4 tips for planning an amazing awards ceremony

26 January 2018

 

Awards ceremonies are some of the best events to plan and attend. Whether it’s for staff members of your company, or recognising important figures in your community, they’re great opportunities for acknowledging incredible people. But awards ceremonies can be tough to get right – keeping things interesting while you run through scores of awards is a balancing act. Here are a few tips to help make your next awards ceremony a success.

Choose an appropriate venue

Awards ceremonies aren’t like product launches or corporate meetings. The purpose is not to convey important details or technical information – it’s to celebrate the achievements of people that deserve recognition. As such, it’s important that the venue reflects the tone and purpose of the event.

A cavernous events hall that’s good for an annual general meeting might be a little too impersonal for an intimate event like an awards ceremony. The people you’re honouring are not statistics to be read from a sheet, so don’t make them feel that way with a giant, utilitarian venue.

What kind of mood and atmosphere do you want your event to convey?What kind of mood and atmosphere do you want your event to convey?

Video, lights and sound

An awards ceremony, though obviously focused on those winning awards, is still a show, and as such, your guests need to be entertained. One way this can be done is to have a video produced by our in-house team – this can pull your audience in even further. There are some things that can’t be communicated solely via a speech – a video is the perfect medium to convey just why your award winners deserve the recognition they’re receiving.

When taking the video route, it’s important to have a top-notch setup, including lights and sound. Lighting can make a massive difference to the atmosphere, and quality sound is important to ensure every word of your video can be heard.

The audio visual set up in the room itself also important to make the event run seamlessly.

Find an engaging and respected speaker or entertainment

Another way to keep your audience entertained and engaged is to invite a guest speaker. A speaker that embodies the ideals of the awards in question is perhaps the most organic and natural option for entertainment – one that can serve to inspire attendees, award winners and guests to keep striving in the field that the awards ceremony is recognising.

Having an engaging and inspirational speaker is a great option for an awards ceremony.Having an engaging and inspirational speaker is a great option for an awards ceremony.

A quality guest speaker will not only be able to inspire, but also to teach and inform. If you have managed to find someone influential in your field, you never know the helpful and useful insights they may be able to dispense.

If you go for a band, or other entertainment, make sure it’s in line with your audience and the event theme. For instance, do your guests like to dance?  The right band choice can have your people up dancing into the wee hours and make it truly a night to remember.

If you hire a band, make sure they fit the theme of your ceremony.If you hire a band, make sure they fit the theme of your ceremony.

Make sure the ceremony ‘flows’

If you’ve been on this planet long enough, it’s likely you’ve experienced your fair share of awards events that dragged on. These events are supposed to be about positivity and giving recognition to people that deserve it – the last thing you want is to turn your audience’s sympathies against your award recipients because they’re bored and disengaged.

As such, an awards show needs to flow in a logical and entertaining order. Picture your event as a film – the narrative needs to build towards a climax in order to keep people engaged. This is where CMS’s event production and technical team can help – structuring an event elegantly so that things flow in a pleasant and natural order.

Do you have an awards ceremony coming up? Get in touch with the team at CMS Australasia today – we’re an all-in-one event production company that are experts at taking your vision and turning it into reality.