When designing tenant appreciation events on a shoestring, you always want to get the biggest bang for your buck. Local Affairs has been working with building owners and property managers for going on nine years now. We have developed a wide variety of tenant appreciation events and have learned some creative ways to make that economical budget stretch.

We have listed here a few ideas you may want to incorporate into your next event. Though these will not all apply to your situation, they may spark an idea to help you with a concept you are creating.

1. The first question you need to ask yourself is - What are we trying to accomplish?  Is this event to show our appreciation - to attract future tenants - to give you and your staff the opportunity to socialize with people in the building or could it include all of the above?

Whatever the reason, it's important when you have a tight budget to focus on the answer to this question. Another question you may want to ask yourself is, do we want to concentrate on the corporate leaders or all the employees of the tenants in the building?

2. Choose a theme that will be cost effective. At one particular event we call "Dogs & Cream", we served 1/4 pound hot dogs with ice cream sundaes for dessert. In this case, the food was kept light and the emphasis was put on the fun. The tenants had a ball stepping up to our ping-pong ball batting cage or having portrait of themselves created by a caricature artist.

3. You may want to have a more elegant event that is still cost effective. This is especially important   during the holiday season. Have a variety of delicious cheesecakes on  serving tables decorated to the holiday theme or set up a espresso bar with oversized muffins. Add some light entertainment such as a flute and harp to create the ambience you want.

4. Keep your event reasonably short. One and a half to two hours is about right. To go any longer will increase your overhead for entertainment, food, labor and the like. Also, to maximize your participation level you may not want to have a lengthily program. People will not be able to stay long and if they are coming down throughout the day your event could look pretty sparse. This will also keep the food fresh and attractive for all your guests.

5. Have you and your staff do the serving. You can save some on costs by taking care of the serving yourselves. This is a great way to get to know your tenants. In this way you will be sure to meet and greet all the people in the building.

But be weary, this could also leave the wrong impression. You may come off as being a little cheap or un-professional. A lot will depend on your personalities and presentation.

6. Saving with multiple buildings. If you have a number of buildings within close proximity to each other, you may want to schedule all your parties on the same day, one after the other. This will save on costs for entertainment, staffing, etc.. as they can readily move from one event to the next without to much effort.

7. Retain an event coordinator to put it all together. This will be a little bit self serving on our part but using an event company like Local Affairs can make life a lot easier. For about the same cost of putting in the hours and work it would take you and your staff to host an event,  Local Affairs could do everything.

We have a long established relationships with a number of vendors. We can save you time, money and the headaches.

Besides "We Do It All!," we have a saying "Be A Guest At Your Own Party." This means we do everything from planning and sending invitations, to ordering the rentals, entertainment, refreshments and clean-up.

We do it all, from setup to cleanup. All you have do is show up and enjoy the fun!

Celebrate the moment