EP 08: 9 Types of Events and 19 Creative Event Themes

Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about different ways that you can improve the fundraising event you're running. We've got some special guests today. We've got Diana DuPlanche. Hey -- did I say that right?

Diana: You did. Yes. DuPlanche.

Jeff: I know. That's so fancy. Diana is on our sales team at Handbid, and then we've got Kristen Wheeler, our marketing guru, who also has been involved in a ton of fundraising events. So we're happy for her to share her wisdom today as well. And what are we talking about today?

Diana: Oh, this is a good one, y'all -- event themes.

Jeff: Event themes. Event themes. We have ideas for y'all to steal, all our listeners out there. That's why you come to listen, is to steal ideas from us. And we would love for you to give us your thoughts on what you think a good event theme is, too. But Kristen, how should we start this discussion? What is the framework under which we should operate today?

Kristen: Well, I definitely think let's talk about types of events. And do all events need a theme? So let's get into what are the different types of events that you've seen?

Jeff: That's a good point because maybe you're not thinking it's a theme, or maybe it just has an inherent theme -- it's a formal or casual or whatever. But before we get into all the amazing things Diana has on her list, if you're not watching this on YouTube or other video, we've got some Type A personalities around the table here. And she has got her very organized list of things she wants to share. And I do love your comment that they might be stealing this information, even though it is free.

Diana: Yes, totally free.

Jeff: All right, sorry. I don't mean to suggest that you're a criminal.

Kristen: That's right. And everywhere you get your podcast, it's free.

Diana: It's free. Thank you, Kristen.

Jeff: All right. So when we talk about types of events -- the classic category: the gala, the walk/run, the golf tournament. What else are we seeing? We've seen a lot of different things.

Diana: Right. So those would be probably our top three -- the gala style, the walk/run, and the golf. But in recent years we are seeing a major emergence of concerts, fashion shows, and bowling events.

Jeff: I know. I went and bowled with the Nuggets.

Diana: Did you?

Jeff: I did. It was actually a cool fundraiser. What they did is they put a player on every team. So your bowling team -- you had three people and then the Nugget is the fourth one. And depending on how much you donate is depending on which Nugget you get.

Kristen: That's funny.

Jeff: I had to look my Nugget up. That just tells you -- I wasn't at the top of the list. If you just bought a ticket, then maybe you get the water boy. He was a super nice guy. But no, I did not bowl with Allen Iverson or Carmelo Anthony or any of those guys.

Kristen: Wondering why I hadn't heard about this story until now. So this is all coming together for me.

Jeff: But I am a generous person. So anyway. But that was a cool event. I actually had not seen that format before and that one worked. And then the funny thing you mentioned is concerts. I should have said that because I just ran a fundraiser that was a concert.

Kristen: What the heck? Well, I think that's interesting with concerts because when I think of a fundraising concert, I think of a big benefit concert that you see on TV with famous bands. And you had a fairly famous band at your event. But let's say I want to run a concert but I don't know the A-list bands or I can't afford the A-list bands. How would you put on a concert as a fundraiser?

Jeff: It's tough. First of all, if you're going to pick some sort of band, you're likely going to pick music that you like. It helps to make sure it's music your audience wants to hear too. And that was an interesting conversation for us. I'm a big country music fan. And so we were saying, who do you want? Do you want up-and-coming country? Do you want classic 90s country? Do you want something in the middle, 2000s country? And they're like, well, who's coming to our event in terms of age range and what kind of music are they going to appreciate? I think you've got to factor that in when you're doing a fundraiser. Because if I'm bringing in a 21-year-old up-and-coming country act, the folks who are coming to our event typically -- who are in their 50s and 60s and are ready to write checks -- they'll probably write the check anyway. But I don't think they're going to be really excited about that. We brought back the Frontmen of Country -- those were the lead singers of Restless Heart, Lonestar, and Little Texas from the 90s. And that was definitely more in tune. They can remember the hits and they kind of jived with that. So it is tough because there's a lot of different bands that you may like, and if you're into grunge rock or some other type of music that isn't widely liked, it's going to be hard to do that concert unless you feel like, yes, I can fill the room with people that are going to enjoy this music and also donate at the same time. The key is to donate.

