Organizations and businesses plan corporate events to reorient business goals, reinforce corporate values, foster relationships, and strengthen teamwork. No matter how small the event is, there are a lot of details that need to be considered during corporate event planning. To break down how to successfully plan a corporate event, let’s first define what corporate events are.
What are corporate events?
From training seminars, industry conferences, and product launches to team-building events and award ceremonies, corporate events come in many different types, sizes, and purposes. Corporate events are sponsored by a business establishment or corporation or non-profit organization that is invested in achieving a specific business goal.
Corporate meetings mostly aim to engage and connect businesses to their employees, stakeholders, customers, potential clients, and peers. In fact, events are considered one of the most effective methods in increasing engagement and achieving other business goals according to Bizzabo.
Why are corporate events important?
Corporate events are important not just in generating sales but in how it brings and strengthens the whole company. Outward strength is just a reflection of inward strength. This means that the integrity and effectiveness of a company depend on the strength, and alignment of the individual employees and stakeholders.
Company meetings, team-building events, award ceremonies, and the like strengthen and align the relationship within the whole team. Work can be draining, no matter how passionate one can be. These events allow your employees to relax, unwind, refresh and recharge.
Employees are motivated and feel valued when you acknowledge and reward their achievements. A simple awarding ceremony can boost their confidence and will also encourage other employees to do better.
Corporate events are also a perfect opportunity to patch up misunderstandings and disagreements. Arguments and conflicts are hard to resolve in a formal setting. Giving your employees and other stakeholders time to bond and have a great time will make it easier to resolve matters.
Corporate events also bring different departments together. Unity is especially important for big corporations where employees can’t see and interact with everyone. After all, employees work for the same goal: their own success as they focus on the success of the company.
An informal setting is also very conducive to brainstorming. Creativity is easily activated and new ideas are easily bred when everybody is having a quality time.
What to consider when planning a corporate event:
- Date and time
- Venue
- Equipment such as sound and lighting, material for taking notes, rooms for organizing teams, meals, etc.
- Committees – Planning committee, production team, logistics team
- Services – Catering services and security
- Event Management Tools
- Tools for virtual events – Equipment for AV production
- Evaluating the effectiveness of a corporate event and also planning to make the next event better.
Planning a corporate event in 10 simple steps
1. Begin with your event’s purpose
Planning a corporate event starts by laying down a clear and comprehensive event goal. Identify what you want to achieve at the end of the corporate event. And how your event success is measured.
Are you aiming to enhance employee engagement and retention? Do you want to reward top-performing workers? Or do you want to reorient the team to your company goals?
After coming up with a goal or event objective, set up the parameters on how you can evaluate the event’s success. It can be the attendees’ attendance or event check-in, poll response rate, or survey responses.
2. Come up with a budget plan
As a corporate event planner, determining how the whole event will cost is quite tricky. Asking how much the organization is willing to spend is very important in the planning process. The budget will set the boundaries and limitations of your spending.
If you’re given the task of giving the estimates, you can refer to previous events to have a benchmark. Research for vendors and equipment you’ll be needing including the respective costs for each. Take into account the target number of participants and guests.
Having an accurate budget proposal is good but don’t forget to give space for any adjustments on the expenses along the way.
3. Form your team and delegate tasks
Your conference, team building, seminar, or award ceremony will be extra engaging and memorable if you allow the employees to do the work. Involve them in the planning and execution process by assigning them to committees.
Some of the committees you need are the planning committee, program committee, food committee, design committee, finance committee, and marketing committee. You can hire a professional event planner or event organizer to make things easier. However, in the case of small businesses, you can plan the whole event yourself.
Here are some event planning resources to help you out if you’re a newbie. Designating tasks for your employees will not only involve them but will create a more “personalized” experience. No one knows the employees better than their peers.
4. Decide the when and where
Deciding the event date is one of the most critical decisions you need to make during event planning. You should assure that the date should be preferable for the majority. In order to do this, you need to assess and survey your target attendees.
Corporate events should not coincide with any major events in the company like monthly meetings or assessments. These events should serve as a break and a reward for your organization’s stakeholders.
