A lot of thought and planning must go into event design if you hope to pull of a successful affair, and this is especially true in the corporate arena where design can impact your bottom line. You may place a significant amount of attention on branding, floor plans, and seating arrangements but one area that is often taken for granted is lighting. Today, we’re going to shed light on why optimized lighting is critical to a prosperous event.
5 Reasons Why You Need to Pay More Attention to Lighting for Your Next Corporate Event
1. Draws Attention Where You Want It
The most obvious benefit of better lighting management is that it can be leveraged to place the focus exactly when and where (within the venue) you want it. When optimized, it will draw attendee focus to the stage, branding, product displays, on-site exhibitions, demonstrations, and more as needed. With lighting, you also negate the need for audible announcements (which can be obtrusive) to encourage attendees to shift attention elsewhere.
2. Improves Engagement Between Colleagues and Clients
Lighting is integral to engagement between both colleagues and customers/clients that may be in attendance. If your event takes place during the day, lighting design must consider bringing natural light into the venue (where viable) as countless of studies prove that natural lighting has a direct and positive impact on meeting engagement. But even without access to windows or daylight, lighting can be manipulated to create comfortable spaces for people to engage one another. If too bright, attendees will be uncomfortable and may even become self-conscious. If too dim, they may be lulled into submission as energy levels are zapped by a lack of illumination. Finding the right balance for the event space (and spaces within) is essential to captivating individuals and crowds alike. This is a practice that only an experienced event designer can pull off.
3. Enhances Mood
Lighting also has a direct impact on the general mood of a given room or venue. You’re obviously aiming for elevated over somber when it comes to a corporate shindig, whether a party or product unveiling, so pay close attention to lighting design. This concept goes beyond the general logic that better lighting makes people feel happy, mind you. For instance, the National Institute of Mental Health states that a cluster of neurons in the thalamus, a part of the brain responsible for relaying sensory information to other brain areas, serves as a pathway for light to positively affect a person’s mood. To be honest, the studies supporting lighting design are countless, and FORBES reports that 60% of workers state that their companies don’t provide the adequate level of light required for optimal job performance. You have likely considered this already as a part of your office design, but don’t forget to carry the concept over to your corporate events too.
4. Encourages Social Sharing
There is nary a company that does not benefit from positive exposure on social networks, be it on their own profiles or that of employee or customer/client advocates. By offering better event lighting you create a space conducive to staff/attendee photo taking and filming (where permitted) which allows for live and post-event content sharing that can serve your own public relations initiatives. Given the limitations of smartphone cameras in capturing quality photos in poor lighting, you want to provide lenses with something they can work with.
5. Attendee Safety and Security
This may be the most practical benefit of a smarter event lighting but is no less important. Ensuring that lights are integrated to create safe spaces for attendees and staff at a given venue is very important as not only are there moral concerns there are personal injury and property damage liability implications to consider. When it can be proven that there was insufficient lighting to protect against accidents and other threats a case for a claim against your business can be made.
It’s never too early to start planning your corporate gathering so be sure to contact us today for a consultation. Lighting is an extremely important part of Loungeworks’ event design platform and we will ensure that all of the variables addressed above are considered for your event.