Kristen: And maybe it's not a straight donation. Maybe you'll try to make all your money on ticket sales. It's possible.

Jeff: That's an expensive ticket. It could be. That was the other thing we had to figure out -- do I want a lot of people at a lower price or do I want a few people at a higher price? And we went the fewer people at a higher price route. We felt like we wanted to make it more intimate. We thought it'd be more fun. If I have somebody spending $5,000 on a table, which we did, I want to make sure that they have a great experience. I don't want 2,000 people standing in front of them at their private table. And we've had some clients that do concerts -- they do really high-end concerts, and they bring in national acts, A-list acts, but there's only 500 people in the room. And they're raising millions of dollars. That tells you what these 500 people are spending. So that is the other approach. But I've been to benefit concerts where there's 2,000 people out there in the venue, and they're paying 50 bucks for their ticket or 100 bucks for their ticket. So it's quite different. But concerts are fun. They are mostly outdoors, so keep that in mind if you're doing that.

Diana: Weather.

Kristen: Weather. So fun that you can't control at all. Zero.

Jeff: Since it's snowing again. Oh, now the sun is out. This is what it's like living in Denver. It was snowing when we started and now it's sunny.

Kristen: Now the sun is out. Love it. Wait five minutes.

Diana: And so the last one that I have on my list -- my Type A list, which I'm not afraid to admit -- is the "taste of." We are seeing a lot of organizations gather local chefs who are willing to participate in that fundraising arm. And I'm seeing a lot of interpretations of this. Sometimes the chefs will go and have their own peer-to-peer page first and then it'll be a competition -- who can generate the most money for the organization beforehand? And then at the event, they have their own tasting booth where the donor can come along and taste the item. They can donate to the chef to increase the value of their peer-to-peer total. And then they just get to eat all night, eat and drink at these different stations. So those are some of our ideas on what types of events there are. And some of those are unique -- the taste of, the fashion shows, the bowling. It's not to say that you have to stop doing your golf tournament or your gala to go do one of those. It's just other things that you can consider doing.

Kristen: Yeah. Put those in your back pocket.

Jeff: But also know that we don't necessarily recommend having a theme for a bowling event. That's enough -- people are bowling. You don't need to make it a luau bowling.

Diana: I want you to have a luau bowling tournament.

Jeff: I think you got to do the 70s disco bowling event, honestly.

Kristen: Well, that could be fun. That actually sounds like a blast. A good example of Diana's point is when I worked for a national organization we had these events -- they don't do them anymore -- but they were lock-up events. Have you ever heard of the lock-ups?

Jeff: No.

Diana: No, that sounds fun. Or not fun depending on where you're locked up.

Kristen: We would get this list of business owners or leaders in the community, and we would call them and say, "You've been nominated to go to jail for this cause, and you have to raise money as your bail."

Diana: Oh, that's kind of cool.

Kristen: And so they would come to the event -- it was usually during the day over lunch -- and we would actually pick them up in the paddy wagon. We would have drivers come and pick them up and take them in handcuffs. I'm using air quotes all throughout this. There's a reason why they don't do this anymore. In handcuffs, to jail, which was usually a local restaurant or hotel, but they would have to stay for as long as it took -- or up to an hour for their lunch break -- to raise the bail money to get out of jail. And so that was theme enough, but we started to try to get really creative. And by the time a few years rolled by, we were like "setting sail under the sea to go to jail, to bail yourself out." That's a really good example of how your schtick or your gimmick or the goal of your event might be theme enough. You probably don't need to theme a concert other than -- if it's a country concert, you wear cowboy boots and jeans.

