Chris Weinberg Events created a sense of community during a white party that featured a live cuban band and fireworks while sailing on a boat in Biscayne Bay in Miami, FL. The event brought in people from all over the world. Courtesy of Chris Weinberg

Dotting the country’s meeting and events landscape you will find many larger meetings and event destinations teeming with insightful speakers, memorable experiences, venues and amenities that amaze thousands of attendees. But what about smaller events? How can planning professionals orchestrate smaller events that leave an impression on attendees so that they keep coming back for more?

Small events can be great, but often in ways that would be different compared to big events. According to Lee Gimpel, an expert on strategic meeting design and the founder of Better Meetings in Washington, D.C., it’s similar to going to a stadium concert as opposed to hearing a musician in an intimate space — or attending a big university with a great football team compared to going to a small school where you know everyone and feel a real sense of community.

“A small event gives you many more touchpoints with the same people and you really feel like you’re part of something,” Gimpel says.

For Gimpel, the advantage of going small mostly comes down to being able to foster a sense of community and connection. With clients, he often finds himself talking about Dunbar’s number, which basically suggests that humans do well in tribe-sized groups, and that number is usually 150 or less.

“When we do bigger events, we usually lose a sense of connection, even if those bigger events may have more glitz and glamour because of their economies of scale,” Gimpel says. “Similarly, I think about what we might consider the student-teacher ratio where every attendee of a smaller event can really spend quality time with the event’s host, a VIP speaker or the like. If you are the president of a company hosting a meeting with 25 people, you can and should get real, personal face time with all of them, but that certainly won’t happen at a large event.”

Smaller events also open up more possibilities in terms of interesting venues or experiences. If you’re doing an event with 50 people, there are almost unlimited places you can do it. But if you’re doing it with 5,000 participants, you’re probably going to be in a conference center. “Such a same-old setting misses out on the surprise and delight of being somewhere new or unexpected. Similarly, you can include experiences or field trips with smaller groups where doing that with a big event would be very challenging,” Gimpel says.

Smaller events allow for a more customized, curated, and highly valuable attendee experience, and they provide the ability to better interact with both the content and other attendees. “They tend to foster a sense of community and belonging that is often lost in larger gatherings. The intimacy of small events allows for deeper, more meaningful interactions between attendees, speakers, and organizers,” says Chris Weinberg, founder and event planner at Chris Weinberg Events. “This environment often allows attendees to engage directly with speakers and industry experts, and a smaller group setting experience allows for a deeper dive into topics and discussions rather than overviewing them.”

Logistically, for both attendees and organizers, small events often yield a higher return on investment in terms of time, money and effort. With fewer attendees, registration, seating and movement between sessions, attendees can enjoy a more streamlined and calmer experience.

Delivering the “Wow” With Small Events

A small event will probably not deliver the same “wow” factor that a big event will. However, a small event can certainly deliver moments and an overall experience that amazes attendees. Gimpel says the first thing that he would encourage planners to think about at the start is to not try to recreate the same big experience at a small event, but to instead lean into the opportunities afforded by intimacy.

“To that end,” he says, “the big metaphoric sign that I would hang over my workspace when creating a small event would remind me to, ‘Look for moments to inject connection and personalization!’”

So, for example, if a large audience might require doing an event in a very typical space, think about where you could do the event with a small group that would be really memorable and that would be in service to the larger purpose of the event. Instead of a hotel ballroom, could you rent out a boat or do it at a winery? Could you actually do it onsite where the venue is intimately connected to the work you are doing? (So, for example, if the event is about agriculture, maybe you do it on a working farm; if it’s about fashion, maybe you do it at a design space or retailer).

“As another example, if you’re having a great meal as part of the event, could you offer attendees a chance to have a special interaction with the head chef? With a few dozen people, that feels like a noteworthy, personal experience, but it would be hard to offer the same thing with a group of a thousand people,” Gimpel says.

“Smaller events allow participants to feel seen and not lost in a sea of faces,” says Liz Lathan, CMP, meeting planner and co-founder of The Community Factory. “They are a safer space for introverts and extroverts to feel comfortable engaging in a more authentic and meaningful way to build relationships that transcend business.”

Smaller events take just as much thought and care as larger events, but they allow you take more risks and have more fun. Lathan suggests that what if, instead of a standard field sales dinner, you hosted an animal encounter experience at a local aquarium to meet some dolphins? What if you took 10 guests to a glass-blowing class so you have final products in hand for a reason to follow up with them? Events that are workshop format or highly engaging are helpful because people want help networking.

“We find that people want to be given permission and direction. Permission to connect and feel directed on how to connect,” Lathan says.

Similarly, if you bring in a renowned speaker, Gimpel suggests asking that person to stay and join the group for a meal or to do something like a master class for the attendees where they get to spend quality time and may get powerful one-on-one insights from that expert. Again, that is something that you just couldn’t offer at a large-scale event.

“Where a big event may require you to herd people through hallways to get them to the next session, really take advantage of the time where you will have everyone together over and over in the same space,” Gimpel says. For example, after a presentation, people don’t need to disperse to 10 other rooms like they would at a big event, but a planner could instead have a really rich, intimate discussion within the same consistent group at round tables.

Finally, small groups afford an opportunity for people to actually work together and collaborate, whereas that can be difficult at grand events.

