Creating a Good Atmosphere for Awards Contests

The buzz of delightful discussions and positive emotions is the heart and soul of any awards contest. You can have stunning nominations, a great concept behind the event, and a super venue. It all comes to nothing if your attendees walk around with gloomy and bored looking faces.

The atmosphere for an awards contest is what makes it truly complete. If you consider every small thing, which might at least slightly touch the attention of your potential visitor, and make it perfect – your ceremony is destined to be a success!

A good atmosphere can be planned! Let’s get serious about Strategy

Contest atmosphere starts behind the scenes. Without a solid ground and good planning, you can’t possibly make your guests feel comfortable at the show. The top strategy for making an awards contest run smoothly is having everything arranged before the first bell even rings. We encourage you to complete this mission in three simple steps:

• Establish contacts. Make sure that all people you cooperate with are competent and reliable. Tip: go for long-lasting. If you discover the talents in vendors, suppliers, food caterers or anyone, who might be assistant, make sure that you don’t lose them. This will make your next contest organization much easier. Also, don’t forget about the power of social media. For instance, through live streaming, you can attract people even after the contest has started!
• Have a plan and a backup plan. Room design, catering, equipment – it all should be put on your list on the stage of planning. Need extra security? Establish a backup plan and ensure that you have a solution for any trouble, which might be threatening your success.
• Assign responsibilities. Turn your team into an army. Arm your contest soldiers with clear guidance on their tasks and responsibilities, so as to ensure that everyone knows his/her role. Collaboration and confidence is what highlights a good contest atmosphere. Get it and you’ll defeat insecurities!

Get the right venue

If the award contest is worth it, your feet will walk any distance. Well, this rule applies universally.  Well, probably, not for the contest atmosphere. Long-distance trips and insufficient space at the venue may spoil the show before it even starts.

Think about the objectives that your awards show sets, as well as the format that the event embraces. If you have chairs for attendees, make sure all of them get to their places without queues or obstacles. Make the stage and the buffet zone accessible. Choose the venue, which is located close to the major transport links, in case you organize a one-day event. Is your awarding ceremony to be sustained over the weekend? Then you might want to invite your guests to a nice place in the countryside! Fascinate people with what they see around and you’ll get the right mood for a stunning show!

Make your guests feel at home

People love to feel like they matter. As an awards show planner, you can fuel this feeling by welcoming each of your guests in the friendliest way possible. Make sure that you have enough hosts and hostesses taking task of the welcome work. Some organizers make a mistake when they think of reception as the means for verifying registrants or sustaining dress code control only. “A friendly welcome” is a solidly good reason for hiring hosts. The minimum effect that you can reach with it is a positive awards atmosphere. Which is far from the “minimum,” actually!

Set the good mood with lighting

You know why people love the sun so much? Not only because of warmth, but because of the light transformations that it carries in itself. Bright and vivid colors are known to establish positive energy. Use this fact and get the lighting that would fascinate and make the atmosphere for events’ contests spotless. Consult a professional in lighting techniques and get some working recommendations on how LED up lighters, color washes or other instruments could enlighten your venue and evoke a complete mood boost!

Let it sound good

You must’ve already caught yourself in a state of pleasant exaltation while in a place, where good music can be heard. Indeed, a sound is a great instrument for shaping emotions and establishing a general tone for the event. Be creative on this part, but make sure that you choose a pleasant background music (maybe classical or lounge), which would meet the tastes of the majority of your guests. To establish the logical accents, choose the appropriate musical accompaniment and the sound volume for all parts of the event like walking to the stage, announcing a winner, and the rest.

Don’t let your guests starve

Let’s be honest, your stomach is really good at dictating the event contest atmosphere for you. Here’s our “not-a-secret” lifehack for you: choose great catering and pick the menu that will meet the tastes of your guests. You might also consider tracking the catering industry trends to make sure that you go for up-to-date and effective techniques. Want to get creative? The initiative will surely be appreciated! If you have an idea on how to serve your food in a style, matching the show format or branding, go ahead and turn it into reality.

Get the best outfit for your venue

Now let’s get to visual satisfaction. People love beauty and good style. This is a general rule, which is dependent neither on the format of the show nor on the audience groups. If you want the ceremony to be appealing, it should be embellished accordingly. Depending on the branding, adjust the colors that you need to use the format of the event and start working on the design. Think of decorations and table dressing. Choose the decisions that will create the atmosphere of joy and friendliness. Believe us, it can be made even if the main brand color of your client is black. Summarizing this brainstorm: take the information about your target audience, make the colors look appealing, and let creativity guide you on the way. Protip: be in a good mood, while dressing your venue. This might just be infectious!

Conclusion

Believe it or not, the atmosphere for an awards contest can be controlled. All you have to do is think about all aspects of guests’ experience at the event and integrate them with your unique solutions!

For expertise on awards contest management solution  and organization, get started with Judgify.

Think we’ve missed something? Don’t hesitate to share it with us. We love your ideas.