Jeff: Yeah, the genre will do it, right? I think to your point, it does bring up another one that we have a client that does. This is more on the professional networking side. But this whole locking up thing kind of rang a bell for me. It was this idea that you have particular business leaders and you're raising money for a nonprofit, but you're basically selling their time. So you have all these companies that show up -- they're IT companies, all tech guys -- and it's like, "I really want to spend an hour with him." And so what they do is they offer up some sort of experience. You can go skiing with me for the day or you can play a round of golf with me or whatever.

Diana: The under-the-sea golf tournament -- you don't need a luau-themed golf tournament. You really don't. Would it be fun? Sure, but is it necessary? That's really what you want to ask: does it add value to your event?

Jeff: Right, and you do have to be a little careful. If you get it too gimmicky it gets tough. There was a baseball player in Denver that used to do a big golf tournament and we were supporting it. And there were too many baseball things going on.

Diana: Oh.

Jeff: Right. And it just slowed the whole thing down. It's like, "You're going to have to throw this golf ball up in the air and you're going to have to swing a bat and hit it down the fairway." And that's going to be your drive kind of stuff. Anyway, it got a little long. So.

Diana: Okay. So where do we see themes? We see them at our galas.

Jeff: Yeah.

Diana: So we wanted to give you some ideas of themes that we've seen in the past. We're not going to comment on what our favorites were -- I think we're going to leave that to the audience. Think about what's going to work with your demographic. So I'm going to run through my list and I want y'all to give me your thoughts on these. One that I would say we're seeing a lot -- even when I talked to prospective clients who were planning their event -- is a huge shift toward casual.

Jeff: You're right. We live in Denver. People wear jeans at church here.

Kristen: Oh my gosh, it's my husband's favorite. We moved from D.C. where everybody dressed up all the time and I loved it. And then we came to Denver and he's like, "Can I wear jeans?" And I'm like, "Yes you can."

Diana: But to the point -- you might even call this "date night attire." And I've even heard it called -- if you live in a preppy area, and look, I'm not judging preppy, I love preppy -- if you want to call it something else, I've heard it called "snappy casual." So what do you think of that?

Kristen: Yeah, I was just thinking that's so good because so many people will see "business casual" or "black tie optional" and especially for the women it's like, "What does that mean for me? I've got to go shopping. I can't pull something from my wardrobe." But I have a couple of date night outfits. I like that wording for dress code.

Jeff: I do too. And think about trends now -- especially if you're going to do your event on a Friday night and you're going to do a formal, you're asking people to come home from work, make sure the kids are fed, get the babysitter in place, put on a suit and go back downtown or wherever. It's tough. So if you can take an element out of that, it can help.

Kristen: Yes. For sure.

Diana: Okay, so we're seeing a trend toward casual, but that's also carried through to how people are sitting -- or not sitting -- at events. They're standing up. And I remember -- oh y'all, I'm really going to take y'all back to my dating years -- I was planning a party with a friend of mine who happened to be married, and I wasn't married yet. And she was like, "Well, where is everybody going to sit?" And I said, "Single people don't sit. We just don't sit down."

Kristen: What do you mean?

Diana: We're not going to sit down. But the point is that people want to mingle. They don't want to come to your event and sit at a table. Maybe if they're eating, sure, for 10 minutes they're going to sit down with their plate of food and their drink. But what if they want to walk around with their appetizer plate and they can have their drink in another hand and they have their phone in their handbag or their back pocket? That is what people want. They want stations. They don't want to sit down. It just kind of lends toward more social.

Kristen: Leave the plated dinner for your wedding. Let the fundraiser happen a little bit differently.

Jeff: I agree with you. I think it kind of rolls into that casualness that we've been talking about. It's hard to say we're not going to talk about food because it all ties together. When your event is more casual, people are rolling in in boots and jeans. They're not wanting to put a cloth napkin on their lap and have their five-course meal.

Diana: They'll use a fork and knife.

Jeff: I always prefer my guests use a fork and knife.

Kristen: Well, if you have a wing...

