Fun Ways to Entertain Clients

(in 2022)

It’s 2022 and you can’t well do an ice sculpture and a chocolate fountain at your corporate event . You’re gonna need entertainment like a corporate magician to really wow your group.

It’s a familiar story and it usually goes like this.

You’re in charge of organizing and hosting a social event for your company’s clients. You’ve decided on the venue and finally got the catering sorted.

You still have all your work ahead of you.

The best virtual magic show I’ve seen!

Rachel Mitchener

Jon really brought the fun today! … everyone was entertained and had a good time!

Tammy Young

The energy in the Zoom room was like no other virtual meeting!

Tracy Emory

Seriously, how do you find ways to celebrate and how to entertain clients virtually that will not only give them a great first impression but leave them with memories of a great day and a great company?

Think about this for a moment.

Your clients comprise a broad demographic, each having their own idea of what they consider to be a fun day out. When the entertainment is a uniform one-size-fits-all approach (such as a DJ or a band), it can appeal to some of your guests but turn off others.

So what’s the magic formula?

Fun client appreciation events happen when you present exciting, personalized, unique client event ideas that generate:

• A buzz before the event

• Enjoyment during the event

• Positive memories after the event

That’s the secret. If your corporate budget is enormous, plenty of options range from hot air ballooning (if you have 100 guests at your event, that’s around $24,000) to laser canons (a neat idea that’ll run you $3,000). You may need to find fun ways to entertain clients that are a little less expensive. It’s your call.

Good news:

You can use any of these five simple ideas that are both more affordable and more fun. Each idea can cost half the price of renting a laser canon, but each idea creates four times more engagement.

Yes, you read that right.

Here are the best five unique client entertainment ideas that may provide some inspiration and make your event extraordinary.

• Mingle Magic

• Silhouette Artist

• Mystery Wine

• Digital Graffiti

• Celebrity Lookalikes

Unique Client Appreciation Ideas

At this point you realize we need to generate a buzz before the event, enjoyment during the event, and positive memories after the event.

That’s where magical entertainment fits in.

Personalized performances of magic—one of the most effective client function ideas for a corporate event and probably the best one that gets your clients out of their shell. It’s ideal for your your customer thank you gift ideas—a strolling performer can magically present your thank you gifts to each customer.

A professional close up magician mingles with a group, merges one group with another, all while performing personalized up-close magic.

The range of the tricks and illusions of a seasoned corporate magician lends itself to customization.

The magician can make borrowed objects take on a life of their own, float in the air, or vanish. He can make your CEO’s watch disappear (temporarily) from his wrist and appear on the magician’s wrist. If a mentalist as well—the entertainer is seemingly able to read minds and bend coins and cutlery from a distance.

Close-up magic demands no extra space on your end, and the magician can tailor the intimate command performances to your company’s message. There’s no law that the magic words must be abracadabra. You can have the magician use your company’s name as the magic words. You can even have the magician use custom playing cards with your company’s logo.

Interactive magic is inherently engaging. When magic happens in your guests’ hands, the intimacy of the moment is always memorable as the magician will be giving a private show for a few minutes directly to your guest.

The close up walk-around magician is ideal for client appreciation events, bringing strangers together in shared intrigue at what they’re witnessing. The illusions leave your guests shaking their heads, talking, and laughing among themselves about it.

A magician ticks all the boxes for clients regardless of gender, social background, or even language. Almost all of us appreciate the fantastic become real—and a good magician can sniff out the few that don’t.

► Unobtrusive. The entertainment can be personalized and targeted to those who love it most.

► Effortlessly weaves your company’s message into the entertainment.

► Wowifies your essential guests with positive memories of your company.

► It requires no additional space. No need to clear the floor or provide a stage or sound system.

► It requires the least time management. The performer can pause during announcements, a speech, etc., then start entertaining again during the lulls.

► A good magician can leave your clients with memorable giveaways. These can include your company’s branding. Since something magical happens to the item, your client is seven times more likely to keep it.

When it comes to client appreciation event ideas for your function, a popular option is to engage a silhouette artist to offer profile portraits of your clients.

A silhouette artist is skilled at creating a unique piece of art, capturing the likeness and personality of the sitter usinga pair of scissors and a sheet of paper. The process is mesmerizing to watch.

Ina few minutes, the artist crafts a silhouette, and the resulting portrait can be mounted on a card and presented to the client as a permanent memento and charming souvenir of the day.

► Unobtrusive. This entertainment is targeted especially to those who are drawn to it most, while not demanding the attention of the entire group.

► You can have the frames branded with your company’s logo.

► Your clients will keep their portraits long after they’ve tossed the cheap giveaway gifts.

You’ll have a range of attractively wrapped bottles on display, each bearing a number but with no indication of what the wrapping contains. Your client picks out a numbered cork or ball. Your client then receives the bottle that matches the number he or she drew, and if lucky, he or she will receive something exceptional indeed. If not, he or she still receives something fun like a spherical ice “cube.”

If fortune doesn’t smile upon them, they’ll still own a bottle of good (but not ridiculously good) wine. If your client wishes they can have another go, and the more tickets you sell, the more money you raise for your cause. The number of bottles you’ll need will depend upon the number of guests at your event, but it’s good practice to have three bottles for every five people—and only a few bottles of the top-shelf stuff.

To make this work, you’d need to approach local wine merchants for sponsorship in return for some form of advertising at your event.

Not as hard as you think.

You’ll be surprised by how readily your proposal will be accepted once you’ve explained the charitable reasons behind your request.

But as time has passed, the selfie has evolved, with the awkward head-and-shoulders shot taken from a cell phone held at arm’s length being increasingly replaced by more sophisticated images.

What better way to treat your clients than to have a wall they can vandalize?

First, the photographer snaps a digital photo of the guests. Instantly their photo displays on the digital wall. Now they get a can of spray paint and go nuts, turning their photo into a masterpiece.

At client appreciation events it’s perfect for engaging groups and engrossing them in an interactive activity. You can incorporate face morphing, animated selfies, and a green screen onto which your group can project the background of your choice.

You can easily incorporate your company branding into some of the backgrounds to provide your clients with a reminder of their fun time with you when they look again at their treasured pictures in years to come.

Imagine your clients posing for selfies in your photo booth with Abe Lincoln, Michael Jordan, Beyoncé, Cary Grant, or Donald Trump.

One of the most unusual and unique corporate event ideas is to invite these extra celebrity look-alike guests to your function. Such guests bear an uncanny resemblance to famous people, living or passed.

Celebrity lookalike agencies are easy to find and can provide a wide range of passable, famous faces for you to choose from to provide your guests with a great experience and the photo opportunity of a lifetime.

► You can have the photos discreetly stamped with your company’s branding.

► Your clients will keep their photos long after they’ve tossed the cheap giveaway totes.

So there you have the best client appreciation event ideas to entertain your guests. Each of them is enjoyable and engaging with tons of audience interaction, leaving your clients relaxed and happy, and without burning a $10,000+ hole in your corporate entertainment budget.

Jon Finch is a professional mentalist and corporate magician based out of Indianapolis.

Finch offers entertainment for client appreciation events throughout the Midwest, sharing his creative brand of magic, mentalism, comedy, and pickpocketing.

Fill out the contact form below to contact Jon and receive a response within 24 hours.

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