In corporate events, we are witnessing a troubling paradox. While French live entertainment recorded €2.4 billion in ticket sales in 2024, some corporate events are racking up excessive budgets without generating the expected impact. The race for “bigger, louder, more expensive” is becoming symptomatic of a loss of meaning that threatens the very essence of our profession: creating experiences that resonate.
Excessive use of resources can never compensate for a lack of vision.
Budget inflation in corporate events often reveals a fundamental confusion between means and ends. We have seen product launches where six-figure stage sets completely overshadowed the product itself. Guests were dazzled by the spectacle, but unable to recall the brand message a week later. This post-event amnesia is a warning sign of strategic failure, regardless of how elegantly the event was executed.
The events industry is currently experiencing major economic turbulence, with increasing pressure on budgets and a greater demand for return on investment. In this context, the mistake of overinvesting in decor at the expense of substance becomes unforgivable. Every dollar spent must serve the strategic objective, not satisfy the ego of a management committee.
The three symptoms of a drifting event
The first symptom is the proliferation of attractions with no narrative coherence. When an event piles on artistic performances, immersive installations, and technological devices without a common thread, the audience becomes overwhelmed by stimulation. Attention becomes fragmented, and memory collapses. We call this the “agency catalog” syndrome: an accumulation of individually impressive performances that do not tell a collective story.
Second symptom : obsession with the venue itself at the expense of the experience. Privatizing a historic monument or iconic Parisian venue can certainly make a lasting impression. But when the venue becomes the only thing guests talk about, it means the event has failed in its mission. The venue should amplify the message, never be an end in itself.
Third symptom : confusion between luxury and relevance. Vintage champagne and oysters do not guarantee participant engagement. We have seen lavish cocktail parties where no one discussed the company’s challenges, and simple but intelligently orchestrated lunches that generated strategic conversations for months.
Our criteria for excellence: striking the right balance between boldness and caution
We define event excellence using a simple equation: emotional impact multiplied by message retention, divided by budget and environmental footprint. This formula guides every creative and operational decision we make.
Our first criterion: clarity of intention. Before designing any device, we ask the fundamental question: “What do we want participants to feel, understand, and do after the event?” This intention becomes our guiding star. Every element of the scenography, every artistic choice, every moment of programming must serve this intention or be removed from the project.
Our second criterion: sensory consistency. A successful event orchestrates the five senses in harmony to reinforce the brand message. When the visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, and tactile elements tell the same story, the impact is multiplied without requiring additional budget. This consistency requires more strategic thinking than financial resources.
Our third criterion: genuine emotion. In a world saturated with content and experiences, only genuine emotions create lasting memories. We systematically reject “spectacular” devices that aim for the “wow” effect without emotional depth. A moment of sincere vulnerability from a leader is often worth more than a five-figure fireworks display.
Knowing how to say no : the art of creative subtraction
Event excellence often lies in what we decide not to do. We cultivate the art of creative subtraction: removing anything that does not amplify the central message. This intellectual discipline requires courage, as it sometimes means giving up appealing ideas in order to preserve the power of the message.
We say no to impressive but useless technologies. Holography, virtual reality, and interactive installations are powerful tools when they serve the experience. When they become gadgets to impress internal stakeholders, they dilute the impact and drain the budget.
We say no to overloaded programs. An event that tries to say everything ends up communicating nothing. We favor breathing space, informal exchanges, and moments of personal reflection. These seemingly empty spaces are actually the most valuable, as they allow each participant to take ownership of the message.
We say no to artistic performances that are unrelated to the subject matter. A world-renowned artist adds no value if they do not embody the brand’s values or the event’s message. The celebrity status of the performer should never replace the relevance of their contribution to the overall experience.
The delicate balance between ambition and relevance
Our job is to strike a delicate balance between creative boldness and strategic rigor. This balance is based on three operational principles that we systematically apply in our designs.
First principle: the “one big gesture” rule. Every event should have one spectacular, memorable moment, but only one. This moment becomes the emotional anchor of the experience, the memory that everyone will take away with them. Multiplying these moments dilutes their power and exponentially increases costs without improving memorability.
Second principle: invisible investment. The best events are those where excellence is hidden in the details: smooth transitions, acoustic quality, thermal comfort, anticipating needs before they are expressed. These invisible elements often represent 40% of the budget but generate 80% of participant satisfaction.
Third principle: systematic impact measurement. From the outset, we incorporate performance indicators that go beyond immediate satisfaction. These include message recall after 30 days, changes in brand perception, post-event conversations, and conversion into concrete actions. These metrics enable us to continually refine our understanding of what really works.
In event planning, as in all forms of excellence, mastery is demonstrated by the ability to choose rather than accumulate. Our role is not to deploy every possible resource, but to select the right ones that will truly elevate the experience. It is this creative discipline, this boldness in restraint, that transforms an event into an experience that resonates long after the final applause.
_ Audace Parisienne