Jeff: Oh yeah. I get what you're saying. Yes, you can have the passed finger food stuff. Anyway, what I was saying was it kind of lends itself to that. And so for our event, for years and years and years -- and you haven't gotten to it on your list yet -- but we did a Kentucky Derby event, and then we changed it to this concert. And that wasn't the only change we made. We also went to food trucks.

Diana: Food trucks. We did.

Jeff: And it wasn't that bad. It actually was really good. And it wasn't even just a price thing. It just kind of fit better with the vibe of an outdoor concert. So anyway, I know you're going to come to some of the other ones.

Diana: Yes. And that could be another type of event -- a food truck rally, a food truck frenzy, and have a local band playing. Gather food trucks together. That's one of my favorite kind of events -- you just go around and taste different food from food trucks. It's like a "taste of."

Jeff: Yeah, I like it. Food trucks are awesome. They give you so much better variety sometimes. But anyway, keep going.

Diana: Oh no, this is exactly why we're talking about this. So we've seen everything from Alice in Wonderland, "through the looking glass" -- you can imagine the colors and the decor. How do you want to do a step-and-repeat? Do you want to let people take a little tchotchke on the way out the door? Is there some sort of theme with "through the looking glass" that you can tie into the actual organization itself? So that would be one of them. Another one is the yellow brick road. I love a good Wizard of Oz theme.

Kristen: Thank you.

Jeff: A swing band or a big brass band really sells it if you're going to do that, by the way.

Diana: It's kind of a must. And you have to have specialty cocktails. It's all about the prohibition era. Can you make it a speakeasy?

Jeff: We had an event. We did one for a downtown organization. And it was really cool. You walked into the event and it was this giant wall. It's not like the cool speakeasies at the Cosmo in Vegas, but it was neat. And it looked like a fake storefront. And you came in to check in, and then there was this little passage you had to go through to get into the real event. They did a really nice job with it.

Kristen: That's very fun. I'm just picturing people in their cars right now Googling "speakeasy at the Cosmo in Vegas."

Jeff: There are three. There are three. I don't want to spoil it for you, but there are three. It's worth finding them at the Cosmo in Vegas -- they are the coolest places, and way cheaper than gambling, for sure.

Kristen: You heard it here first. I can tell you that he speaks from experience. Recent experience.

Jeff: Yes. There's also a secret pizza restaurant in there, but it's not really a speakeasy.

Diana: Oh, secret pizza? It is called Secret Pizza.

Jeff: Okay, this is new to me.

Diana: Okay, another one -- and we see a lot of Phantom of the Opera. Everything is very elegant, it's black, it's silver, it's gold. You can really carry that through. And if you want people to wear masks, you can supply them with a black mask or a white half mask. Those aren't going to be too expensive either, so that's something else to consider. Another one we see -- which I would love to have just been a fly on the wall for -- is Under the Big Top. So, Kristen, what do you imagine is happening at the Under the Big Top?

Kristen: Under the Big Top, I picture red and white stripes and tassels. And maybe you bring an elephant to that. What are you saying?

Jeff: I've been to something similar to this. There were lots of people on stilts.

Diana: Yes. Oh, yeah. I've seen that. That's right. And headdresses and -- no clowns. Okay.

Jeff: This one was -- just keep that one down. The one I'm thinking of is one we went to in Montreal, one of our clients. And it was impressive.

Kristen: Cool. I mean, I didn't know you went to Montreal.

Jeff: We did.

Kristen: Cool. I've been in Montreal for some Handbid events. It's awesome.

Jeff: This is Cirque du Soleil type of thing. They had people in rings and acrobats, and -- I don't know what it's called, so I'm going to really offend people by this -- but they twirl inside of the cloth. What do they call it, where they have the drapes hanging from the ceiling?

Diana: Aerial silks. I was just at an event last month where they had the curtains hanging from the ceiling, and the performers would climb it and do all these things.

Jeff: Twist them with their leg. They make it look like they're going to fall and then they let themselves go. Okay. So now that we've really depressed everybody on this call thinking there's no way they can afford Cirque du Soleil at their event -- you don't have to do something that sophisticated.

