When the day starts with a lop-eared bunny popping out of a black top hat, you know there’s something MUCH better coming. As the old adage goes… Keep your fork!
The trumpeter awakened us with a familiar corporate-themed rendition of hail-to-the-chief as the boss arrived on the red carpet, escorted by our first speaker, an Elvis Presley, look-a-like, that first morning of the event. He was wearing some tales tuxedo type costume, escorted by Elvis in a white glittery suit, and the magician followed him into the auditorium.
The whole thing started with laughter!
Since it was the breakfast and everyone (spouses included) were expected to attend, we all knew it was going to be some crazy stunt to kick off the weekend. But nobody expected Rachel, the bosses eagle-eyed assistant to pop out of a cinnamon roll after the magician screwed up a handful of tricks. She started taking names and calling roll to make sure we were all there.
Training sessions took place most of the morning and the spouses were invited back to join us for lunch. There was a fun tour planned for the morning hours, while we busted our buns on the training sessions, before the big band started playing at 11:55 sharp. For nearly two hours, they played every song we ever danced to and a few we hadn’t danced to… yet.
When everyone stopped eating, the dancing began…
It was noon, we hadn’t started drinking yet, and there were couple’s on the dance floor. One of the most prominent couples on the floor was our boss, now dressed in business casual, dancing with his wife. They were a pair. So graceful and eloquent. But then the training kicked into high gear, and we spent about four hours learning the new profile marketing program, and driving those lessons home with practice runs on each other, before the boss announced we would be breaking an h our early to prepare for dinner, more dancing, and entertainment for the night, including awards presentations.
Most spouses had taken advantage of the in house beauty salon on site. Showcase entertainment was scheduled to continue through the evening, but none of the team realized what an incredible gala-event we would experience, because the planning team had hired out an event planner to stage the event.
Before the stage lights came on, tribute artists were strolling the floor, meeting and greeting our high-level achievers.
The awards handed out over the next hour were presented by company execs, recognized by a few of the tribute artists, and the band played intermittently. At showtime, we had a full on brass band playing 20’s era music to a packed house. The night lasted into the wee hours of the morning, and was declared the most memorable Corporate Event EVER.
Will our marketing and sales teams out perform previous years? Within five weeks of returning home to the office, we’d already topped the previous year’s sales. We’re on target to go way above and beyond the usual results of a Corporate Training Event.
