Fall is the ideal season for planning a corporate event. The weather in New York is as close to perfect as weather ever is, and the fiery colors outdoors are magnificent. Everyone welcomes the chance to let their hair down a little as the year winds to a close, and harvesting time opens up a host of catering and theme possibilities. 

If you’re planning a business meeting, employee appreciation event, trade show exhibit or other  corporate event in New York, New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island or Connecticut for this fall and are browsing around for inspiration, look no further. We’ve put together a short but punchy list of our favorite crowd-pleasing fall themes for corporate events, complete with ideas for activities, catering and décor.

Savor some vintages.

Wine experts tell us that full-bodied whites and light- to medium-bodied reds should be relished in the fall. 

Activity ideas: Plan a cheese-and-wine evening, a fancy sit-down dinner (we recommend doing this if your guest list is minimal as catering costs can pile up) or recruit an expert to enlighten everyone on the finer points of what they’re enjoying.

Catering suggestions: make wine the star of the show by serving some well-planned pairings. Ask your wine vendor for specific dishes or delicacies that pair beautifully with the wine you’ll be serving.

Décor key points: rich dark reds, chocolate brown, golds and clean white, with crisp linen, bouquets of autumn flowers, and candles. 

Nature love.

Fall is an incredible time to appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors. 

Activity ideas: take the team for a guided nature tour or even tackle a hiking trail together. 

Catering suggestions: host a traditional fall feast with all the trimmings, served buffet-style outdoors.

Décor key points: richly colored dried leaves, fresh foliage, pinecones and nuts. 

Everyone loves pie.

So cater with a pie bar! 

Activity ideas: Guests assemble the pies of their dreams. Plan a pie-tasting competition to finish the night off.

Catering suggestions: serve mini pie crusts, an array of fillings, and mountains of whipped cream. 

Décor key points: loads of rustic raw wood and glass bowls filled with colorful fall fruit. Write out the menu and other messages on chalk boards and display these on tables and at entrances.

Enjoy the dreamy weather with a bonfire.

No-one can resist the fascination of a blazing fire, and all the trappings that go with it!

Activity ideas: entertain with a football game projected onto a large screen, and kick the standard entertainment up a notch by booking a professional country singer to serenade your guests.

Catering suggestions: marshmallows, popcorn, and gourmet hotdogs!

Décor key points: sawn-off logs and loads of electric lamps and fairy lights.

Harvest time.

There’s a plentitude of irresistible delicacies that are in season in the fall. Catering with food in season is not only budget-friendly, it benefits the environment. 

Activity ideas: you could start the day with a trip to a nearby farm where guests can enjoy the sunshine while harvesting produce to take home. End it all off with a pumpkin carving competition.

Catering suggestions: Prepare fruits and vegetables that are in season, and some meaty roasts and fresh local fish. Pair with craft beers and ciders.

Décor key points: pumpkins, nuts, sheaves of wheat and colorful dried leaves.

Here’s the secret to hosting an incredibly successful corporate event in the fall: include some exceptional hot drinks catering! Coffee and hot chocolate are relished any time of the year, but really come into their own in the fall and winter. We offer delicious, top-quality hot chocolate and coffee catering in NYC, so if you’re planning an event in New York City this fall, head over to coffeesandsmoothies.com to check out our irresistible drinks menu and book a mobile hot chocolate and coffee bar. We’ll set up anywhere in metro NYC and serve up some magic that will keep your guests warm and delighted.

If you’re planning a New York, New Jersey of Connecticut corporate event this coming season and are scouring the web for unique ideas, you should try cutting straight to the point and making coffee and hot chocolate the stars of the show. Because let’s face it, for a fall event you’re going to have steaming mugs of liquid comfort available anyway, so why not host the ultimate coffee and hot chocolate event with all the delectable trappings! Whether you’re having a corporate meeting or an employee appreciation event, a warm treat in a mug brings pleasure and comfort to everyone. It’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Here are our top tips for hosting the ultimate coffee and hot chocolate themed corporate event.

Know your hot chocolate blends.

Not all drinking chocolate mixes are created equal. If your drinks are going to be the center of attention, go for luxury and pick mixes that will impress. The Spruce Eats has an in-depth article featuring seven of the very best hot chocolate blends.

Variety is key when it comes to coffee.

Anyone who routinely brews up a cup of Joe with family or friends knows that everyone likes their coffee differently. To please everybody, serve a wide variety of coffees at your event. This informative article describes the eleven most popular ways to make coffee.

An excellent blend makes a solid starting point for your coffee catering.