Diana: You don't. We're off on a tangent now. Aspirational, that's it.

Jeff: Exactly.

Diana: Okay. What I'm seeing a lot of lately -- and this is because the lovely 40-year-olds are now planning all the events -- is Totally 80s. Talk about cheap. Fluorescent bracelets, super funky glasses, leg warmers. And you can always find an 80s band.

Kristen: Yep. And neon really sells it. If you're going to do an 80s event, a black light goes a long way.

Jeff: Oh yeah, good call. That's cheap. And you don't even have to have an 80s band. You can do 80s music.

Diana: So you want to know one that's related to that? We did this years ago for a local client -- they did a high school prom.

Kristen: Oh God. That's awesome.

Jeff: It was hilarious. Of course, you get some of the Dumb and Dumber guys in their fluffy blue and orange tuxedoes. But it was just funny. These women showed up in these 80s prom dresses. Amazing.

Diana: To a more sophisticated version of all of that -- we currently have a client right now who is doing a Bridgerton event.

Kristen: Oh! Did you hear that gasp?

Diana: Spicy, right? Very spicy, readers. "Dear reader." I don't know how that's going to get executed, but I can tell you that it is perfectly beautiful from an invitation standpoint. I think you could supply things to the guests or you could have some requirements. Are the ladies going to wear hoop skirts and are the gentlemen going to wear tuxedos with tails? I don't know. Could it be just a wig and a hat? I don't know. But I think it's fun because it is a very popular television show right now.

Jeff: Mardi Gras -- that is something that we see a lot.

Diana: A lot of. Yes. It never gets old.

Jeff: It really doesn't. It's a big party. It's a party. You just say Mardi Gras and it's a party. So let's stretch it a little bit. Are there ideas from all the Mardi Gras events we've seen that we can give people who have done Mardi Gras events, maybe to freshen it up a little bit?

Diana: Well, the biggest idea I've ever seen comes from a client who had a lady show up and she somehow had a dress made. It was kind of like a hoop skirt -- she was fully clothed -- but it was a hoop skirt and it had shots inside the hoop skirt. You could buy a shot from the lady, and they ran it through our system. So it was a moneymaker -- it was considered a for-sale item. That is just one out-of-the-box idea, something that's drink-related.

Jeff: And so there's always going to be king cake. There's always going to be some kind of New Orleans jazz band. There's always going to be beads. But what else is there?

Kristen: Turn your king cake into a prize drawing, please. Although we hate that word "raffle," and it's not something you want to do online until a future podcast when we tell you how. It's coming.

Jeff: Prize drawing. Game of chance. That's right. Prize drawing. Don't have to pay for the piece of cake, but you have a suggested donation of 50 bucks a slice. And then whoever finds the baby -- it's baby Jesus, little baby Jesus -- you find the little baby Jesus, you get some sort of prize.

Diana: I love this. Yeah. This is really very fun.

Jeff: That kind of stuff we've heard of. And maybe change up your menu a little bit. Put some other types of stuff in there. That could also be a "taste of."

Diana: Mm-hmm. It really could, and that would be a good one. Cajun food is just awesome. Honey, yes.

Kristen: So speaking of really good food -- a Kentucky Derby event. You have run a Derby event. How many years now?

Jeff: We ran our event as a Derby event for 14 or 15 years.

Kristen: Oh my gosh.

Jeff: And so what were some of the food items that we would always have? Well, we evolved. In the very beginning, we tried all the Derby stuff. Obviously for the drink, you do a mint julep. And so we'll talk about the mint julep in a second because that one requires a little bit of discussion.

Kristen: Science.

Jeff: The way a mint julep's made is not what most bartenders like to make, so I'll explain why in a second. On the food side, we did all the bourbon balls and all that kind of stuff. And really what we came down to is we're going to get food that's got that southern, casual style to it, but it's more food that our guests are going to want to eat. Probably one of the most popular things we ever served for the appetizer was fried green beans -- people loved them. We had fried chicken. We moved to stations pretty quickly. We never did a plated thing because at a Derby event everybody's kind of running around, and it was a family event so we had kids that came because it was in the afternoon.

