Think Tank

For a recent press event in Los Angeles, Paul Frank brought Starring Fragrances for a station that offered custom scents as takeaways for guests, based on their personal preferences.

After a long Oscar night, host Seth MacFarlane's official after-party included a station from Tkees, which encouraged guests to check their heels (similar to the way they would at a coat check) and pick up a pair of flip-flops—in gold, appropriate to the occasion.

At Stella McCartney's Resort 2013 presentation in New York, a cart overflowing with roses and peonies stood near the entrance to the venue. As guests left, they picked up small bouquets or single stems as festive gifts.

Looking to boost event proceeds, Miami Children's Hospital Foundation went beyond the basic silent auction by enlisting a group of hunky male volunteers to showcase auction items at its Wine, Women & Shoes event in February.

Colorful nail polish bottles filled champagne glasses at L'Oréal’s brunch planned by Joe Moller at the Viceroy EOS Restaurant in Miami.

At its Coachella party, Lacoste set up a nail art station, where guests could stop by for colorful, branded looks applied in a breezy white cabana.

The Vintage Table Company offers vintage china, glassware, and flatware sourced from estates, thrift stores, and flea markets, for a purposefully mismatched tabletop look.

Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS hosted its 16th annual Dining by Design event in New York, where Croscill's table got a bright pink quilted tablecloth and clear Chiavari chairs that gave the setup a look that resembled a canopy bed.

In Los Angeles in the days before Coachella kicked off, jewelry brand Haute Betts hosted a party with a floral garland-making station, where guests could create their own festival-ready looks—and wear them to contribute an on-brand, boho-chic atmosphere in the party space.

In the Toronto area, Vintage China Hire offers an eclectic mix of vintage and antique tableware for events and has partnered with Loic Gourmet to offer catered afternoon tea packages.

The recent Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows' 100th anniversary bash kicked off with a performance by the Aqualillies, a troupe of water ballerinas.

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Hot Pink Party in Boston honored Evelyn Lauder with displays of her favorite flower, peonies, which decorated tables along with orange roses.

A simple way to draw attention to an official hashtag is to place a call to action on a wall. Promotions like Wired magazine's pop-up, which took place in New York last November, used wall decals to encourage consumers to promote the store while on-site.

Signage is a more prominent way to direct guests to the designated hashtag, a strategy employed by last year's Sweetgreen festival in Maryland. The resulting tweets were broadcast on the large screens placed around the stage.

Increasingly common at events is the use of large video screens to display Twitter chatter. For the "Shops at Target" launch in New York on May 1, the producers took advantage of the IAC Building's 120-foot-long video wall to magnify posts marked with #TheShopsatTgt.

Services like Instaprint are popping up at many affairs, proving popular with guests as a tangible record of their active social media use. At a fashion show held by USA Network in New York, even the wall the machines were mounted on sported the hashtag, motivating curious attendees to snap a photo and post it via Instagram.

Staffers are a common sight at events, and some event producers have put hashtags on the outfits worn by greeters, caterwaiters, or even hosts. In February, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival advertised its official Twitter phrase on the T-shirts worn by participating chefs like Rocco DiSpirito.

The arrival areas of events involving celebrity guests tend to draw large crowds. To turn that to their advantage, the planners behind USA Network's upfront in New York placed a large canvas emblazoned with the official hashtag high above the carpet where passersby could see it.

Just as common as a red carpet are the rope-and-stanchion barricades that denote an entrance or V.I.P. area. Among the ways the Art Gallery of Ontario displayed the hashtag for its annual Massive Party fund-raiser on April 19, was the use of small signs placed atop stanchions.

The colorful plastic and paper wristbands used at concerts, festivals, and other big events can be customized to show a designated hashtag. To encourage guests at its Party in the Garden fund-raiser to upload photos via Instagram, the Museum of Modern Art in New York handed out entry bracelets printed with the hashtag #PitG2012.

Invitations and programs serve as physical reminders of an event's basic info—the date, time, location, and even dress code. An additional step would be to add the hashtag to such materials, which is what the Shorty Awards did in New York on March 26.

When the stage—or runway—is a central element of an event, a backdrop can call attention to something in a big way. The producers of USA Network's fashion presentation in New York on June 12 utilized the 60-foot-long LED video wall that served as the main decorative element of the catwalk to display its hashtag as well as the premiere date of show Suits.

Not every event has a stage, but any eye-catching area can be a smart spot to place a hashtag. That was the case with the June 5 release party for the Project X Xtended Cut DVD in Los Angeles. Produced by the Visionary Group, the backyard-bash-style affair for Warner Brothers and Break Media included an 18- by 10-foot pool, which had a banner marked with the event name and hashtag sitting at the bottom.

A more subtle approach is to use the hashtag on the cocktail napkins. The organizers of Travel & Leisure's first Social Media in Travel & Tourism Awards (the Smittys) in New York on June 7 made sure attendees saw the hashtag when grabbing a bite from a passing waiter or when taking a cocktail from the bar.

Similarly simple was the approach taken for the August 2011 press preview of Betsey Johnson's fragrance Too Too. The planners incorporated the event hashtag and the designer's official Twitter handle into the overall event design by placing the call to action in frames.

A playful, original idea created by the planners behind Travel & Leisure's Social Media in Travel & Tourism Awards replaced entrance bracelets with sweatbands and invited guests to embellish them with quirky pins, one of which displayed the hashtag.

Bars are almost always the most crowded areas of an event, and in addition to displaying the affair's signature cocktails, drink menus can be marked with a hashtag.

Splash C.E.O. Ben Hindman suggests engaging users at the event—and posting their interactions after the event is over as part of a strategy to build your event's S.E.O.