No matter what type of coffee you’re serving, it’s only as good as your coffee grounds. Here’s how to choose quality! 

Add flavors for a unique experience.

Ramp up the deliciousness with an array of flavorings that your guests can select from. Coffee syrups are an enormously popular way to make something extra special out of your cup of Joe, and there are a multitude of mouth-watering recipes out there that add variety to a mug of hot chocolate.

Finish it off with toppings.

Because toppings are the cherry on the cake, so to speak! Have a spread of treats laid out for your guests to spoon or sprinkle onto their drinks. Here are some ideas to get you started. 

Enlist some help.

We highly recommend hiring a professional drinks caterer to help you serve guests at your corporate event. Professional catering is wonderfully polished, the recipes and blends just work, and of course, there’s no hassle! We do coffee and hot chocolate catering in New York City, setting up our mobile bars at corporate events of all sorts and sizes. We have an enormous menu of irresistible treats – check it out! We use Ghiradelli chocolate mixes, a premium quality drinking chocolate that is a beloved among hot chocolate connoisseurs for its luxurious, intensely flavorful creaminess. We also boast unique Hawaiian coffee blends that delight our clients. For corporate events catering in NYC that will help create an experience your guests will relish and remember, book one of our mobile hot chocolate or coffee bars today at coffeesandsmoothies.com.

We know how dreary it can get in that office sometimes. Tasks are endless, chairs grow uncomfortable, the hours stretch on, and some days even feature heated clashes with dissatisfied clients or frustrated colleagues. Hard work and facing up to unpleasant chores are an essential part of adult life. 

According to Gallup, employees who feel unappreciated for the things they do or put up with are twice as likely to quit their jobs – and a staggering two out of every three employees in the US feel unrecognized for their contributions. Showing your employees some appreciation could be one of the most underestimated strategies for creating a happier workspace, which ultimately boosts your business’ success. Because we have your back, here are our most trusted employee appreciation ideas (plus some corporate event ideas for Employee Appreciation Day) that will brighten everyone’s day and make the work environment more pleasant. 

Before we get to that, though, here’s the most important thing you need to know about effective employee appreciation:

It needs to be genuine.

The reason why this is so crucial is because employees in general feel that only meaningful appreciation actually counts. To be meaningful, appreciation needs to be based on something they’ve achieved – even if that was “Sunniest Attitude of the Week” – and your praise or gratitude needs to be heartfelt. You may need to make a little extra effort to find out a bit more a out your employees, their lives, goals and accomplishments, so that you can reward their efforts in a way that makes them feel recognized and valued.

Once you have a little insight into real ways your employees add to your business, here are some simple, effective employee appreciation ideas to help you show them you appreciate them.

Gifts

Everyone likes to be surprised with a little something special they can take home and enjoy. Here is a Pinterest board stocked with inspiration for inexpensive employee appreciation gifts, and here are some tried and trusted favorites.

Praise

Whether it comes from you or their colleagues, heartfelt praise is one of the most powerful ways to make someone feel noticed and valued. The best work environments are ones that have innovative systems in place that take the effort and awkwardness away from commending people’s contributions and strengths. Here’s a list of brilliant recognition ideas that work for other companies.

Entertainment

Every so often, take a couple of hours or even a day off to have some fun together. It’s the best way to say you feel they’ve worked hard, and they deserve a break. This article has loads of inspiration on how to take everyone’s mind off work for a little while and bring some fun into the office, and this one is stocked with corporate event ideas for Employee Appreciation Day.

Treats

Few culinary delights are as universally enjoyed a good cup of coffee: and this is particularly true in an office environment during a tough week or dreary day, when everyone could do with a caffeine kick and some warm, delicious comfort. If you’re planning an Employee Appreciation Day and you’re looking for corporate event ideas, good coffee should be somewhere at the top of your list too. If you’re organizing corporate catering in New York City, book one of our Maui Wowi mobile coffee bars at coffeesandsmoothies.com and spoil your employees with some dreamy coffee catering. We offer corporate catering in NYC where we set up at your location and brew some magic with our unique Hawaiian coffee and wide range of menu options. We do smoothies and Acai bowls too, so visit our site, take a look at the catering we offer, and book a treat that will help to say “thank you – you’re valued” to your employees. 

There’s one small but incredibly effective thing you need to do if you’re planning the catering for a morning event: book some professional coffee catering.