Jeff: The Derby is tough because it is at a certain time and you don't really have a lot of way around that. In Denver, those horses race real close to 5 o'clock p.m. And so once it's over, you can do other things, but you really need people there in advance betting on your horse race and doing stuff prior to five. So you really have to start it around three. Most people don't want to get a babysitter at 3 o'clock, so we had them bring their kids. We had bouncy houses. So everybody's running around. The buffet thing just created so many long lines and we hated it, so we got rid of that. We went to stations and it was awesome. Every year we would go through and decide the menu. Anything that was kind of finger foodish -- mac and cheese bar was always really popular.

Kristen: Fun.

Jeff: The kids like that stuff too. But we did betting. In Colorado, betting is illegal, so the way we did betting was everything at our event had fake dollars. When you came in the door, your dollars could be converted into fake money at the event -- kind of like a casino night would be, which we never talked about.

Diana: Oh, how did I miss that, y'all? I'm sorry. I'm really failing here.

Jeff: We'll talk about that later, okay? A casino night -- in most states you can't legally gamble. So what you end up doing is you have to have a currency that's worthless when they walk out of the room. So we did that. The betting was fun. We had betting software we wrote ourselves, and it would calculate the odds at the event. People loved it. They'd come in the door, buy some packages that included some prize drawing tickets as well as some fake money, and then they would go place their bets. We had a betting window at the horse race, and then we would watch the race for that classic two minutes -- the best two minutes in sports, Derby -- and we'd pay people out. That money could be used to offset whatever you spend in our auction. And that worked out well. And if you want to know why there's a discount field or a credit field in Handbid -- well, that's why.

Diana: Seersucker suit contest.

Jeff: Ooh, I was unaware.

Diana: We did. I love this.

Jeff: The funny thing about Denver is getting people to wear seersucker suits in Denver is actually really difficult.

Diana: Yeah, not going to happen.

Jeff: So the seersucker suit thing kind of went by the wayside. But if you won the seersucker suit contest, normally we would have like Diageo donate a really nice bottle of scotch or we would get a cigar company to donate some cigars. That was a fun prize. But we only had three guys up there out of several hundred. The hat contest, though -- we'd have dozens of women up there. So you have to come up with a good way of picking a winner. We actually turned it into basically a little mini fundraiser. When you came in the door, if you were entering the hat contest, we would snap your photo. And then we would basically on the fly create an item that was a for-sale item for whatever you wanted to raise -- five bucks, a dollar, whatever. I think we set them at a dollar. And that would be your vote. So you could vote by spending money. If I wanted to vote for Diana, I'd kind of flip through -- we had women, we had girls, so they were separate. I'd say, "I'm going to donate $7 towards Diana." And that's how we figured out who won. So we've had voting in our system software in that fashion for a while, and it worked out.

Jeff: We always had a silent auction, a live auction, a drawing. Lots of different ways to make money. We raked the horse race, so we took a little bit off the top of what people were betting.

Diana: Oh, very nice.

Kristen: Okay, so before we forget, what is the story about the mint julep that you want to share?

Jeff: Oh, the mint julep. Okay, so mint juleps -- if you think about how most drinks are made, it's usually a shot of this or a shot of that. Mint juleps, it's two ounces of bourbon, or in some cases depending how you're making it, two shots. And most bartenders, especially at some of these public places, will not do a two-shot drink. So what was happening was you have to kind of work it out with them. One year, our well-intentioned caterer decided, "Well, I'm just going to premix everything." And then the bartenders can't complain about it because the venue provided the bartenders. So they premixed the simple syrup that goes into a mint julep and the alcohol. And if you know anything about chemistry, alcohol has less density than sugar water. So it just separated. What was happening was the first 50 or 100 drinks they made were super sweet because there was no bourbon in it, and then the last 100 drinks they made were pretty much just shots of bourbon. So don't do that.

