Company meeting, awards celebration, fundraiser—many business gatherings are annual affairs, and the best way to keep them fresh is to create a theme.

Twin Cities event planners say they’re fielding an ever-growing number of requests for themed corporate events. The key is figuring out how elaborate to go.

Space cowboy, Coachella, “Under the Sea,” and Summer in Italy are all event themes Chowgirls has helped to execute recently, says Linsday Erstad, sales manager for the Minneapolis-based catering company. Each event requires creative thinking around every detail, from menu to decor and entertainment.

Erstad says the greatest challenge as a catering company is matching food and drink to the theme. She gave the example of an all-purple themed event, saying there are only so many different foods and drinks someone can make that are purple or have purple elements. You never want to go so extreme on the theme that quality gets compromised.

That’s why Char Mason of St. Paul-based Mason Creative gets practical with clients before she starts dreaming up ideas.

“Time and money often drive a lot of decision-making,” Mason says. “You could come up with a fabulous theme that costs a million dollars, but if their budget is $35,000, it’s not going to work.”

D’Amico Hospitality senior event planner Christie Altendorf says her strategy to coming up with a theme is to understand why people are gathering and what her clients want the takeaway from the event to be.

“It’s really important to understand what and, more importantly, who you’re working with in order to really wrap your head around what the actual event will be and should be,” Altendorf says.

“At the end of the day, these events are about having fun.”

—Lindsay Erstad, Chowgirls

The venue itself can help to inspire or shape a theme, Altendorf adds. Event planners are adept at weaving the theme through the little details of the event. For example, Altendorf talked about incorporating the architecture of the venue into the decor, making the venue feel like it’s part of the theme.

Twin Cities event planners see themes come and go, often depending on popular movies, shows, and other cultural touchpoints. But to keep it simple and timeless, there’s always theming around a color, says Mason, who recently executed that aforementioned all-purple corporate event. The decor incorporated various shades of purple. Guests were encouraged to dress in purple—a way to connect everyone in attendance, and inspire them to show some creativity.

Another idea is to build off of a company’s brand or logo, highlighting the deeper meaning behind what that company represents, Chowgirls’ Erstad says.

When planning events, Caroline Correia, director of business development for Minneapolis-based BeEvents, says she focuses on the emotion she wants the audience to feel. She pegs connection as the overarching goal as she strives to allow space for self-expression and interactions between employees at the events she plans.

Food and drink are key factors to consider when picking a theme, Erstad says. Chowgirls offers seasonal menus, so Erstad encourages her clients to see if that inspires a theme.

The degree to which a theme is incorporated, and the level of help event planners provide to business clients varies considerably.

At D’Amico, Altendorf says event planners should act as a guide for clients, advising them however they can and making sure they understand the process to set them up for success. She says always being on the same page as clients is the most important part.

At BeEvents, clients book the venue and oversee inviting guests while Correia says her team takes care of creative concepts, designing, and production. At Chowgirls, Erstad says the team is involved every step of the way.

“We want to be there for them because planning events like these can be stressful,” Erstad said. “We want them to be successful. At the end of the day, these events are about having fun, and we want them to be able to do just that.”

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