There’s no doubt about it, if coffee was a person, it would be an A-list celebrity. With hordes of fans clamoring for photos, flashing paparazzi bulbs it just can’t escape, and red carpets everywhere. So, if you’re hosting a morning event, make sure the world’s most beloved drink gets the attention it deserves by making it the star of the show. Here’s exactly why you should book professional coffee catering for your next corporate brunch – and where to do that. 

It’s hassle free.

You won’t have to worry about stocking mountains of cream, sugars and sweeteners, or coffee grounds, and making sure that Mississippi-sized river of steaming water is topped up and available to your guests. You won’t have to worry about cleaning or buying cups and teaspoons. You won’t have to worry about whether your guests are satisfied, either, because ease and convenience are just the beginning of the benefits of hiring professional coffee catering.

The variety can’t compare.

The only way to be able to have a dozen or more coffee menu options for guests to enjoy is to get a professional coffee bar set up at your event location. Because coffee is so special and ritualistically enjoyed by nearly everybody, having variety to enjoy helps make an event memorable.

Quality bumps from low or mid-range to the upper echelons of deliciousness.

Even if you put a lot of thought into the coffee that you serve your guests, doing it yourself can’t match having a caterer who does it as a profession, on hand with carefully picked brews, specialty blends and toppings, and tons of recipes crafted and refined by drinks chefs. Coffee catering is an art: let’s give it the recognition it deserves.

The coffee becomes a feature.

Your guests have consumed uncountable cups of ordinary, indistinguishable coffee. Because it brings joy, comfort and energy, coffee is just begging to be used as an easy source of entertainment and pleasure that will make your morning event something special.

Here’s where to find exceptional professional coffee catering in NYC.

If you need to organize some breakfast catering in NYC, or you’re doing the planning for some small event catering in NYC, go to coffeesandsmoothies.com today to book a mobile coffee bar! We’ve witnessed time and again when we do breakfast catering in New York City how our amazing Hawaiian coffee weaves a special kind of magic that soothes the rush of the event, gets guests chatting about their lives to each other, and fills people with fresh energy. We set up at your event, eliminate the hassle of in-house coffee service, and become a feature that adds to what your guests will remember and enjoy about the day.

When you’re hosting a corporate event like an employee appreciation day, the activities you’ve planned can make the difference between a get-together that will be forgotten in a couple of weeks, or an experience that forms genuine connections and is reminisced over for years to come. It can be tough to come up with ideas that seem fresh and interesting, though, especially if you’ve planned lots of corporate meetings in the past and have already used and reused your favorite ideas. We’re here to help inspire you with three ways to plan activities that will surprise and delight your guests.

• Facilitate connections between people.

Relational connection always has the potential to be meaningful. Plan activities that get people to have some one-on-one interaction with someone else in the conference – even if it’s not face to face.

• Have a “thank you bar” where guests can pick from a selection of humorous or witty thank you cards and write a short note of appreciation to a colleague. Collect the cards, and mail them after the event.
• For the event catering, plan a company picnic (if the event is indoors, no problem – an indoor picnic is just as fun). Pack picnic baskets, each one holding a large picnic blanket and goodies for four or five people. Guests will need to find others to share their picnic with them.

• Tap into the inner child.

Corporate life is laden with adult pressures and responsibilities, so help your guests unwind by doing something whimsical. Something which they probably loved to do as a child, and possibly haven’t done for many years. 

• Give out adult coloring books and colored pencils. Guests can use them at the event, and take them home when it’s over.
• Set up badge decorating stations. Guests can dress up their badges and tap into their creativity with colorful beads, colored sand and some fast-drying craft glue.
• Suspend giant swings from the roof. Guests can enlist the help of their colleagues and revel in some childlike fun. Make sure safety requirements are met for this reminiscent activity!

• Break records.

If you’re hosting an event that’s going to be packed, make it truly memorable by trying for a mass participation world record. You can submit your record to the Guinness World Records, recordsetter.com, or any other recognized record keeper. To make sure you qualify, check out the rules before planning the activity. Here are some fun mass participation ideas.

• Hold up colored boards to create a message or an image.
• Form a massage train.
• Beat out a rhythm on paper cups.

If you’re planning a New York event, we do coffee catering in New York City. We arrive at your NYC event location and set up a mobile coffee bar.  Whether you’re planning breakfast catering for a small event or a large group, we can provide espresso drinks and breakfast smoothies made to order. Your guests can take their pick from our wide selection of menu options, relax, and enjoy the fragrant magic of our unique Hawaiian coffees.

What could be better than a spiked espresso coffee for your corporate event? Maui Wowi has been catering corporate and social events in the New York metro area for almost two decades. Our espresso coffee bar is ideal for corporate meetings and trade events, as well as social events like weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs.

