Choosing the right venue for a business event is critical—and, if location is the framework, then the theme is the wallpaper, lightning, and interior design for your whole effort. Once you have identified the key objectives for the event, it’s time to choose an identifiable and memorable theme.

The theme should coordinate with your objectives, be it “Back to the Future” recapping your year-end sales progress or “Don’t Stop Believing” circa 1981 to boost camaraderie at a corporate retreat.

Here are some best practices to help create a successful, endearing theme.

Choose a Tagline

Selecting a tagline that plays up the theme is crucial because it becomes the centerpiece idea from which the meeting presenters will focus on. The tagline must reinforce the key messages of the event and help solidify a clear call to action.

One great example, Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC), an award-winning nonprofit organization confronting limited service options for children with autism, held a fundraising gala at Guastavino’s in New York City to celebrate their corporate partners’ commitment to autism research. Their clear, concise tagline, which incorporated the autism puzzle piece symbol: Fitting Together.

Adopt a Color and Lighting Scheme

Whether you’re going for warm, uplifting colors (red, yellow, orange, green, gold) or cool, sophisticated palettes (blue, purple, indigo, black, silver), the colors should coordinate with the feeling the theme evokes.

Lighting greatly enhances the mood of an event. Research shows the amount of light in a room affects the regulation of emotions – bright light heightens emotional responses and alertness, soft light diffuses emotional responses and induces relaxation.

Whether you choose uplighting, texture lighting, pin-spot lighting or monogram lighting, the expert event coordinators at 583 Park Avenue can help to enhance your theme through breathtaking lighting schemes.

Create a Logo and Slide Template for Presenters

A logo helps visually assemble your message. (For example, see QSAC’s well-thought-out event logo for its Fitting Together gala.)

According to recent research published by MIT Sloan Management Review, a logo that showcases symbolic, functional or sensory benefits has a significant positive effect on customer commitment to a brand—and thereby a significant impact on company performance in terms of revenues.

Also, even if your presenters’ spoken presentations are well rehearsed, a bad visual presentation can spoil the experience for the audience. PowerPoint and similar slide applications are flexible tools that can be customized to match your theme.

Send Out Teaser Invitations

It’s a little sample of what’s to come designed to catch the attention of your audience. Your event is better than sliced bread, right? Your teaser invitation should make that known.

The teaser campaign should spur anticipation and awareness of the upcoming event with design elements and compelling copy tied to your theme. It should also include a call to action—most likely to RSVP.

With direct mail use consistent branding, font and images. With email be sure to make it multimedia rich, consider including theme or presenter related audio and video clips.

Coordinate Special Experiences Tied To the Theme

Is your event Broadway themed? Considering hiring actors and singers for reception or post-dinner entertainment. Make the event program look like a playbill. Snacks? Consider using concession-style popcorn machines.

For a sports theme, try setting up an open space where attendees can throw footballs or practice their short game on putting green mats. For food pairings try passable appetizers, gourmet burgers or grilled entrees.

Linking breakout events, meals and activities to the theme will help guests form lasting memories.

Give Door Gifts That Match the Theme

Imprinted corporate gifts will leave an indelible impression. Possessions can activate the recall of emotion. If people had positive experiences at the event, then seeing that pen, double wall tumbler, card deck or flash drive with the event logo can spur the memory and feeling of happiness. An emotional memory triggered by an object connects the person with the company represented by it.

Create a Follow-up Survey

Follow-up surveys measure if the proper messages were received. Survey response rates are usually between 10 – 30 percent and respondents can provide useful feedback. What went well at the event? Was the theme successfully incorporated? What were the key takeaways from the event?

Send the event survey within 24 hours to get the freshest impressions. Writing your survey in advance will help prompt delivery. Data collected from the survey will give direction to future events.

Make Recorded Key Messages From Presenters Available

Create a legacy of the event’s key presentations by making them available as Mp3 downloads or video links to sustain the messages.

If a speech was heard by the 300 people attending your event, its message and influence is limited to those individuals. You can exponentially grow your audience by making those speeches and presentations shareable via recordings.

Share highlights from speeches in audio-visual clips on social media or through email. According to Unruly Media’s 2014 Science of Sharing report, sharing of branded online video content has grown 22 percent, while the rate of sharing in the first three days has doubled.

These tips will help ensure your theme permeates throughout the entire event and creates an unforgettable experience for your audience.