Kristen: Yeah, don't do that.

Jeff: Or you've seen those things that just constantly mix -- they get the thing that constantly mixes it. Anyway, we had plenty of fights with bartenders over it. And so it became a little bit tougher with the mint julep. There's really no way around it. You cannot make a mint julep that's just a shot of bourbon and simple syrup. It's just too weak. So that was our fun challenge. Think about that in advance.

Diana: That's right. Two shots.

Kristen: Okay. I love all that. That's great advice. So one idea that we were talking about earlier is something that we're seeing too -- imagine this, a flip-flop gala.

Jeff: Yeah, we do one every year. I love it. Tell us about it.

Kristen: What is a flip-flop gala?

Jeff: Well, you get to wear flip-flops. Men and women.

Diana: So you go to the -- men should get pedicures too sometimes.

Jeff: Yeah. My first thought is that I do not want to see some of these -- male or female, but let's just say it. There's some added maintenance. Hey, we had date night and my wife and I went and got pedicures.

Kristen: Okay, so are you wearing a suit and your wife is wearing a nice gown and also flip-flops?

Jeff: Some people were like that. I did not wear a suit, but I wore dress pants, dress shirt, flip-flops. A couple guys showed up in shorts. Because this is Denver and it's up to you. Flip-flop gala to me didn't mean beach gala. It meant flip-flop gala. But the whole point there is, hey, it's a fundraiser at a nice hotel. We want it to be classy to a certain level, but we don't want you to feel like you've got to show up in a tux.

Diana: Yes. I think their intention is to remind people you don't really have to super dress up for this. And I'm hearing actually -- as you're saying that I'm thinking about some clients I've talked with who use the word "ungala." That is a phraseology I'm hearing now -- an "ungala," because they want you to feel relaxed. Yet another one under that umbrella would be "black ties and tennies." So especially if you are an organization raising money for sports, sometimes that works. You can really drive through that -- bring your athletic shoes, but dress up and dance the night away in some comfortable shoes.

Jeff: No, and look, I would think most women would appreciate that looking at what --

Kristen: Honey. I'm here for it.

Jeff: Some of you ladies wear -- some blinged out Converse -- God bless you for trying to dance in those shoes.

Diana: No kidding.

Kristen: No kidding.

Diana: Okay. So, quickly -- we see a lot of casino night. I think it's important to mention because there's a lot happening at casino night. You've got to go hire the group that brings in the tables. Each table has to have a man or a woman executing the game.

Jeff: We added that to our Derby once.

Diana: You did?

Jeff: Yeah.

Diana: How did that go?

Jeff: I'm not hearing good things. My guests loved it -- they really did. It was just another thing for them to do. But at some point, you might as well just bring in the elephant -- it becomes a circus if you have too many things going on. So we got rid of it.

Diana: Yeah. So if it's just a casino night -- we have a couple sports clients who do a casino night and it's wildly popular. Because maybe if you've got some sort of celebrity and you sidle up next to Alex Ovechkin to play a round of cards, that's pretty cool.

Jeff: Yeah. And then there's prizes that you can exchange your fake money for. We do see a lot of that. And we also see it paired with mobile bidding a lot because nobody wants to leave their casino table to go write their name down on a paper bid sheet. So it is something that goes really well with mobile bidding if that's the direction you're going.

Diana: Okay. So the last two things I want to mention, y'all, are pretty specific. The first one is a White Out. A White Out can be a very elegant event, as you might imagine, but you might need the right venue for it. It might have to be the right time of year. I don't really imagine a White Out taking place in the fall. I do see something in the winter or in the hot, hot summer.

Jeff: Right? We did one down in Orlando. It was a theme one night.

Kristen: Yeah, and that was in January.

Jeff: It was. And everybody was dressed head to toe in white. Everything was -- with white curtains everywhere.