Here are some of our favorite espresso cocktail ideas for you to choose from.

• A taste of the Caribbean.

• Maui Wowi Chilled espresso
• Coconut cream
• Cardamom seeds
• Dark rum
• Brown sugar
• Ice
• Shaved coconut garnish 

Sweet, spicy, yet laid-back, this drink tastes like a holiday on an exotic beach.

• Country garden.

• Pear infused vodka
• Maui Wowi Chilled espresso
• Fine sugar
• Sprig of rosemary
• Crushed ice

This earthy mix is simple, yet unique.

• Summer in Marrakesh.

• Rum
• Chili infused liqueur
• Lemon juice
• Brown sugar
• Maui Wowi Espresso
• Ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• Shaved lemon zest and dark chocolate garnish

Begin this bold drink by setting the rum on fire.

• Boozy raspberries for dessert.

• Vodka
• Maui Wowi Chilled espresso
• Cacao liqueur
• Raspberry liqueur
• Vanilla seeds
• Cream

Delicate, velvety and sweet, this is a drink to satisfy those who believe dessert is the best part of a meal.

• French cafe.

• Maui Wowi Hot espresso
• Cognac
• Amaretto liqueur
• Whipped cream and shaved almonds

A mix that is warm, soothing, and heavenly.

• Ginger orange ice.

• Maui Wowi Chilled espresso
• Orange bitters
• Orange liqueur
• Vodka
• Ginger syrup
• Heavy cream
• Ice

Serve this drink with a garnish of preserved ginger and kumquat threaded onto a cocktail stick.

• A gift from the Irish.

• Maui Wowi Espresso
• Irish whiskey
• Demerara sugar
• Whipped cream

Our list wouldn’t be complete without this classic, served strong, sweet and hot.

We do coffee catering in New York City, Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester and beyond, and our espresso liquor drinks are a trending favorite among our clients. Espresso catering in New York inspires flexibility and creativity in caterers, and we are always growing to keep in tune with the evolving trends and colorful tastes that are at the heart of our home city. Pleasing guests is an art, and we have it down.

If you’re hosting an event in New York and would like to wow your guests with some popular espresso liquor drinks that will knock their socks off (in all the best ways), go to coffeesandsmoothies.com  today to order a mobile espresso bar. We will set up at any New York location and create a corner of magic where your guests can take their pick from our wide variety of menu options, and indulge.

You’ve heard the expression, “Go Big or Stay Home.”  Summer is definitely GOBOSH time for Maui Wowi’s mobile smoothie bar, especially for corporate events in the New York City metro area, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  In this part of the country, the summer steams and you need BIG refreshment to get your people out of the doldrums.  Everybody waits for Friday to roll around so they can hit the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore (or perhaps the Cape and P-Town for those in the northern part of the metro area).  But that leaves a lot of hot daylight on Monday through Thursday to slog through.

Everyone loves our fresh-blended smoothies this time of year. We’re breaking out our special edition “tiki cups” – which are FOUR TIMES larger than our regular serving size for corporate and social events. Twenty-eight ounces of pina colada, strawberry banana, mango orange, frozen cappuccino, peach, black raspberry, or frozen lemonade. Mix and match flavors to create unique combinations. And your guests get to keep the cool souvenir cups.

Our souvenir cups have a limited time availability (after the summer, they’re done!), so do something BIG and BOLD for your people — whether an employee appreciation day, health and wellness fair,  grad party, or any other special event you’re planning.

It’s summer, when a young man or woman’s thoughts turn to….smoothies. Especially if you’re an HR manager or a sales team leader in a corporate office filled with overheated employees who were waiting for the R train this morning or were delayed on the LIRR on the one car that didn’t have air conditioning.

So, you start thinking about how to do something special for your people, or maybe for a special client. “Smoothies!” comes to mind. And then you think, “I’ll have smoothies delivered by the local takeout juice place a few blocks away. Let us tell you why this is a bad idea and why you should plan a smoothie event featuring Maui Wowi’s mobile smoothie bar.

Why Takeout Smoothies Don’t Work

We commend you for your creative thinking and wanting to do an employee appreciation gesture.  But there are a few problems with the takeout approach.

