Event Profs Share Their Wildest Event Ideas—That Actually Worked

Two decades ago, a wild idea popped into Nuno Bettencourt’s head: What if he hosted a music festival inside an ancient volcano crater?

At the time, the Portuguese American artist, songwriter, and producer—most known for his time with the band Extreme—was exploring Sete Cidades, a 3-mile volcanic crater in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in his birthplace of Azores, Portugal. While walking across a bridge that separated the crater’s two lakes, Bettencourt took in the space’s ecologically rich beauty and noticed it created something resembling a natural amphitheater. A dream was born.

In 2022, Bettencourt made that dream a reality, hosting the first-ever Atlantis Concert for Earth, a nonprofit concert and global conservation celebration that took place inside the remote location that had never before hosted an event of that scale. The concert drew a sold-out crowd of 10,000 people along with headliners Black Eyed Peas, Pitbull, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, and Nicole Scherzinger. Check out our 2022 interview with Bettencourt and co-producer Rene M. Rigal—who described the project as “a beautiful balletic chaos"—here.Photo: Rui Pedro Soares

To event professionals, the concept of having a wild idea at a random moment—and then making it a reality—might sound familiar. We asked readers to share some of their most ambitious, outlandish event ideas; here are some of our favorites. 

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1. A haunted island—with Mother Nature as a supporting character

Immersive theater expert Richard Crawford, artistic director of DesignScene and Secret Theatre, fondly recalls the first show Secret Theatre hosted in Hong Kong—which had an unexpected assist from Mother Nature. "Guests were picked up at a pier by boat and taken to a spooky, haunted island where there was an imaginary serial killer running loose. Then, halfway through, Mother Nature decided to add her dramatic flair, with a typhoon storming in!" he recalled.

The typhoon trapped guests on the island much longer than anticipated, as boats weren't allowed to pick them up until the storm had passed. As guests squeezed into various rooms of the haunted house to keep warm, the cast and crew decided to keep the fun going. "[We] pushed through the show and improvised as the rain pummelled people's umbrellas. Everyone got really wet but stayed in great spirits and went home really happy," said Crawford. "It was an absolute blast!"

What did he learn from the experience? "Go big and be brave!" he said. "This first show put us on the map and on the front cover of a few magazines. That's the magic of a fully immersive theater experience!"

2. Intentionally ugly artwork to promote a hotel brand

Today, Eric Wielander is the vice president of strategy and creative for Eventique—but in a previous PR job, he was working with Wyndham Hotel Group, parent company of Super 8. "We were asked if we could stage an 'ugly art fair' for Super 8, which was undergoing room transformations and replacing random art with images representing the region," he explained. "We put a team together who sourced as much artwork as the franchisee owners were willing to give us, from bland landscape and waterfall prints to large oil paintings to a bizarre 3D sculpture, and set up a gallery in NYC."

The idea was to get people to take home this intentionally "tacky" art, so the team hired comedian Amy Sedaris to act as the authenticator, certifying that the work came from a Super 8 location in North America and handing the art over to guests once they chose their piece from the collection. "The next night, Amy went on Fallon and handed Jimmy her personal favorite, a painting of a deer in a forest," Wielander said. "The client loved it so much we did it all over again with some Bob Ross twists during Art Basel Miami."

3. A pie-in-the-sky dessert idea—literally

JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in southwest Florida is known for its out-of-the-box event ideas, including a helicopter that dropped thousands of orchid petals onto spectators below. But one idea that truly stands out? The hotel's "desserts from the sky" presentation. Before the room is opened to guests, the culinary team sets a 50-foot-long table with a dessert display, which is then concealed out of guests' view via rigging from the ceiling. At the appropriate time, the table is slowly lowered to reveal the spread.

Check out a video of the unique offering: 

4. An out-of-this-world stage setup

When Matthew Byrne, the founder and president of Byrne Production Services, was producing the opening ceremony of the International Astronautical Congress a few years back, he was conscious of the fact that the venue's intimate, soft-seat theater didn't quite align with the conference's theme of "We Need More Space." So, his team came up with the idea of making the earth rise onstage for the opening ceremony. 

"We proposed using photo mapping to project an image on a large panoramic screen that covered the entire proscenium opening of the main stage, so that when the audience walked into the space, it looked like there was nothing onstage, seeing a mapped image of the bare stage wall and work lights," he explained. "To really sell the look and idea, at the last minute, we asked one of the stage crew from the venue to walk back and forth by the screen to make the visual trick work."

When the hosts of the opening ceremony took the stage, they spoke about needing more space for the event. "Touching the screen with their finger cued a ripple effect on the screen that dissolved the image into a video of deep space. The camera view then flew through the solar system from Pluto all the way to the orbit of Earth, where Earth rose as the backdrop of the main stage on a deep star field," said Byrne. "As an event professional, it was the best feeling in the world to have the audience audibly gasp as that moment happened."

5. A custom-designed roller rink at a conference party 

For Intuit's signature Get Connected event series, Evan Babins—the brand's event manager—wanted to think outside of the box in terms of attendee engagement and activations. "You always see the same things at parties within conferences or events, and I really wanted ours to stand out," he said.

With the help of Mitch Masters from Track Avenue, Babins decided to introduce a custom-designed, 20-by-40-foot indoor roller rink that served as the focal point of the celebration event. "We rigged giant disco balls above the roller rink, and guests were able to roller-skate all night long in small groups," he said. "It was a major risk having a roller rink inside of a celebration experience with alcohol being served, and I can tell you that the 27 emails back and forth with our legal, compliance, and insurance teams would agree. All in all, it was totally worth pursuing the activation, people loved it, and I still get comments about it four months later." Evan Babins built a custom-designed indoor roller rink in the middle of a conference.Photo: Courtesy of Evan Babins

6. A cheeky nod to the competition

EJ Oelling, vice president of ABX for 6sense, is no stranger to wild ideas. At a recent user conference, for example, she used Bizzabo's Klik SmartBadges to pulse to the beat of the music, briefly distracting guests while drones were released in the sky for what she calls an "unreal drone show." But one stunt at a third-party conference took boldness to new heights.

"I decided to park in a box truck in front of one of our competitors, and branded the entire truck as a signage to direct people toward our event down the street," she said. "I permitted the whole street, did everything by the book, then had team members outside the truck offering free coffee or margaritas at our meeting space. It stirred a lot of emotions on LinkedIn, and was a little fun wink at the competition."

7. A graffiti-filled livery reveal

Earlier this year, NVE Experience Agency wanted to lean into experiential for the F1 livery reveal for the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team (VCARB) ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, the first U.S. race of the F1 season. "Inspired by the Cash App Visa Chameleon Card, we transformed a local car wash in Wynwood into the 'VCARB Wash' for the weekend to showcase the one-off livery," explained creative director Melissa Murphy.  

"We collaborated with a local artist to cover the livery in graffiti, completely concealing the design. For the grand reveal, the car went through our custom car wash, where our pit crew worked their magic to unveil the vibrant, Chameleon Card-inspired design, creating a massive spectacle for the guests," she said. "VCARB was the only team in Miami to have an experiential livery reveal, generating significant buzz and conversion for Visa and Cash App while giving the VCARB team major clout."

The team pulled off the stunt in just four weeks, Murphy added. "An activation like this demands strong relationships and trust from clients. I knew it was a wild idea from the start, so we had to experiment constantly to get it right as a team," she said. "My biggest takeaway: Never stop learning, playing, and pushing boundaries." NVE Experiential Agency hosted a bold stunt at the Miami Grand Prix.Photo: Courtesy of NVE Experience Agency