Reject cynicism.
Defy apathy
Celebrate good.
For event planners and hosts, it can be hard to see past logistics: all the financial and tactical decisions that need to fall into place for the event to be a success.
But most event attendees aren’t thinking about your logistics at all. They’re asking three questions: Am I having fun? Am I learning something useful? Is this worth the time I could be putting toward something else?
The answers to those questions are shaped by your event brand.
At BitterSweet Creative, we define event branding as the combination of three elements: Story (the narrative arc, themes, and calls to action that serve as a framework for the experience), Identity (the design elements — logos, colors, typography, imagery — that give the event a personality), and Experience (how attendees physically move through the event and engage with the story you're telling).
We produced a new guide and checklist, What Is Your Event Saying About You? to help you refine and perfect the brand strategy for your next big event. Here are a few of the ideas inside:
The “logistics trap” is easy to fall into.
It’s what naturally happens when the operational demands of an event consume all available attention, and the hosts don’t have enough time to give to their big-picture strategy.
But organizations that treat events primarily as production problems tend to create events that feel like production solutions: they’re professional, but they’re also forgettable.
Our creative director, Obi Okolo, has a maxim: "There's no such thing as 'no design.' 'No design' is simply bad design."
Every element of your event — the banner that welcomes attendees, the sequencing of your program, the energy in the room at 2 pm on day two — communicates something about your organization. Nonprofits that don't make deliberate choices about those signals aren't avoiding branding decisions. They're leaving them up to chance.
When organizations come to BitterSweet for event branding support, they typically arrive with a list of deliverables: a logo, a color palette, signage, and a slide template. Those are important, but they are outcomes, not a strategy.
We invite our clients to reconsider the order of operations. Three strategic questions come first: “What do we want people to feel?” “What do we want them to believe?” “What do we want them to do?” Only after we’ve answered those questions together do we move on to the production list. The original list of deliverables (and the overall event experience) is stronger as a result.
A lot of event planning happens on computer screens. Floor plans, mockups, slide decks. But your attendees experience your event in person. Nothing replaces standing in the room, seeing how the light hits, noticing where people will naturally gather, and identifying where the experience might break down. A site visit with your creative team, before any major production decisions are made, is one of the highest-value investments you can make.
Year one of any event (or a rebranded event) is a prototype. You'll learn things about your audience, your venue, and your program sequencing that no amount of planning can anticipate. Before you label an event concept a success or failure, give it a real second iteration. The organizations with the strongest recurring events don't reinvent from scratch each year. They refine the brand and experience over time.
These are a few of the strategic ideas our managing director, Dave Baker, and creative director, Obi Okolo, explore in the full guide. It also includes a practical Event Brand Checklist (a "to-ask" list, not a to-do list) covering Strategy, Story, Identity, and Experience. We encourage you to use it early in your planning process, before major production decisions are locked in.
Visit BitterSweetCreative.com/event-branding to get the full guide and checklist.
By Dave Baker, Bittersweet Creative Managing Director