Corporate events are essential for the growth of a business’ brand recognition, networking with potential clients, and expanding your industry footprint. Planning a successful event for a business is challenging if you don’t have the right tools. Here are some effective practices we use to host dozens of internal and external events each year.
Know your why
Before planning your event, you have to know why it is important and what the goals of the event are. Events that don’t have a direction are bound for failure. If you are organizing an event for another company, department, or person, establish a clear understanding of what success looks like. Are you having the event to launch a new product line, gain a foothold in a new industry, or even just to say thanks to your existing A-list clients? The event purpose lays the groundwork for all the decisions made. Knowing your why will ensure that your event is successful and that your able to measure its success.
Creating a Budget
After your goals are established, take a look at your finances. Will tickets cost money? What is my break-even cost? Will we have sponsors? Much like companies, each event is different. Free events require tight budgets whereas paid-ticket events have more free range. Be careful with where you spend your money and always look at the big picture. Consider more than one type of venue before you book one on the spot. Investigate several catering options before settling into a final choice. Some venues have a list of approved vendors from which you much choose explicitly. Other venues allow catering from any company. An excellent way to exercise cost control is finding a sponsor that will split the cost of the event. Team up with another company or service provider that has the same target market and see if you can work together to enhance the event and defray the costs.
Venue
Know your target audience before booking a venue. Don’t book the ballroom at that expensive hotel for 25 people. There are always better venues than what Google might show. Do your research so you don’t overcrowd a small room or underwhelm a small crowd with a large space.
Find the Right Speakers
Speakers can make or break a corporate event. We’ve all had an experience that came to mind when that statement was said. Vet your speakers on their speaking skills, on-stage presence, their ability to read a room, and, most importantly, their knowledge of the topic. Don’t have someone remember your event for that one bad speaker.
Clear Communication with Attendees
Create marketing campaigns that clearly communicate the goal for your event. Provide as much information as you can on emails, social media campaigns, and promotional signs without overloading the reader with information. If the event is specifically for the construction industry and half of the room is health care professionals, something in your marketing strategy mislead the attendees. Clear communication is vital to getting your target audience at an event.
Always Have a Plan B
Nothing in the business world is perfect, events are not the exception. In the weeks before your event, take time to sit and plan out any possible scenarios that could happen. There is no such thing as being too prepared for an event. The more you plan, the easier it will to correct the issues unnoticed. Being prepared for the unexpected will help you stay calm if something were to happen. Always remember that as the event planner, people will come to you at the first sight of a problem. Learning how to stay calm in a high stress situation will put you ahead of most.
Join us at one of our events this year.
Register now at our event page.