Creating Memories at Events

There is a lot of planning that goes into winery special events. Time is spent working on the venue, as well as the food and the wines that are going to be served.

In order to create an exceptional event that your guests will remember it is also important to understand the emotions you are trying to engender in your guests. How will they feel about your wines, winery and the event they attended? Will they remember it for all the right reasons?

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

There is a clear connection between emotions and memories. When people have an experience that makes them feel, the memory of those feelings and those experiences come back when they:

• Have other experiences that are similar.
• Drink a bottle of the wine bought during an event they enjoyed.
• Catch an aroma of something (food, flowers, etc.) that they experienced at the event.

Interestingly enough, your guests are more likely to hold on to pleasant memories longer than they do to unpleasant ones. However, if the guests have an unpleasant memory of your event, while the memory may fade faster, they will probably talk about their bad experience a lot before they forget it.

What does this mean for your events? It means, no matter how busy; everyone from the owners down to the part time event staff should remain cheerful and pleasant to attendees, even with the most difficult of guests.

Here a few tips for working events:

• When you smile, make sure your smile is genuine.
• If someone is upset don’t assume you know the reason, rather find out why.
• Make sure everyone involved takes regular breaks.
• If you are not a people person, offer to pack boxes or do other things that limits your interaction with guests.

So, during event season, enjoy yourself and be glad about the joy you bring to your guests.

A tip of the glass from me to you.

P.S. Wear comfortable shoes!