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Four Tips for Hosting the Perfect Corporate Event
Planning and hosting a corporate event can often present more problems than you are prepared to deal with if you are not in the business of planning events! Although you know that you need to organize one and may even have been ordered to do so by the Board of Directors, you may not have a clue as to how to get the ball rolling. Depending on the size, it can be a bigger project than you are equipped to deal with, so here are four tips to help you plan the absolute perfect corporate event.
Let’s Start with a Word to the Wise
Although you should be familiar with all the tips about to be mentioned, the one thing you might want to do from the very beginning is seek out a professional event production company. These experts can walk you through all of the following steps and can often take much, if not all, of the burden off you. It always pays to remember that you are not an event planner and there is so much to do, often in a limited amount of time.
Professionals like the event producers at iDEKO Productions can help do everything from finding the perfect venue to lining up entertainment, and literally everything in between. That being said, now it’s time for those things you need to know from the very get go.
1. Define Your Purpose
There are all kinds of corporate events,and how you plan the one you are tasked with putting together depends on just what you are hoping to accomplish. Are you planning a marketing event? Perhaps your target audience is the general public or maybe it’s a B2B event in which you want to introduce new products or services to businesses you hope to supply?
Maybe you are planning a corporate Christmas party or a company-wide workshop to introduce new management or other operational changes that affect everyone from the lowest hourly worker to upper management. The type (and location) of event you are going to host begins with defining your purpose.
2. Start Planning Well in Advance
Can you remember when you were engaged to be married just how long it took to plan that wedding and reception with only a few dozen guests? Sometimes it took the better part of a year to get all the details seen to. Now imagine an event on a much grander scale!
The earlier you can begin planning your corporate event, the more time you have to deal with issues as they arise. And, believe it or not, you will be faced with issues at every step of the way! For example, how do you choose entertainment based on the generational demographics involved? All this takes research and planning, so the more time you give yourself to see to all those frustrating details, the easier it will be to make good choices.
3. Set a Budget
Now then, why did we leave setting a budget until this point in the process? Basically, you won’t know how much money you will need until you can calculate what it is you need! It really can be that simple, but it can be equally as difficult as well.
What happens if you have needs which there aren’t enough budgetary funds to cover? This is where you start chipping away at all those elements you’d like to include but aren’t exactly necessary to what you are trying to accomplish.
4. Put Together a Committee
Even though you’ve hired a corporate event producer, you will still need a company liaison for them to communicate with. Remember that you will be taking away from that employee’s time to work on the event, so it is recommended that you name several people to be on a committee, each handling a different aspect of the event.
One person may be tasked with working on the menu while the next person works on venues and entertainment with the production company. Although none of the people on the committee can have a deciding voice, they will be the ones tasked with bringing information to the committee who then appoints a spokesperson to bring their conclusions to the board.
A Measure of Success
Until you’ve actually hosted the event and all the attendees have returned to their respective homes, there is no real way to gauge the success or shortcomings of the event you’ve just hosted. However, you can begin to forecast what you believe will be the level of success as all the pieces begin to fit together.
The one thing you can feel confident in is the fact that you’ve hired a professional event production company with tons of experience in putting together successful events. This is, perhaps, the most important tip you can be given. When tasked with planning and hosting a corporate event, don’t leave anything to chance. Get those pros on the job as early as possible so that you can be assured everything will go without a hitch.
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