Corporate parties transcend typical barbecue

It seems that bigger is better, at least in the event planning industry.

Flush with cash from a booming economy and eager to make a splash with their emp

loyees and customers, firms are upping the ante on what they’re willing to spend

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for a successful event.

It’s a trend Ansley Young has noticed in the past few years. Young, vice preside

nt at Event Design in Boulder, says, “The success of the economy is making peopl

e want to have more elaborate employee appreciation events.”

Some companies are going way beyond a barbecue to show how much they like their

people. Young recently brought in a circus that was shared by employees at four

companies. She says it cost at least $30,000.

Deb Bartlett, owner of Executivevents in Niwot, says the biggest changes she see

s are in events companies hold for their customers. “We’re seeing a lot of compa

nies have more money, so they’re putting more money into events.”

Besides bigger budgets, Bartlett says event planners are increasingly charged wi

th doing something different and creative. A DJ in a hotel ballroom, it seems, j

ust doesn’t cut it anymore. Moving the event from the ballroom to a remote site

for a M.A.S.H. theme party, for instance, is one way to shake things up. Bartlet

t’s firm also has staged a polo match, complete with strawberries and champagne,

designed to mimic a scene from the movie “Pretty Woman.”

These types of events, of course, don’t come cheap. The M.A.S.H. party is in the

works for a California firm and will run about $40,000. The “Pretty Woman” take

off for 200 attendees costs a cool $80,000.

But for many companies it seems the sky is the limit as far as what you can spen

d to impress your employees, clients or potential customers. Designer Kristi Dou

thitt, also with Executivevents, which recently organized the IQ Awards luncheon

for The Boulder County Business Report, says she once organized an event for a

communications company that featured four different hotel ballrooms, all redone

as nightclubs with separate themes.

Called “Club Row,” the ballrooms were joined together by a hallway covered with

black carpeting, designed to simulate a street. To complete the look, Douthitt h

ad yellow lines painted down the middle and a newsstand and park benches placed

strategically throughout the hotel. The price tag? For about 4,000 people, Douth

itt spent $60,000 on décor alone. “That didn’t include the food and beverage bil

l,” she says, or the fee for bringing in legendary guitarist Taj Majal to play a

t the club with a blues theme.

Expenses like these are sure to raise the eyebrows of many a corporate bean coun

ter, but Douthitt says there’s a lot of value to be found in holding such events

. “It builds the culture, the character” of an organization, she says. “People r

eally look forward to that one night or two nights where they let loose and had

a good time.”

Young echoes that sentiment, saying that events like these are considered part o

f an employee’s benefit package at many firms. “If they know each other outside

of work, they’re going to work together better.”

Holding elaborate events can even become part of employee retention efforts, You

ng adds. “Sun might say to StorageTek, ‘Our employees enjoy doing these things.

What do you do for your employees?’ “