Everything You Need for a Topping Out and Where to Find It

Your topping out ceremony wraps up months of hard work planning and constructing your new building. When you are ready to place the final beam of your building, inviting everyone who was involved in the project to celebrate your success together allows you to keep traditions alive and reflect on your success. However, you will start planning your topping out ceremony well in advance to make sure that you have everything you need. Brandit is a reliable option for finding many of these items. 

What do you need for a topping out? 

To mark this incredible step forward in the construction, a topping out ceremony is the perfect way to share the news with stakeholders and investors about the progress so far and what's to come. This is your opportunity to bring everyone together behind the project and give visibility to your company, strengthen the brand image, or even win new contracts. At a glance, so much is on the line, hence you need to get it right the first time.

Planning the perfect topping out ceremony and getting all the details right can be more complicated than you may anticipate, but starting the process early gives you the best possible chance of getting each element of your ceremony just how you want it.

That said, planning an event, no matter the size is a challenging task. To get it right, you must go into excruciating details on everything, starting from the t-shirts to food, passing for the raffle gifts, and where to find them. Luckily, Brandit—your one-stop shop for all topping your needs, has been doing it for a while. Here's what we've learned so far.

Planning ahead will make the difference in whether or not you will achieve the results you want

Planning ahead is a must no matter what event you are putting together, and your topping out ceremony is certainly no exception. Creating a memorable event to celebrate the work put in by everyone involved in your construction project, goes deeper than simply inviting people to watch you finish the building.

Instead, these ceremonies are generally comprised of several components that should often be planned early on in your project to make sure that they will be ready to go when it is time for your topping out ceremony.

It is advisable to prepare the advertising and marketing plan before the event and share it with all the third-party suppliers involved. This allows for all participating in this event will have every opportunity to make it a successful event. For instance, architectural rendering used for tee shirt designs may take a while to receive from the architect. Choosing the best rendering of your project is the easy part, having the architect create a design that will compliment a tee shirt takes time. Failing to factor such into your planning could result in a generic tee shirt design that does not portray the entirety of the project celebrated by your event.  For the planning stage, having elaborate communication channels and strategies is the perfect way to make all the plans go smoothly.

Like any major event, you should generally plan to start getting organized and placing orders at least three months prior to the anticipated date of your topping out ceremony to make sure the companies you work with have plenty of time to get everything completed and sent to you before you need it.

Start with the artwork for the t-shirts

Since visuals are a big part of the topping-out ceremony, your artwork will need to rise to the occasion. Great artwork requires more time to process, as it may take a series of iterations with the design team to get your vision of the event right.

From an architectural rendering of the building you are about to complete to gathering logos for any partners or sponsors that are involved in the project, creating quality artwork for your t-shirts is more complicated than making a quick sketch and calling it good.

You have to choose the clips, architectural renders, and other graphics you want to see. To translate every detail accurately, you need to get a vectorized format of the architectural rendering (from the architect), vectorized logos from trade and design Partners that will be included in the tee design.

Partnering with Brandit is an excellent choice for receiving beautifully printed t-shirts for your topping out ceremony or any other event.

Look for a great caterer

Good food is a must at any Topping Out event. Breaking bread allows the project team to enjoy a good meal while they appreciate their achievements thus far.

Finding a great caterer well in advance is an important step in making sure you have plenty of delicious food to go around for your event. By beginning your search long before your topping out ceremony, you can make sure you are able to serve local favorites that make sense for the time of year. You will also be able to provide a more accurate number of people that you will need food for to make sure that you do not run out before everyone has the opportunity to enjoy some.

Hire a cleanup crew

As with any party or construction site, there will be lots of cleaning up to be done after your topping out party. You know what they say, " A clean site, is a safe site!" After the festivities are over, most workers will have the rest of the day off as a reward for their hard work. Hiring a clean up crew allows the workers to return to a clean and safe site the next day!

By choosing a reliable cleanup crew, you can make sure that your topping out ceremony does not interfere with your construction crew's ability to put the finishing touches on your building once the event has wrapped up.

Don't Forget About the Raffle

A topping out is not complete without a raffle, so yours should not be an exception. Get everyone in to try their luck by having raffles to win various prizes or promotional gifts, most printing experts with industrial printing machines can print and customize your ruffles tickets to the event's theme. The raffle tickets go with matching gifts, find a one-stop shop to get you everything you need in one place and save time on supplier delays.

Ensure the teams sign the beam at the event

As far as tradition goes, signing the highest beam is the highlight of a Topping Out. Make sure your team joins in signing the last beam before it is hoisted in place. This will mark the collective efforts of the team and the climax of the event.

Other items you'll need to take care of

If you are intent on taking shots of the event, you could bring things like a large American flag to hang on the beam, a fir twig, a company banner with a company logo, and other relevant signage to direct people to the event. You can get all this and many other Topping Out ceremony accessories at Brandit.

Key takeaways

Holding a topping out ceremony can be a great way to wrap up the building process and celebrate everything that your team has accomplished, but it is a long process that you will need to start planning as early as possible to get the most out of your event. 

A Topping Out ceremony is an essential Public Relations and marketing event for the company. Figuring out the details well in advance is a must when it comes to making sure that you have time to design exactly what you want. Download our Topping Out Checklist to get the recipe for a successful topping out event.