What do you do when you place in the bottom of a coveted awards program? Well if you're Will Guidara you use it as fuel and propel yourself to number one in the world. You can read all about the remarkable story and approach to re-defining a business in, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. Right from the title, this is a book that event planners can and should read and return to for inspiration.

While the book is focused on the hospitality industry, the philosophy has been adopted by leaders at global corporations. I found myself renewing a commitment to concepts that aligned with our philosophy at TK Events, and more importantly, getting inspired with new ideas and approaches to our business. Below are top tips from the book that can be applied to event management. It all starts with the concept of exceeding expectations. This is not a business check-list, it's a blueprint for creating emotional connections with your customers as a pathway to success.

Applying Unreasonable Hospitality To Event Management

Our core beliefs align with Guidara's vision for hospitality:

• Exceptional Customer Service 

• Magic - "We may not be saving lives, but we do have the ability to make their lives better by creating a magical world they can escape to." 

• Intention - to do something thoughtfully - we use these words a lot!

A word about culture: When people refer to companies that have a Cult (a huge number of dedicated users/followers) when you come right down to it - Cult is really short for culture. And that is what everyone - from your employees to your customers - are buying into.

The 95/5 rule: As a business owner I love this: "Manage 95% of your business down to the penny - spend the last 5% foolishly." Yes, we need to be focused on financial management, and marketing plans, etc. But adopting this philosophy for your event operations and giving yourself a small percentage for the whimsy, the creative, the experiences that will have a customer saying, "Wow", will be well worth the investment. There were some wonderful over the top moments like the story about the purchase of street hot dogs, to the creation of "legends - highly creative, personalized gifts." Tip: No matter the budget, our intention is to find ways to apply a few unique moments or experiences that will create an element of surprise - something that has event attendees saying, "I can't believe they did that."

Implement a daily 30 minute meeting ritual to have all staff connect right before opening. The practice exemplified the restaurant's dedication to teamwork and collaboration - both being hallmarks of a successful event. A few years ago, we implemented this best practice with a venue as part of our onsite process for a particularly complex event program. There were multiple room changes, room flips, re-setting from business meetings during the day to awards and special events in the evening. There was so much going on that we couldn't just rely on the BEO's or quick hallway conversations. Plus, if you've worked in events, you know your catering manager or banquet captain can change from day to day, and day to evening. The venue was only too happy to have the banquet manager meet with us early in the morning prior to each day's program to ensure we had all the details and changes captured and were ready to go. When the program had complex evening event logistics - we met again late in the day. Chalk that one up to real world experience, but it has become a constant in our onsite event management approach.

Create an event you'd want to attend. In Unreasonable Hospitality it was: "We’re going to make the kind of place we want to eat at." When we're deep into planning you'll often hear us say, "We need to be creating an event we’d want to attend!"

Which brings us to: "The Power Of A Genuine Welcome". In events, the 'welcome' is the moment an attendee hits Register. What is their experience? Is the process an easy one, have you created excitement to prompt them to complete their registration? Is it easy to ask questions and get answers? From online registration to onsite check-in - the way you make guests feel the moment they enter your website or venue doors will set the tone for their overall experience and perception of your event. A few years ago, as part of cost cutting measures for a client event, we eliminated the welcome reception from the conference agenda. We added a DJ and welcome drink to the registration experience, and suddenly guests were networking at registration and no one missed the welcome reception.

The Details in Event Planning Programs mean A LOT

Sometimes when my family overhears my calls they'll say, "I can't believe the things you have to deal with." So these concepts:

• "Excellence is the culmination of thousands of details executed perfectly." 

• "The little things matter."

• "The way you do one thing is the way you do everything."

Every event industry professional will tell you the pressure that goes with operating at a high level of precision and perfection. All the time. In the end, how we're prepared will make all the difference in producing successful events. All of our team are trained in contract negotiations. All of our planning comes together in critical planning documents - show flow, minute by minute runsheets, and a show guide that keep the event humming along onsite.

But after all the meticulous details, Unreasonable Hospitality meant providing, "thoughtful high touch gestures for every one of their guests along with a dedication to generosity and extraordinary service." When we're mired in the pressure and the details, I like to keep why we do what we do, top of mind: We love events and that feeling you get when your dedication to the extraordinary pays off by way of thousands of attendees enjoying the experience you've created.

From Event Management To Managing The Extraordinary

"Creativity is an active process not a passive one": When we apply creativity to events it really comes down to being thoughtful about every one of our choices. Tip from the book: 'Start with what you want to achieve instead of limiting yourself to what’s realistic or sustainable." In other words - forget budgets, venue limits and all the negative, and let an idea take you away.

Creativity has no limits: Even the way we approach #eventtech is creative. How we can make it engaging, fun, easy, drives all our decisions. Elements of surprise are woven into events - from food and beverage plans to networking and how we envision event activations - do they have a unique spin or never been done before?

We have a 'Get it done' attitude that is evident in every one of our employees' actions. There is nothing more magical to my ears than a client or supplier asking, "Where do you find your people?"

There's a Penn and Teller quote that I want to pin on my wall - "Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect." We are so guilty of this but the results are worth it!

Applying Unreasonable Hospitality To Your Business

The premise of the book is based on how Guidara took losing and transformed it into building a winning mindset and culture.

When their restaurant landed in 50th place of the global Top 50 Restaurants Awards, instead of focusing on defeat, he and his partner used it as fuel. That is when Guidara famously wrote on a cocktail napkin 'Unreasonable Hospitality' and formed his thinking around 'the human desire to be taken care of'. In the events industry this applies to your clients as well as your event attendees. He focused on the emotional connection with his guests, and the philosophy, "People never forget how you make them feel", instilling a culture of going above and beyond in every aspect of their restaurants and service. He focused on elevating the guest's experience in every way.

Culture and People: When starting Nomad restaurant in New York, a completely new venture and restaurant concept than anything they had done before, Guidara talks about, "the more space we gave ourselves to dream and more trust we gave to one another, the better we got."

He packs a lot of wisdom: "As you grow you can’t lose the very thing that gave you the opportunity to grow - before expanding you have to think about what makes your culture unique and protect whatever that is."

Also, a word to leaders: "Control and trust are not friends."

While Guidara realized 'hospitality isn’t a transaction', we know that events are more than the planning documents and creative renderings. So, I'll end with another quote from the book: "There’s remarkable power in giving teams and customers more than they expect." 

Oh, and if you're wondering, eventually Guidara and his partner's restaurant was named #1 Restaurant in the World.

Read more about: Unreasonable Hospitality and the Hospitality Economy.

Photo credit: https://www.insidehook.com/books/guidara-unreasonable-hospitality-b