Now for the cheap ideas! My last post was all about the outrageous and expensive, but I picked up a few inexpensive but valuable ideas at “The Special Event” conference as well.

Seat Incentives — getting event attendees to sit in the front row is always a challenge. No one wants to make that “commitment.” One of the speakers last week suggested using chocolate as seat incentives; only those in the first two rows receive it.

Break Incentives — Chocolate can also be used reward attendees for returning to the meeting room in time after breaks or lunch. Bottom line: people will do just about anything for chocolate! Use that to your advantage.

Executive Meet & Greet — Most employees rarely get to meet senior management in person. At the next all employee meeting, encourage your execs to serve as the welcome team at the door. To make them comfortable with this role, make sure everyone wears legible name tags and arm the execs with a 3’x5′ card of FAQs such as “when does the meeting start?”, “where do I sit?”, “where are the restrooms?”