Think about the last time you went to a dinner party. Do you remember what you ate? Who you met? What you talked about?
In our business, we participate in a lot of VIP dinners — and these dinners aren’t just important, they’re crucial to securing face time and closing late-stage opportunities with top prospects, customers, and high-value accounts.
But here’s the thing: your guests go to a LOT of dinners, too. And they’re often met with anxiety when they consider how awkward or stuffy they’ll be. How do you ensure your event will be memorable for the right reasons long after it's over?
A couple weeks ago in London, we hosted an exclusive tasting dinner for our top customers and prospects at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, maze. To get the conversation flowing, I threw out a couple of questions:
“What new strategy or tactic worked for you this year?”
“What didn’t work?”
“What’s your animal alter ego?”
What started as — what I thought was — a simple conversation starter turned into not only one of the most memorable dinners we’ve ever had, but also the perfect post-event follow-up.
Here’s how to ensure your VIP dinner is sealed in your guests’ memories:
Our dinner was intimate (with only 30 seats), and it lasted a whopping six hours (it was a special tasting menu). For how long the dinner was, our animal alter ego question was the perfect ice breaker and encouraged lively conversation beyond the standard “What’s your name?” or “What do you do?”
Alter egos turned into segues, side conversations, and LinkedIn connections. At the end of the dinner, one of our guests even asked everyone to sign her cookbook (like a yearbook).
Bonus: since everyone had an animal attached to themselves, it made it a lot easier for guests to remember each other.
Many of us were attending a conference the next day and we had a lot of fun trying to piece together the complete list of everyone’s animal choice.
We created a personalized post-event page with everyone’s photo, name, and alter ego.
The conversation was so successful that our guests were actually looking forward to the thank you email:
Just from the animal alter egos and stories alone, we collected personalized data from each of these executive decision-makers. Our sales reps even used the exercise to send a fun, warm intro to new contacts (subject line referring to their respective animals).
Your conversation starter can be anything. Just remember — it doesn’t just have to end at the dinner.
I’ve put together some of my favorite conversation starters:
• What's your superpower?
• Story Time: crazy roommates
• What's the worst job you've ever had?
• What's something about you that people would be surprised to know?
• If you could only watch reruns of one TV show for the rest of your life what would it be?
• What's your go-to karaoke song?
• What did you look like in 5th grade? Describe yourself to the group
• Name one thing on your bucket list
• What's one thing that you're jealous of?
• What was your least favorite food growing up? Do you still hate it or do you love it now?
• If you were an emoji, which would you be?
People may not remember every detail of your event, but they'll remember how you made them feel. Check out our tips for making your events memorable, and the rest of our Run of Show videos.
Ben Hindman is co-founder and CEO of Splash, the country's fastest-growing event marketing platform that helps businesses and brands more effectively market through their events. An event planner turned tech entrepreneur, events are in Ben’s DNA. Prior to starting Splash, Ben was the Director of Events at Thrillist, where he produced large-scale events from concerts to mystery fly-aways.
