Corporate Dinners: A Recipe for Audience Engagement and Business Growth

At present, waves of change ripple the corporate landscape. Social responsibility, staff shortages and AI are but a few topics that organisations need to navigate. This makes mobilising support across various groups not just beneficial, but essential. Corporate dinners make for a great opportunity to do so.

Mobilising support across various groups is essential. Corporate dinners make for a great opportunity to do so.

When done right, sharing a meal fosters support, builds durable relationships and leaves a lasting impression. The full experience matters, so a fitting live show can accelerate this even more. Let’s examine current developments and find modern-day ingredients to a successful business dinner.

Make the guests feel valuable

This is a no-brainer for any high-end dinner. Yet, with a content overload and new AI inventions every other week: what is still valuable? Let’s answer this by looking at a trend in sales and consumption.

In recent consumer and sales-oriented studies, consumer involvement remains a hot topic. While guests are not your typical consumers, similarities are found in engagement and feeling valuable. Both are important factors for an impactful corporate dinner. Hereby a few benefits:

Making guests feel part of the process is likely to amplify their support for the conclusion. Especially when accompanied by enjoyment. Feeling included in the process also makes people more determined to advocate for the result. Following multiple steps towards the final statement promotes understanding and creative thinking.

Therefore, starting with a fitting performance can open conversations and kickstart creative thinking. At the same time it could enlarge support for the core message of the dinner.

Start the conversation with an entertaining nod towards the topic to open conversations and kickstart creative problem-solving.

For our custom shows, we make sure to implement your core message into the full experience. For one of our latest BOD dinners, our client wished to see man and technology as partners, not adversaries. The latter was a point of worry for our client’s stakeholders. With this in mind, we first showed the fragility of a new idea, ending with man and machine in synergy. We even brought a show element up close to each of the tables, that the guests could briefly interact with. This included them in the process, and opened them up for the conversations that followed.

Take time to make a statement

There is a time for drinks and informal chatter, and there is a time when serious matters need to be addressed. There is no better place than a private dinner with your selected guests to take the spotlight and make your statement. Still, how do you make sure that this does not take away from the comfortable ambience? And how to continue afterwards? You do this by making the core speech essential to the natural flow of the event.

With our shows we make sure that everything the guests sees, supports the core message. When the show moments set the right ambience, the final statement becomes stronger.

• Making any statement is easier in a supportive environment. Even more so if the speech contains a challenging message.
• There’s less pressure on the speaker when the build up has already been taken care of beforehand.
• The audience will be more open to the core message when they have already been eased into it. If your guests feel comfortable, your message is also more likely to resonate with them.

Last year, we designed an exclusive dinner dedicated to strengthening external relations. The chairman hosting the event wanted to honour their guests and continuous collaboration. To make this speech the absolute climax, we created three show moments leading up to this moment. Show one introduced the differences between two, yet unconnected entities. Show two highlighted common grounds, ending with a connection.  The closing show focused on their future, where collaboration flourishes. When the chairman finally addressed her guests, this came off as a natural conclusion. The speech was met with a loud applause.

Improve internal networks for sustainable business

Corporate dining tends to focus on strengthening external relationships. However, internal relations could also benefit from a dining experience. In recent years organisations have been looking for ways to inspire employee dedication. Long-term loyalty is no longer a norm but a treasure. Instead, corporate alumni and boomerang employees are a source of sustainable business. Tap into this source by expanding internal networks and enhancing the employee experience. An impactful incentive dinner can improve these connections.

Corporate alumni and boomerang employees are a source of opportunities in the post-pandemic labour market.

Internal events often revolve around abstract messages such as gratitude and unity. These can be difficult to convey. By highlighting different aspects that your guests recognise, you show authentic understanding. For our clients we design and execute custom experiences, where each touch point feels connected and resonates with the audience. Our shows aim for impact, making sure your guests leave the venue transformed.

The corporate landscape is going through many changes. A successful business dinner can help navigate these changes and mobilise support. Whether it’s for external or internal relations, the full experience matters. Share your thought process and make your guests feel valuable. Substantiate your message through a fitting and engaging live show. Set the scene for your final statement and leave your guests with a memorable impression.

We encourage you to aim for impact. To help you along the way, we have compiled a data-based whitepaper on maximising the impact of your next corporate dinner: