More corporations than ever before are seeing the advantages that come from including employees’ families at events.
In addition to raising employee morale, welcoming families can result in a higher attendance rate.
Since many employees bow out of these events stating childcare as the primary reason, removing that factor from the equation by creating a family-friendly event may boost your numbers.
Including children at any event, however, can be one of the most challenging aspects in event planning.
Drawing from my years of experience, I would like to share the top three areas of focus for how to create a successful family-friendly event so all guests big and small will be entertained and leave everyone with smiles on their faces.
1. Hire Children’s Entertainers
Entertaining children for hours on end is a tough job. We all know what happens when kids get bored, so keeping them active and engaged is important.
Some tips to consider when finding the right child entertainer for the job are:
– Choose your entertainment based on the various age ranges of children attending. The services these entertainers provide are limited only by your imagination. Examples of what you will find when you look into this are face painting, balloon art, arts and crafts tables, interactive cooking demos, science tables, magicians, roaming buskers – the list is endless.
– Price can vary greatly so account for this in your budget. As with any other entertainer, variables that account for the price range are quality, experience level and demand of the performer. Like anything, you get what you pay for.
– Choosing an entertainer that is interactive and gets the kids involved is key.
In addition to raising employee morale, welcoming families to an event can result in a higher attendance rate. Click To Tweet2. Create Family Fun Zones or Kid Zones
This becomes especially important in combination events, such as creating a family-friendly customer appreciation event. When running concurrent activities, for example, handing out awards while developing safe, fun places for children to play, activity zones are necessary to keep some semblance of order.
– Take into consideration the age range of all the children attending. Entertaining a four-year-old girl is very different than entertaining a ten-year-old boy. You will need different zones to accommodate all children and their varying interests.
– Before you choose a venue, determine the number of zones you will need in addition to everything else you must organize. The venue you wanted might no longer be an option due to size restrictions.
3. Hire Childcare Services
For some parents, the idea of monitoring their kids at an event can be more stressful than it is to leave them home or decide to pass on the event altogether. Bringing in childcare for the event is one way to bypass both of these issues.
Here is what you need to know when hiring childcare services for your event:
– Safety is paramount. A good rule of thumb is to plan for one sitter for every three children attending. Also, you need to know the people you are bringing in are reliable and safe to care for the children in attendance.
– If you are hiring individuals on your own, treat this the same as you would any other service provider: hold interviews, run background checks and check references.
– As with any other vendor you hire, hiring a company that does this professionally is your best bet. They already have people ready to supply to you. Additionally, they will have also performed the necessary security checks to put you and the parents at ease.
You can collaborate with a company who will incorporate all three of these areas of focus. Hiring pros who know their stuff and specialize in this is one way to make your job planning the remainder of the event that much easier, allowing you to focus on other areas that need your attention.
Whether it is a customer appreciation event or a company picnic, planning a family-friendly corporate event seems to be the trend as more employees try to reduce stress and find balance between work and home life.
How do you incorporate children into family-friendly events? Share your answer with me in the comments.