Our winter round-up of event trends covers everything from daring menu ingredients to social media faus pax.
Here’s what’s going up and going down in events right now:
Going up
Micro hotel rooms
Hotels are going back to basics and downsizing their rooms to cater to overnight travellers who only want the bare essentials. Canberra’s Ovolo Nishi has jumped on the trend with their new ultra-stylish micro rooms.
Edible insects
Crispy critters are hopping onto menus across the country, think crickets, ants and worms. Are you game enough to try them?
Festoon lighting
A great way to bring garden party vibes to any event, festoon lighting is a hit year round.
Designer foods
Producers are getting innovative to reimagine traditional foods. Take Australian producer Grape Co. for example, which grows GMO-free grapes in a variety of surprising flavours like cotton candy and butterscotch. We tried them; they are delicious.
Going down
Confusing hashtags
Make sure your event hashtag is simple and easy to remember, and communicate it to guests prior to and during the event. Avoid having multiple hashtags for your event or delegates will #boycott it altogether.
Speakers that don’t hit the mark
A good speaker can set the tone and engage your audience, while a bad one will have delegates itching to leave. Make sure your speaker is prepared, knows how to tell a great story and won’t go way off script (if you were at MEA Evolve, you’ll know what we mean).
Boring buffets
With so many venues upping the ante with their food and beverage offering, boring buffets just won’t cut it anymore. Think outside the box with presentation and ingredients to ensure guests want to come back for seconds.
Clueless wait staff
Your wait staff should be able to tell customers what food they’re serving and what’s in it.
