One of my favorite questions from a client is, “These people have done everything. What can we possibly do that they have not seen before?” I love that question because it forces us to stop thinking about what normally belongs at a corporate event and start thinking about what someone would genuinely be excited to experience.
We had a group like this recently. They were incredibly well traveled and very much in the category of people who had been there and done that. A beautiful dinner was not going to surprise them because they had been to plenty of beautiful dinners. We started thinking about what they probably had never had access to before, and we ended up creating an experience where they could learn about programming a drone show with a company that produces some of the highest-level drone shows in the world.
That is the part of my job where I feel like a little kid in a candy shop. I get to think about what would be completely ridiculous and incredibly fun, and then figure out whether we can actually make it happen.
I think companies should approach their event budgets with more of that mentality. There is a tendency to believe that a bigger budget should mean more things. You add another food station, upgrade the bar, add more florals, bring in a photo booth, create gift bags and fill every empty corner with another activation. You can spend an enormous amount of money doing that and end up with a beautiful event where nothing was bad, but nothing was particularly unforgettable either.
I would much rather take that same budget and choose a few things we can execute exceptionally well. If there is $5,000 left, I do not automatically want to put another $5,000 into food simply because food is an easy place to spend it. I want to know what else that money could do and whether it could create a memory instead.
Maybe we put everyone in indoor skydiving tubes. Maybe we bring in fire dancers or teach people how to breathe fire. Maybe we create a zero-gravity experience. Maybe we do something much simpler, like embroidering something specifically for each guest while they are there. The experience does not have to be enormous, but it should be something the average person would probably never arrange for themselves.
I want someone to go home and tell their spouse, friend or coworker, “You are not going to believe what I did tonight.” Even better, I want the person hearing the story to think that they want to experience it once in their life too.
This is why I am such a believer in excellence over quantity. There is obviously a difference between bad food and great food, but there is not always the same difference between great food and food that costs another $10,000. At some point, you have to ask whether the next dollar actually changes the guest’s experience or whether you are spending it because that is where event budgets have traditionally gone.
I was recently on a podcast where the host asked me about the best way for a speaker to capture leads. We started talking about QR codes, phone numbers and calls to action, and I told him that I thought we were focusing on the wrong thing. My belief is that if you are excellent enough at what you do, people will chase you down.
If I go to a wedding and the flowers are unbelievable, I am going to figure out who did them. I will ask the bride, search Instagram or call someone who worked on the wedding because I want that florist. The fact that nobody handed me their business card is not going to stop me. Excellence creates its own demand because when people experience something exceptional, they want to know where it came from.
I think corporate events work the same way. We recently looked at where our leads at ERIA were coming from, and 66% were direct word of mouth. These were people who had literally been given my number or someone on my team’s number by another person who told them they had to work with us.
That is also how I think about ROI. Of course, companies should track qualified leads, website traffic, social engagement and eventual conversions, but there is also reputational ROI. If you put 100 potential clients in a room and give them an experience they remember for years, one might call six months later, another might recommend you two years later and someone else might tell ten people about the experience. That memory has value even when you cannot perfectly attribute it on a spreadsheet.
When someone gives you several hours of their actual life to attend your event, you have their attention in a way that is increasingly difficult to get anywhere else. I think the mistake is getting that attention and then giving them exactly what they expected.
I would rather have excellent food than endless food, and I would rather have one activation that stops the room than five people barely notice. At the end of the night, I do not want someone going home saying it was a nice corporate event. I want them to start telling the story before anyone even asks how their night went.
If the person listening wishes they had been invited too, that is when I think you have created something worth remembering.
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Nikita Khandheria is the founder and CEO of ERIA, an experiential events and hospitality company producing events across the San Francisco Bay Area.
ERIA works with clients including Google, Salesforce, Hilton, Johnson & Johnson and Anthropic, producing everything from small, intimate catered gatherings in its venues to corporate dinners, brand activations and full-scale conferences and conventions. Nikita’s approach to hospitality centers on creating experiences that people genuinely remember, with a focus on unexpected activations, exceptional execution and designing events that build real connection between brands and their guests.
