When planning an event it is natural to consider the return on investment for each of the line items within your budget. As a rule of thumb the biggest line items are the ones which should return the biggest investment. This is generally true for the food and venue, as these are elements of the experience that the attendees will notice first. The audio-visual elements will also be important in the same regard, particularly if you are planning to deliver a presentation to the attendees.
It is not optional. And the data backs that up.

Why Entertainment Is an Investment, Not a Line Item

Most organizations only take notice of the short-term benefits of an event, whether there were enough attendees, whether people had a good time, and whether or not they gave it good feedback afterwards. The long-term benefits of events such as increased conversations, increased relationships, and an increased sense of community are much more important, though. For organizations looking to build the corporate cohesion of their employees or to build resident loyalty in managed communities events are a key part of building these two important commodities.
People spend their money on the experiences they enjoy the most. In an Eventbrite study of 35,000 attendees, it was found that 78% of millennials would pay to have an experience rather than to buy a product. When trying to find the right partner, be it a company or a neighborhood, people’s preferences can be dictated by the best experience that they have previously received. The experience one has at an event has the potential to change one’s perception of not only that event but also of the organization behind it, thus deciding whether or not to pursue future relationships with them.
Investing in meaningful shared experiences is a great way for companies to increase levels of employee engagement which have been proven to increase levels of productivity. Employees that work for companies that invest in employee experiences are more likely to be happy in their jobs and less likely to look for new employment.

The Problem With Playing It Safe

Most events are planned with the wrong priorities. Organizers focus on the food, the atmosphere, the production quality – and while those things matter, they’re not what makes an event stick. Attendees leave, file it away as “another event,” and by the time they’re deciding whether to come back next year, they can barely distinguish it from the nine others they went to that month.
The real question isn’t whether the event ran smoothly. It’s whether people left with something they’ll actually remember – an insight, a conversation, a moment that shaped how they think or what they do next. That’s what turns a one-time attendee into someone who comes back, tells others, and considers the ticket price worth it.
That’s the difference between a well-executed event and a memorable one.
A really effective way to create more meaningful events is by designing them to be more engaging. Yes, people are attending for business, for fun, for corporate-sponsored functions and community events. But a really effective way to get them to create memories and have a great time is by incorporating more meaningful experiences. There are lots of examples. There are many magicians that now work as corporate magicians. Others are wine tasting experts and run wine tasting sessions. Often a great blend between these types of experiences can be very effective.
Data is increasingly pointing to the experience-based investment returns that events deliver to their stakeholders. The Event Marketing Institute has recently determined that 74% of consumers are more likely to consider purchasing a good or service from a company after having a very positive experience at a live event that was sponsored by that company. These returns to corporate sponsors, who can use these same events to develop additional returns through the retention of residents at a particular property that are affiliated with a community that hosts and sponsors events of great value to them.

Community Events Are Not Different, They Are Just Underestimated

And the type of entertainment you choose to offer can have a huge bearing on whether your efforts in community building and to holding events to bring residents together will pay off. Why invest time, effort, and money into things to hold events if they just go to attend and have a poor time and forget all about it weeks later? And that is what can happen when you are providing just “any old” type of programs at your community events.
So it is very important that the type of entertainment provided at your events needs to be of such high quality that it will encourage positive word of mouth in between events and generate very high attendance at future events.
Some property management companies like Coastal Realty Services have figured out that events aren’t just a perk – they’re a way to build real value into a property. By creating programs centered around residents rather than the building itself, they’ve turned routine management into something that actually strengthens communities. That’s a straightforward return on your dollars for entertainment.

What Makes Entertainment Worth Paying For

• Interactivity: Experiences that are interactive in nature generally produce stronger emotional memories than experiences that are strictly passive in nature.
• Relevance to the audience: A casual community mixer calls for something different than a black-tie corporate gala. The best entertainers tailor their approach to the specific crowd.
• Unique positioning: Something guests cannot experience anywhere else creates a reason to talk about it afterward and a reason to attend again.
• Seamless professionalism: The best entertainers are not only able to perform well at an event, but also know how to work with the event planners to help them to achieve their objectives. They become an integral part of the event, and help to make sure that it runs smoothly and is a success.

The Bottom Line for Decision-Makers

It seems a common problem when a company has an event budget and has to decide how to spend it. We could treat and discuss food and the décor at an event in separate posts, because food and décor are not what create the environment. The entertainment at an event creates the experience and that is what people will remember long after the event has taken place.
For corporate event sponsors, HOA boards, and property managers it becomes an issue of whether or not an event can afford to not spend money on quality entertainment for their event. The events that have the best entertainment will typically have the best experience and as a result gain the most in terms of loyalty, retention and word of mouth.