Client engagement events are hosted experiences that give your clients and prospects time with your team away from a sales meeting: a dinner during a conference, a night at a sold-out game, a trip for your top accounts. The good ones have a single goal and no slides. They also have to beat the other invitations your guests got for the same night.
What are client engagement events?
A client engagement event is any experience a company hosts to deepen a relationship with an existing client or start one with a prospect. What you are really paying for is a few unhurried hours with the people who decide whether to renew, expand or sign.
Most take one of three shapes: a dinner or reception during an industry conference, access to something your guests can’t easily get on their own, or a hosted trip for your most important accounts.
Client engagement events vs. customer engagement events
The terms overlap, but they usually describe different audiences. Client engagement events are for a short list of business relationships, often accounts your sales team manages by name. Customer engagement events reach a wider base: loyalty members, sweepstakes winners, a product community. You measure the first in renewals and signed deals, and the second in how many people take part and buy again. Imagine designs both, and each starts from a different place. See customer loyalty experiences for the second kind.
What is experiential engagement?
Experiential engagement means building a relationship through something people do together. A product demo tells your guests something. Cooking alongside a chef they have read about, or walking a race paddock before qualifying, gives them a story, and your name comes up every time they tell it.
The tools are simple: a setting people can’t book for themselves, a host who knows every guest by name, a reason to talk, and nothing on the schedule that feels like a pitch.
Client appreciation event ideas
Treat these as starting points. The right one depends on who your clients are.
- The conference dinner people choose. A private dinner close to the venue, on the night competitors are hosting theirs. The guest list and the room do most of the work.
- A seat nobody could buy. Access to a game, a premiere or a paddock that is sold out or not for sale. See exclusive event access.
- A chef’s table for ten. Small enough that every guest talks to every other guest, and to your executives.
- A hosted trip for top accounts. Two or three days somewhere your clients have wanted to go, with time built in for real conversation.
- A thank-you for one client. An experience built around one decision-maker’s interests after a renewal or a milestone year.
- An executive roundtable with a draw. A small discussion among peers, paired with something worth the trip.
- A family moment. An invitation that includes partners or kids, which tells a client you see them as more than an account.
How to plan a client engagement event people show up to
- Start with the goal. Renewals, expansion, or new logos. The goal decides the guest list, the size and the setting.
- Pick the night your guests will choose you. At a conference, every evening is contested. Be close to the venue, be different from the standard dinner, and send the invitation early.
- Design for conversation. Seating, pacing and group size matter more than décor. Skip the presentation.
- Carry every detail. Transport, timing, dietary needs and the guest list belong to one owner, so your sales team can spend the night with clients instead of running logistics.
- Follow up while the story is fresh. Account owners should reach out within days, with the photos.
How to measure the return
Track four numbers: the share of invited guests who attend, meetings or opportunities created during or right after the experience, revenue signed from attendees, and expansion or renewal among attending accounts compared with those who didn’t come. Set the target before you send invitations, so the result means something.
Example: Criteo at eTail West
Criteo, a digital advertising company, hosted clients and prospects during the eTail West conference. Their usual pattern was that about 30% of invited guests would RSVP and about half of those would attend. Imagine designed a dinner close to the conference, set as an Indonesian paradise in the desert, built around Criteo’s goals.
- 71% of invited clients and prospects attended, filling the room.
- Prospects began asking Criteo for invitations, and clients asked their account executives what was planned for the next conference.
- Criteo’s team closed $1.53 million in signed agreements during the experience, a 23x return against a 7x goal.
Read the full Criteo case study.
Questions
What is a good attendance rate for a client event?
Measure it against your own history. In Criteo’s case, attendance went from roughly 15% of invitees to 71%.
How is an experiential event different from corporate hospitality?
Corporate hospitality is usually a ticket and a suite. An experiential event is designed around your guests and what you want from the evening. The conversation matters more than the view.
How far ahead should we plan?
For a conference dinner or a sold-out game, start as soon as the date is set. The best rooms and the hardest tickets go first.
Who from our team should attend?
The account owners and one or two executives your clients want to meet. Enough to talk to every guest, not so many that your team talks to itself.
What does it cost?
It depends on the format and the guest list. Imagine starts with the concept, then the number, with every line broken out.
Tell us about your clients, and we’ll show you what a night they’d choose looks like. See client appreciation experiences.