Picking the event venue is extremely important as well. It depends on several factors like the number of expected attendees, nature of the event (virtual event, hybrid event, in-person event), event date (venue should accommodate attendees in case of any weather disturbance), and attendees’ preferences.
Deciding on these things ahead of time will allow you to make reservations and get the best deal on services.
5. Create an event timeline
Time management is one of the essential skills you need to master in event planning. The success of the event depends on how efficient you are in managing your time.
Making an event planning timeline is a very effective way to manage your time and stay on schedule. Determine how long the preparation will take place. All pre-event, on-the-day, and post-event tasks should be carefully listed. Indicate the expected day each task should be completed.
Adding an event planning checklist to your timeline will make the work easier and more productive. Reinforce and remind the whole team of the schedule you all need to follow.
If your team has had trouble sticking to a schedule in the past, consider assigning someone to help the event stay on schedule and/or modifying the schedule as needed during the event to spend time in the most important ways.
6. Consider hiring professionals
Big corporate events might require you to hire professionals. This might take a toll on your budget but it will save you a lot of unnecessary funds, effort, and time. You can hire professional event managers and planners, production team, catering services, internet providers for your virtual event, AV services, and event registration tools.
Event management software like Event Espresso will take heavy tasks off your hands. From managing online registrations, selling tickets, managing reservations, and processing ticketing payments to aiding in event check-ins, Event Espresso automates the work.
This will allow your staff to have time to enjoy the event and have a memorable experience. After all, the event is for them.
7. Craft your corporate event design and event program
Event design refers to the “visuals” of the event. The decorations, style, lighting, and even music are parts of the event design and event production. Before making a concept design, you first need to ask yourself this, “What mood or atmosphere do I want to create?”
After answering that question, you can then proceed to conceptualization. You can have a vision board to help you string ideas together. Aside from the event design, you should also do the event program.
Making an event program takes deep thought and creativity. Whether you are hosting a business conference or a team-building event, choosing the right activities and speakers will determine if you’ll hit your goals or not.
The program and content should cater to the needs of your attendees. It should also create engagement and participation. Contact your guest speaker ahead of time to get his/her commitment. This goes to each vendor as well.
Informal meetings like awarding ceremonies and team-building events are all about engagement. Therefore, you should take extra thought into the activities you’ll include.
Games and competitions are fun ways to test how your employees can efficiently communicate and work together. Giving a generous prize to the winners will add extra motivation.
8. Create an engagement plan
Even if you have an outstanding program in place, you still need to prepare an engagement plan. Your participants’ demographics may be highly varied. Different people are engaged in different ways.
Therefore, it is important to make an event plan for this. You can engage your attendees in seminars and trade shows by giving them opportunities to speak up. You can make group discussions or Q&A sessions. Post-engagement efforts may involve handling assessment forms or polls.
9. Start your marketing campaigns and send out invitations
The next step in your corporate event planning is branding your event. Start out with your event marketing strategies as early as you can. Promote it on your event website and social media accounts.
Tag people on Facebook. Mention them on your Instagram or Twitter. You can even personally send out invitations through emails. Simple efforts like personalized emails can do a lot more than you can expect. A heartfelt and genuine invitation can be your ultimate game-changer move.
10. Make it memorable and unforgettable and evaluate
Events bring high ROI because of the experience people have. Materials will wear off but experiences can last for a lifetime. Corporate events can recharge your workforce. They can cultivate stronger relationships within your organization. And they can build your business.
All of these can only happen if your corporate events will give them memorable and valuable experiences. And how do you do it? By personalizing the event. Make every event attendee and participant feel special.
Know your audience well enough. And when you do, you’ll know how to make your event impactful to them.
Finally, review with your team and attendees what went well for your event and how you think you can improve.
Plan your next corporate event with us
Your business can achieve so much more with events. Create not only successful but impactful events by partnering with Event Espresso. Here at Event Espresso, we take pride in giving our best services to ensure that you have a successful corporate event and a seamless experience.
Plan your upcoming event with us and see for yourself. Try our free demo now.
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