1. Deliveries can be slow. Yes, you can ask the local juice bar for 50 smoothies, but that’s not what they’re set up to do. If they take your order at all, they will have a hard time making them and getting them to you fast. And fast is important in the smoothie biz. Even if they can make them, getting into buildings these days is not so easy. There’s security, then the line at the freight elevator, and getting the receptionist to call you, and you having to get everyone together. Delays are bad for smoothies! If you’re not drinking your smoothie within minutes of its being blended, it will start breaking apart and lose its appeal. Yuck.
2. Bad for the earth. Many delivered smoothies come in Styrofoam cups to preserve the cold. We don’t have to tell you this is a disaster for the planet. We make ours in compostable cups. These cups can’t be delivered because they’ll literally melt in the sun! 
3. A gesture is not an event. Even if you manage to get smoothies delivered to your office, what then? Your people grab and go. Like the virtual tree falling in the forest when there’s no one around. Your gesture didn’t make a sound! Why? Because you didn’t create an event around it.
4. Takeout means not customized. If you order a bunch of smoothies for the office in different flavors, there’s going to be someone who wanted strawberry but there was only a pineapple smoothie left. Sad!

The list goes on. But there’s a better way.

A Maui Wowi mobile smoothie bar offers a number of great features:

1. Maui Wowi is an event for your employees or special clients. We come to your office with our mobile tiki bar and custom-make smoothies in flavors of your employees’ choice (we usually offer three or four).  Our bar and servers create a fun atmosphere.
2. People hang out….and talk. Ever notice people texting from 12 inches away? Give their thumbs a break and let them hang out at the tiki bar and socialize! It’s good for productivity if people talk and like each other more.
3. What if you don’t have space or don’t want the tiki bar? We only need a small space and an electric outlet for our bar. We can set up in a break room or conference room. But if you don’t want the bar, no problem. We can use a kitchen area and make our smoothies fresh, put lids and straws in them (and a colorful parasol) and have them ready to drink. No delivery delays.

BTW, the same applies for takeout coffee drinks from FourBucks. (I think they have renamed it FiveBucks). Those lattes are not gonna be hot, folks. How about having a mobile espresso bar at your office with expert baristas, all the customization your people want, a choice of syrups, sauces, whipped cream, milks and sweeteners.  Spare them your break-room coffee and make a coffee event with a mobile Maui Wowi espresso bar.

As head of HR, you’re always keeping your eyes peeled for fresh ideas to mix into your next corporate event. You know that to impress clients and make sure colleagues are having an awesome, productive time, corporate meetings and business functions need to be memorable, meet everyone’s needs and sometimes, include a touch of something different. So we suggest hopping on the bandwagon of one creamy, colorful and purely delicious health food trend: acai bowls. In this article, we’re going to lay out why acai bowl are exactly what you need when you’re arranging the catering for a corporate morning event, wellness event, corporate health fair or breakfast-time client or employee appreciation event.

• Acai bowls are arguably the hottest foodie trend right now.

Including acai bowls on your menu is going to impress everyone. People who have already tasted acai will be delighted with having one of their favorite breakfasts on the cards, and those who haven’t will be excited to finally try the eye-popping trend that’s been appearing all over their Instagram feed.  Clearly, you know your stuff. 

• They’re loaded with health benefits.

Acai has been dubbed a superfood, and while that’s a term that’s sometimes thrown around a little loosely, this Brazilian berry really does pack a punch. That is to say, an awesomely beneficial punch. Serve acai bowls, and health addicts will pat you on the back, while the guys and girls who would eat ice cream for breakfast, will be pleased to know that they can practically do so – but without that large sprinkling of guilt. Clients and colleagues will be invigorated, revitalized and fueled up for a day of focus and discussion.

• Did we mention that they taste like ice cream?

Acai bowls are so delicious that they ought to be a dessert… but they’re not, they’re a thick, punchy breakfast smoothie loaded with nutrients, topped with fruit, granola or nut butters, and served in a bowl. They’re dreamy, richly creamy and filling, a treat that will have your guests reminiscing over your menu long after it’s all over.

• They’re quick to make and eat.

Putting together a fresh acai bowl takes us about a minute. Because it’s so nutritious, it’s everything you need in a meal, right there in one dish. This makes it an especially good catering choice if you know your event is going to be busy, packed with back-to-back meetings, speakers and activities, and your guests will need to grab an energizing bite on the go.

We know you’re left with just one question: how can I get some trendy acai bowls served at my next corporate event? We’re here for you: acai bowls are now a highly-in-demand section of our smoothie mobile catering service. We use our all-natural black raspberry smoothie blend plus organic acai and fresh fruits for our acai bowl. Book a Maui Wowi mobile smoothie bar at coffeesandsmoothies.com, and we’ll set up at your event. Guests can choose their favorites from our range of menu options, and we’ll serve them some colorful, creamy vitality in a bowl.