Any business wanting to build lasting business and customer relationships must know how to host professional events. They are an excellent way to strengthen bonds with current customers and partners while attracting future ones. And they also let you promote your business, increase brand loyalty and awareness, attract and retain employees and boost your team’s morale.
However, planning a corporate event can be overwhelming, especially if it’s your first time. It involves many steps, from deciding the location to hiring the necessary event specialists. In this article, we have narrowed down the four critical steps you must follow to plan a business event successfully.
1. Understanding the Purpose of Your Event
Understanding the purpose of your event is the first step to hosting it successfully. Corporate events are a great way to increase company morale or share valuable information with employees. Some common objectives for holding corporate events are strengthening the team bond, planning for the upcoming year, training new staff, changing customers’ perceptions, and promoting a product or service. Understanding the objective of your event is essential as it will make setting goals, putting the right metrics to track results, and finalizing the guest list easier. It will also help you choose the appropriate theme and venue for your event.
2. Setting the Budget and Taking Care of Logistics
When setting the budget, it’s essential to allocate 10% more than you originally intended to, as unexpected costs are always bound to pop up. It’s also crucial to give the budget to the things that really matter; for example, if you spend more on fancy decorations instead of skilled technicians or high-quality speakers, your event will lack substance. Also, don’t skimp on food; consider your guests’ dietary restrictions.
Planning the logistics of the day is also an important step. You must vet and contract the necessary event specialists, like a photographer, videographer who has worked at a video production in Sydney, caterers, audio-visual technicians, and decorators. Hiring an event planner might help with this. Also, to enhance accessibility and reach, consider supporting virtual experiences with online ticketing. This will allow remote participants to join the event more easily, increasing your event’s overall impact and engagement.
You must also not forget to invite media, journalists, and bloggers to your event, as they can be a great way to boost your reputation, provide the needed exposure to your company, and boost attendance for the future. Get your PR team to set ground rules for the invited individuals too, for example, any content they can not report or ask questions about. Also, provide them with a detailed travel itinerary, and clarify what expenses you will reimburse and which you won’t. An iPad can help you manage multiple things in one go. Here, you can rent iPads for events to manage and keep a clean track of these fundamentals.
3. Choosing an Appropriate Venue
The venue choice is crucial to setting the right tone for the event and making it convenient for the guests. The location you choose must be convenient and easy to reach for the type of delegates attending the event. For example, suppose you have people traveling from abroad or colleagues from all across the country joining the event. In that case, there must be enough transport links nearby, and the location must be within easy reach of an airport. If you have people coming from the same area, then you’ll have to decide if the venue should be somewhere local or a little far away for a change of scenery.
The type of event also greatly affects the venue required. A comfortable space for focused work will be necessary if you’re holding a strategy meeting, whereas you may require a range of areas if you’re hosting a workshop. If the event’s purpose is to showcase a product or service to the client, it’s essential to ensure that the venue has all the necessary facilities and space to make a great impression.
Before making a decision, reach out to your team and other event stakeholders and ask them for feedback. If you’re hosting an annual event, employee feedback on the previously chosen venue can also help you decide.
4. Promoting the Event
People are less likely to show up if they don’t know much about your event. For a higher attendance rate, you must publicize your event. Personal invites might be enough if you host a small event with a small guest list. However, you will have to take more significant measures for larger events.
You can start by emailing your database, adding your event to industry listings and directories, encouraging sales teams to promote the event when visiting clients or partners on-site, and placing ads in industry newsletters. Also, incorporate social media in your promotion strategy, and create a new landing page on your website for the event.
Endnote
Corporate events are a great way to strengthen existing relationships while building new genuine connections. To successfully plan a business event, you must understand the objectives of this event and what you hope to achieve with it. Then, decide the budget accordingly, choose a fitting venue, take care of hiring the necessary event specialists, and promote your event via newsletters and social media platforms.
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