Everyone loves picnics, so as the weather warms up planners might want to come up with creative ways to design and incorporate them into their groups’ itineraries.
Here are several inspiring examples, adapted from BizBash, that are sure to delight your attendees and provide a bounce to their entire meeting experience.
1. The Retreat at the Sparrows Lodge topped a table with floral arrangements, taper candlesticks, games and other objects to create a relaxed atmosphere during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the Southern California desert last year. The event also included a silk patchwork canopy for relaxed seating amid Native American artifacts, Persian rugs, succulents, kilim pillows and leather accents.
2. Appealing to people’s universal love for pets, Picnic by Design, a fund-raiser put on last year in New York City by Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), featured a cheerful picnic arrangement with a patterned doggy bed and accessories. Also, rather than featuring spring-like colors and patterns, organizers stepped out of the box by creating a minimalist design using gray felt. At DIFFA’s Picnic by Design event in Austin in 2014, Rebekah Gainsley of Blink Interiors covered a table with a hammock-like lace canopy with lights and potted plants.
3. Starbucks Canada used eye-catching golden fruit as a centerpiece when promoting its Teavan Sparkling Tea Juices at an event last summer.
4. Shock Top, an Anheuser Busch brand, provided simple citrus fruits in crates as tabletop decor when launching its summer seasonal Lemon Shandy beverage at a Ventura County lemon grove in Southern California last year. The guests played bocce ball, which blended perfectly with the casual event. Capitalizing on the outdoor scenery in the orchard, organizers took advantage of the orchard seating by providing an open frame as a photo prop to encourage guests to snap shots and share on social media.
5. The Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles in 2013 featured bunting hanging over 170 tables for 700 guests in the VIP picnic space.
6. When Adrienne Bosh hosted Glamchella, a motivational event in Miami last summer, she used bohemian-inspired decor, including textured table linens, Buddha sculptures, lanterns and jewel-toned cushions for seating.
7. Red-and-white checked linens topped tables for a classic picnic look at the American Diabetes Association’s annual Los Angles Political Roast in March 2015 in Beverly Hills.
8. Striving to encourage each participant to meet and eat with six others, organizers offered picnic baskets for groups of seven at TedActive in the Palm Springs area of California in 2013.
9. David Stark Designs set up a rooftop garden for a picnic-style event using Adam Lippes blankets, pillows, and travel bags at the Adam Lippes for Target preview in New York City last year.
10. Short rides on tethered hot-air balloons that were branded with the company’s logo were a hit at Stella Artois’ picnic-style alfresco event that launched its Host Beautifully campaign in Los Angeles in May 2015. Guests at the event dined at long, farm-style tables, which had no linens—but were instead topped with abundant white flowers.