Kristen: Everywhere. And the white bar. Right. Everything was white. It was pretty slick.

Jeff: It was cool. It was really beautiful.

Diana: So then imagine -- your invitations, your site, no matter what, with the right technology you can use a theme to carry through your event landing page. You're mentally preparing your guests for what they're going to see when they show up at your event. It's like giving them a little sip of the big cocktail that's coming later. When they see your event landing page and everything is gorgeous and white. Or everything is Bridgerton.

Diana: The last one -- and I don't know, y'all, this could be really specific -- but it's something that I thought sounded really fun: Shrimp Boots and Bow Ties. And yes, do you have to be in Louisiana to pull off some of this? Because not everybody has shrimp boots.

Jeff: Shrimp and grits are a must with that one.

Diana: Yes. For sure. But you could be in New England and you could have a lobster kind of event with bow ties. Or you could really play on that kind of attire -- that casualness that could also be paired with a nice suit. And the ladies wear bow ties in their hair. Bow ties could be on the backs of your chairs. They could be in all kinds of places. I think people get excited about that. There's something that is invigorating about thinking about going to a special event like that, especially if it's raising money for something that you love.

Jeff: That's cool. That's a cool theme.

Kristen: What was your favorite, Jeff, of all the things we listed?

Jeff: Well, I am partial to the Kentucky Derby just because I did it for so long. And before the Kentucky Derby event, I actually had a party that was a Kentucky Derby. So I still love the Kentucky Derby. And every year now that we don't do it, I get a million Facebook posts or texts from people saying, "Really miss your Derby party. What the heck? Bring it back." Anything where you can rally around a fun event that people can enjoy -- the thing I like most about the horse race is that it's only two minutes. So you're not really obligating people to focus for too long. But any of those types of things, I think, work really well. One that we haven't mentioned that we just did last summer was a beach party.

Diana: Cool.

Kristen: Yeah. That is a good one. And does it have to be on the beach?

Jeff: Well, this one was. Oh, bring in your own sand. But we did do a fundraiser in Denver. I don't know if this venue is still around or not. There was an indoor volleyball, beach volleyball venue here in Colorado, and they had some outdoor ones as well. But they had it indoor and it was all sand. So you had to show up in your flip-flops and your shorts, and there was a little volleyball tournament that went on. But it was a fundraiser and it was fun too.

Diana: Very cool.

Kristen: Yeah. Well, there's so many. I've been to video game tournaments and things -- we got a bunch of workers from this association together and they organized a Wii tournament, like a Wii tennis or Wii bowling tournament back when Wii was new.

Jeff: That sounds like fun.

Kristen: Yeah, super fun. And we had things to do for them around that. I love a good gala. I love a good theme. All of that -- the White Out and Under the Big Top -- just makes me want to throw a party. I think anytime you have something that people can get excited about dressing up for, or dressing to theme for, and maybe even have a signature cocktail for, it's always a good time for me.

Jeff: A white out flip-flop gala with a speakeasy. I think we just created some new event. A white out casino night. White and black chips.

Diana: We could probably go on for days and days about the different kinds of themes that we love and themes that we've seen. I think we'll definitely have to put together a blog post and put it in the show notes for maybe the different themes that we can -- we probably missed some.

Jeff: Yeah. And so if you're listening to this and you have a way cooler theme than what we listed, why don't you tell us about it?

Diana: Yes, I love that idea. And then Diana will show you how you can take that awesome theme you created and actually make a really cool mobile bidding experience out of it.

Kristen: And your awesome event landing page that's going to excite your guests about coming to your event.

Diana: That's right.

Jeff: Love it. Awesome. Well, thank you ladies for joining me today as we talk about event themes and event types. That was fun.

Kristen: What's fun. Thank you for having us.

Jeff: Yeah. And we will be back soon with other amazing event ideas that we can share with you guys to make your event even better. So thank you again for joining our podcast and we'll see you next time.

Kristen: I'm ready for Jeff to make me a mint julep.

Jeff: Sounds good. Two shots.