“Getting people to talk, share and produce something together gives an event a sense of purpose and bonds a group,” Gimpel says. “Maybe it’s the group collaborating on strategy, solving a persistent issue, or identifying best practices. Whatever it is, doing something together produces a sense of camaraderie that is hard to find at big events.”

One “wow” factor that Gimpel did at a small event was pretty simple, but it really stuck with people and drove home that they were part of something different and special. Gimpel was helping with a corporate summit in Washington, D.C., at the Hay-Adams hotel right across from the White House. The space was lovely, the food was excellent, the staff was very attentive and the views were great.

“But, I was really proud that we took the 40 participants outside the hotel and had them walk and talk about the issues at hand in the park right in front of the White House. It was unique, special and gave them real quality time with each other in a very memorable setting,” Gimpel says. “Could we have done something similar with a thousand people? Yes, but it probably would not have been as feasible or as memorable.”

Weinberg adds that by focusing on creating memorable, high-quality experiences, planners can deliver the same “wow” factors as larger events. To start, ensure the content is highly relevant and valuable to the attendees. Then, personalize the invites and the welcome messages to make attendees feel special and valued.

“Use creative and thematic décor to transform the venue and create an immersive atmosphere. Incorporate interactive elements like live demonstrations, workshops or experiential zones that encourage attendees to engage hands-on,” Weinberg says. “Finally, create a surprise element, such as guest speakers, entertainment acts, gifting activations or pop-up experiences.”

For a small corporate incentive group traveling to Miami, Weinberg curated a Wynwood Arts Experience. This included an interactive map tour of Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, brewery stops throughout the tour and lunch at a local food hall.

“We included a team-building activity — learning the art of graffiti and its history, with attendees participating in creating a custom graffiti wall in Wynwood,” Weinberg says.

From a field event standpoint, Lathan loves to run customer think-tank dinners where they greet attendees and immediately introduce them to each other while asking what challenges are top of mind for them. It starts a great conversation and they’re able to use those challenges in the discussion. They’ve run these kinds of programs for several companies who need help crafting the experience, setting up the logistics and facilitating the conversation. They just have to manage the invitations.

“It’s like a release valve for the marketing or sales teams that are overwhelmed with run-the-business tasks but being told they need to ramp up micro events within their engagement portfolio,” Lathan says.

As a longer-form experiential event, Lathan and her team also love to create behind-the-scenes experiences that get people out of their day-to-day. Last year, they partnered with MGM Resorts to create a 1.5-day micro event for their Club Ichi community where they ran a creativity workshop in the MGM Prop and Decor warehouse, then ate lunch in the Aria employee cafeteria and got to see their uniform control center where they get 9,000 uniforms laundered and pressed each day for their team members.

Then, they went into the pump room of the Bellagio fountains where they learned all about how the fountains work from the rescue-trained divers who fix the nozzles. And to top it off, they put attendees on a small barge onto the Bellagio lake and ran a show just for them while they were on the water.

“The trick is to think about what that city is known for and what you can do there that your attendees have probably never done before,” Lathan says. “It’s way harder to get people to events these days, so if they’re going to drive 45 minutes to go to an event on the other side of their city, you have to make it worth it for them.”

Embracing Challenges

Perhaps the biggest challenge in doing smaller scale events is the budget. As planning professionals know, doing an event for 50 as opposed to 500 still requires an awful lot of the same effort and costs. It can be hard to try to justify doing smaller events when the per capita expense is so high compared to bigger events that can spread the cost and effort over reaching many more people.

It can also be hard to get the right attendees there and end up with a number that is neither too big nor too small.

“If you wanted to do a high-end meeting for 25 CEOs, you need to work hard with each attendee — including personal invitations rather than a blanket ad campaign — and figure out what happens if a number of them can’t make it,” Gimpel says.

“That’s very different than securing a huge conference center and inviting thousands of people where you’re trying to fill the space and have a much wider window in terms of workable final numbers.”

Gimpel always advocates for planners to start with a robust process of working with the client to be very clear about why they’re doing the event and what would really constitute success. It’s always easy to fall into a trap of thinking that it’s a certain kind of meeting and we’ve seen and done it before so we’re just going to re-run the machine.

Weinberg adds that other additional challenges to consider when planning smaller events include:

• A potentially tighter budget, so balance the budget to ensure that all necessary elements are covered without compromising the quality of the event.
• Curating relevant content for a smaller group, which is always more difficult and requires a more focused knowledge of the content the attendees are looking for.
• Finding a venue selection that fits the size and budget of the event while still providing a professional and comfortable environment.

“I also feel like people have invitation fatigue,” Lathan says. “So many brands are leaning into micro events that many people with the ‘right’ title are getting invited to something multiple times a week. So, the event had better be really interesting to get them out of their house.”

And because smaller events let you be more flexible and personalized, Gimpel would be especially conscious of being clear about what the event is trying to do and plan around that.

“If a driving reason to hold the event is bringing together buyers and sellers, for example, then I would be very intentional about creating a program that truly makes that happen, as opposed to having people sit and watch a bunch of speakers and hope that the right connections are magically made on the sidelines,” Weinberg says.

Some additional strategies that planners can use to overcome the challenges of producing smaller events include focusing on a niche, emphasizing the unique value proposition and specialized focus on the event to attract the right audience.

“Use technology to enhance engagement and streamline planning processes,” she adds. “And finally, partner with local businesses, industry associates and other industry professionals to enhance offerings.” C&IT