. Victoria Taylor is an experiential designer for hospitality, luxury, & entertainment brands, specifically in the UK. Recently, she created an ocean dining room theme where the floor was a screen presenting the ocean waves, & the space around the dining table was shaped as the coral reef to have the guests fantasize that they’re dining in the ocean. These designs made the space peaceful, elegant, & extraordinarily beautiful giving the guests an immersive experience. Creating these magnificent immersive experiences makes them memorable & impactful experiences for the guests.

Expert chefs keep innovating different styles of food, mixing exotic foods, & are now mixing science into their foods. The new trend in restaurants is dry ice desserts, this is most frequently used in ice cream. This technique may sound complicated, however, it is fairly simple & amusing. All you need to do is to add dry ice to the dessert recipe, yes

it’s that simple & it makes your desserts look exotic. A restaurant in Prague, named Sangam Indian Restaurant, came up with a new dessert recipe with dry ice. It is a mango, pistachio, & rose ice cream topped on dry ice. Doesn’t that sound delicious & make your mouth water? Many guests are going crazy about this dessert emphasizing how this dessert including the food made their visit memorable & cannot recommend this restaurant enough. There’s a pastry shop located in Romania, named La Calub Alb, that serves chocolate globes on dry ice. Guests are saying how this is their favorite dessert since they can taste the fresh ingredients & get a show when they serve the dry ice. When restaurants serve dry ice desserts they are having their guests use all of their five senses to make their experience memorable, exciting, & delicious. 

Le petit chef is elevating the food experience to another level. It is a restaurant that has a 6-inch French chef cook in front of the customers through a digital screen on the table. The scenario changes depending on what the chef is doing. For example, if the chef is getting vegetables for the dish the scene will turn into a garden and the customers get to experience see the whole process of how to make the dish right in front of them. Right after the digital experience ends the actual food comes out making the whole experience unforgettable.