The power of the senses: incorporating touch into your event
The feeling of a warm handshake between colleagues. The sensation of comfortable seating before listening in to an inspiring presentation. The excitement of taking part in an interactive experience. While more subtle at times than some of our other senses, touch plays an important role in elevating seemingly simple moments into memorable ones – helping to ensure your guests enjoy and remember your event long after.
The key for any event planner when it comes to touch in events is therefore identifying where touch can be better incorporated and how it can work in tandem with our other senses to build more of a sensory experience for all in attendance.
Looking for some inspiration to do exactly that? Let’s explore some of the ways touch can better be incorporated into your next event.
Human connection
Humans are social creatures at heart and touch is one of our most powerful senses in helping to build these relationships between one another. Research also shows that touch is our richest means of emotional expression – something key when it comes to events that rely on expressing ourselves to others, such as meetings and networking events.
To help facilitate these connections for attendees however, you want to ensure you create the right environment to encourage people to interact with one another.
This means creating comfortable and inviting spaces for attendees to converse and connect in. Some people may be more than happy to stand and mingle around the event space, but others may find comfort in having suitable seating to sit while talking to others.
Consider what you want your guests to do and how you can change the event space to help achieve that. Would round table setups be beneficial, or will you get more from attendees from casual seating areas to encourage more spontaneous discussions?
Comfort is also key here, especially when we are talking about touch. If the seating isn’t adequate or comfortable, your attendees are going to be far less likely to sit and convene with one another. Similarly, if the event space is cramped, people will be less likely to move about the space and interact with one another.
The key is therefore to ensure you are creating comfortable and inviting spaces for attendees to converse and connect, ultimately helping to build important relationships and create a memorable event for all.
Interactivity
Even if your event doesn’t involve networking, that doesn’t mean you can't get attendees up and about while making use of the sense of touch.
From quizzes on smartphones to interactive booth games, there are many ways touch can be incorporated to help make your event memorable. Active participation between attendees can also help break down barriers and help everyone feel more at ease, leading to happier attendees overall.
Touch can also be a very useful sense when it comes to receiving feedback on your event. Instead of sending out feedback forms after the event, utilising touch screens with customer feedback kiosks around your event can be a great way to collect live feedback or data to use for additional marketing efforts, while also impressing guests with state-of-the-arts technology.
If doing this, however, ensure the screens are placed in prominent areas where people are more likely to engage with them. It can also help having a member of staff or two present to encourage usage, or to also provide an incentive for sharing feedback to ensure uptake.
Food & drink
Be it a private dining event or catering for your meeting, the sense of touch is also important when it comes to the food and drink at your event.
While we may think of touch only for the food we actually eat with our hands, touch also extends beyond this when we consider how the food we consume feels when it comes to texture and how this then combines with our other four senses for a complete sensory experience.
Food and drink are often seen as an extension of an event and not a part of it, but, putting extra consideration into your offerings for attendees can go a long way in enhancing your event.
Food and drink are also an excellent way to bring attendees together, so providing interesting foods that play on the senses, including touch, can be used as great ice breakers to help everyone in attendance feel more at ease.
Here at the Royal Society of Chemistry at Burlington House, we are dedicated to helping you bring your vision to life to make sure your event is a resounding success. We work with several experienced event suppliers to help materialise your vision through innovation and expert guidance, incorporating the different senses for a truly multi-sensory experience.
Download our brochure or get in touch to learn more about our venue and how we can help you create stunning events that will leave a lasting impression on delegates and guests.
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