Every topping-out ceremony is a big event – at least for the client. It almost goes without saying that you want to share this moment with friends, acquaintances, relatives or even customers and business partners. As a rule, this only works with an invitation letter. And the right words are crucial. Reason enough to take a closer look at it.
Basic
The topping out ceremony is something like a milestone in the construction of a building. This marks the completion of an important first phase of construction. It almost goes without saying that this of course needs to be celebrated. However, as we all know, a celebration without guests isn't worth much. In order to motivate people to actually attend the celebratory event, an invitation is needed. If you have relatives and close friends, it shouldn't normally be a problem to get them to attend the celebration. With acquaintances, however, things look a little different. And if the building was not just built privately, but serves as a new building or extension of a company, you quickly face new challenges in reaching business partners, customers and, last but not least, the public with a functioning invitation. In both cases the following points must be made clear:
- People's time is limited
- You are under a lot of demands today and are often happy not to have any appointments
- More and more people expect something special, for example to accept an invitation
- People must always be addressed emotionally and not just rationally
- The more individual and personal an invitation is, the more effective it is
- An invitation must make you curious and want to attend the event
- It should also be as short as possible
- In addition to the text, the attractive design also plays a role
People today have endless possibilities. They are free to decide how they want to spend their limited free time. The invitation text for a topping-out ceremony must therefore be as motivating as possible - and it must necessarily have something to do with the building in question and with the client. Of course, you also need very specific information, such as the date, location and start of the celebration.
Sober-factual versus emotional-personal
Basically there are two ways to write an invitation text for a topping-out ceremony - either sober-factual, i.e. focused on the essential information, or emotional-personal, without missing the necessary information. Experience shows that the second approach is more effective. Let's look at two examples:
- “We would like to warmly invite you to the topping-out ceremony of our new house on XX. XX. XXX at XX. XX p.m. in XXXXXX Street.”
- “Hooray, it’s done! The shell of our new house is complete and we can celebrate the topping-out ceremony. For us, this is a very special moment that we definitely want to share with you. We therefore cordially invite you to the topping-out ceremony on XX. XX. XXX at XX. XX p.m. in XXXXXX Street."
Both variants extend an invitation and contain all the information you need. However, variant two involves a lot of emotions. It also underlines how important it is to the building owners that the potential guest takes part in the event. I bet it will attract more guests than option one - simply because people want to be addressed emotionally and personally. One could now object that this works privately, but not when a company is celebrating its topping-out ceremony. The opposite is true, an emotional address can also be made here, even if it should be well measured.
Example
“The shell of our new administration building is complete. We will soon be able to offer our employees, our business partners and our customers a modern, feel-good atmosphere. This is an important step for our companies to continue to be successful in the future. We would therefore like to invite you to the topping-out ceremony on XX. XX. XXX at XX. XX p.m. in XXXXXX Street."
Emotions also play a role in this text, without it degenerating into exuberance. At the same time, the importance of the new building is underlined.
Press invitation
A company or company should definitely invite the press to an upcoming topping-out ceremony. After all, a newspaper report, for example, can be free advertising or at least good PR. In order for the invitation to be noticed, the invitation text should contain additional information in a compressed form that editors can work with. This includes, for example, information about how much was invested in the new building or how many people will work there in the future. If it has any special features, you would do well to mention them too. Last but not least, some background information about the company is important.
Poems
Poems are extremely popular when it comes to invitations to a topping-out ceremony. You can find them in abundance on the Internet. Poems certainly work if they have a certain spirit and, ideally, also contain a touch of humor. However, they should only be used privately. If you decide to use a finished poem, you definitely have to add a personal touch to it. Ultimately, it all comes down to individuality and emotions.
