Creatively Incorporating Event Elements

There are endless creative ways to design your event details to maximize storytelling. Elements big and small involving décor, venue, catering, speakers and entertainment provide an array of opportunities to fold the story of your organization into the experience of your event.

Cutlery, as it turns out, can be one of these vehicles for storytelling. Such was this case at this year’s SPOON Dinner. SPOON is an international organization working to equip caregivers with nutritional knowledge and tools to care for children without families. At the dinner, after hearing from SPOON’s co-founder and board chair, the emcee asked the audience if anyone noticed something missing from their plates. Each course had come with only a spoon, no forks or knives. This strategic element was a clever tie into the name of the organization, but it also united the audience around their larger mission. SPOON is helping kids grow and thrive with the right nourishment, and often this is done with spoons as they are the safest feeding tool.

Because the organization’s work is geared toward children, SPOON was also committed to creating a warm and loving atmosphere for an intimate audience of 200 to enjoy a meal. The entire program, from the DJ to the catering was designed with SPOON’s international reach in mind. The spoon-only meal was an added, unique element that brought the storytelling of their event full circle, and the audience ate it up!

This is an example of a subtle but very intentional way to connect the audience to the mission of your organization. When you’re designing a fundraising event, it’s important to consider each of the elements that can remind your audience how you do the work you’re doing, and why it’s important.