Engage Your Event Guests with These Brilliant Activation Ideas

November 29, 2023 Desiree Homer

Let’s talk about event activations and pop-ups, more specifically, how important they are to your event planning business. Today’s companies and brands are tapping into the power of activations and events as a method for competitive advantage and creating memorable customer experiences. As an event planner, you can be exploring creative strategies and ideas to facilitate these activations. And today, we’re providing examples for inspiration to help you engage your event attendees with brilliant experiences they’ll be raving about for weeks to come.

Pop-Up Activation Examples

These brand experiences can happen anywhere and usually with time-limited bursts of engagements. And while you might want to incorporate pop-ups into your New York events, you certainly don’t have to limit yourself there. Consider introducing pop-up planning ideas to your corporate clients, inspiring them to work with you on all kinds of creative engagements, including:

  • Food trucks and tastings
  • Art exhibitions and installations
  • Product sampling and demonstrations
  • Open-air concerts and markets
  • Classes and pop-up workshops
  • Speaker engagements and entertainment

Interactive Event Activations

Don’t bore your New York event guests with static presentations when you can introduce hands-on activities that truly engage them! Work with your event clients to identify certain goals, causes, and audience preferences. Then, coordinate to establish an interactive element or two that event guests will love! These might involve:

  • AR and VR experiences
  • Interactive games and contests
  • Innovative technology to sample
  • Dance floors and 360 video booths
  • Swag handouts and door prizes

Make Food and Beverage an Experience

Event planners can also get creative about making traditional event elements more experiential as a way to provide more activation-inspired engagements. For example, look to your event’s food and beverage offerings to explore ways to make both more interactive and fun, including:

  • Guest cooking experiences
  • Live demonstrations for thrilling food presentations 
  • Science-inspired food learning experiences
  • Hands-on beverage stations 

Activations for Charity

It's not uncommon for today's companies to explore more responsible ways of contributing and supporting the community. As an event planner, you can be offering activations and pop-up engagements as a way to bring cause awareness, fundraising, or charitable good works. Here are just a few ideas to elevate your charity activations:

  • Take over a vacant retail space to create a pop-up performance
  • Introduce a musical performance on the street
  • Curate a giant-sized rendition of a game to play for charity
  • Have a sidewalk chalk art contest with a cause-related theme

Discover Activation Inspiration at The Expo

As an event planning professional who’s always looking for creative inspiration, immerse yourself among the best of the best at The Event Planner Expo! It’s here that the top events and business minds gather to share and learn. And if you’re looking for activation ideas that brilliantly engage your event attendees, this is the room you need to get into next October. Explore ticketing options today, and be sure to reserve your exhibitor space!

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