Planning corporate events is intricate and comes with a lot of expectations. Success lies in meticulous planning and strategic execution.
It helps shape brand visibility to foster team-building and achieve business goals. Corporate event planning plays a pivotal role in a company’s journey.
This comprehensive guide unravels the layers of corporate event planning. It’ll offer you valuable insights and a roadmap to mastery.
A. What is the meaning of corporate event planning?
Corporate event planning refers to organizing events and coordinating efforts to help businesses reach their goals.
The goals and objectives can range from brand visibility to customer acquisition, and relationship building.
Examples of corporate events include product launches, conferences, and team-building activities. To learn the scope and how to master them, refer to this corporate event planning master guide.
Corporate event planning requires a lot of attention to details like logistics, all while keeping branding in mind.
Upon successful completion, corporate event planners not only create memorable experiences but also meet company objectives.
B. What is the first step in the corporate event planning process?
For any event, understanding the “what” behind it is really important.
Before you dive into the details and go scouting for event vendors, you need to sit down with company seniors. Ask them questions like:
- What do you want to achieve through the event?
- Describe the specific goals
- Order the goals based on their priority
- What are your company’s mission and vision?
This will help you get a bird’s eye view of the underlying expectations of the company officials. Now, for you as an event planner, the next step should be to make these goals SMART.
What we mean by “SMART” is that you need to make the event goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
You can share the revised event goals with the company officials. This way, at the end of the event, your impact will be directly measurable. Doing this also reduces the chances of miscommunication and allegations later on.
You’ll also successfully lay the groundwork for further communication that has to take place. Now, you can delve into the further roadmap of corporate event planning.
C. Steps for planning corporate events
With the long-drawn process of corporate event planning, you definitely need this checklist. You can use workflow format before, during, and after your corporate event.
1. SMART objectives
In the previous section, you’ve already learned how to set and articulate your event goals.
2. Reach consensus
In a corporate setup, a chain of command can vary and also be complicated at times. So, before you start putting your time and resources into planning corporate events, you must take care of this part.
You need to have all stakeholders on board. If there’s a board of directors, you might want to run all ideas past them.
It’s better to take this extra step than to have all your efforts stepped over.
3. Develop your budget
Mark our words, you can’t start spending without creating a detailed budget first. It should include costs ranging from the venue to the marketing.
Among all your investment sources, you must also include the expected revenue. Sources of revenue can include ticket sales, sponsorships, and product sales.
Budget planning is a must-have skill for all corporate event planners. Use this practical budget planning guide to get started.
4. Sponsorships
Once you have your budget, you’ll be able to recognize the potential gaps in it. To fill those budget gaps, you require additional sources of funds.
Getting sponsors on board can help you enhance event profitability. However, make sure you aren’t relying on sponsors to make ends meet.
We say this because sponsors can be unpredictable at times. A sponsor backing out at the last moment should only affect the profit and not the routine functioning of the event.
5. Understand the needs of your audience
Reach out to the people you will be hosting during your event. Do include them in your event planning process.
Ask them about their preferences and the problems they’ve faced in events in the past.
This will help you curate a better experience for attendees.
6. Attendee engagement
You can engage your attendees with themes, performances, and various activities. You can refer to this comprehensive list of office event ideas.
Your goal with whichever engagement strategy you choose should be to boost participation, attendance, and networking.
If you’re hiring a performer or celebrity for your event, do it at an early stage so there aren’t any availability issues later.
7. Choose a corporate event venue
Venues play an important role in fixing the date for your event. Book the venue (if outside the office) months in advance to get it on the date of your preference.
You should be looking at a lot of parameters while finalizing the venue though. Think of seemingly unimportant details like WiFi, parking, and safety infrastructure. These matter a lot from the perspective of attendees.
8. Technical and infrastructure setup
When you think about the event setup, we’re sure tables and chairs come to your mind. But the setup isn’t limited to the furniture and decor.
You also need to have a good technical setup in place. There should be functional screens, remotes, speakers, and projectors. If your corporate event in formal, chances are that this technical setup is the most important.
On the day of the event, you can also check and run the technical setup an hour before the event. You should also have a technician available throughout the event.
9. Event branding
Most corporate events aren’t about team-building or recreation. Event branding is important when your company is exposed to a lot of people, especially outside your organization.
We’re talking about including elements of your brand, like the featured colors, logo, and text. Event branding should be visible and consistent throughout the event. It’s often ignored but it’ll bring your closer to meeting the corporate’s objectives.
You should read this guide on event branding to master this step of event planning.
10. Catering
From the attendee’s perspective, everyone looks forward to food in any of the events they attend. Based on your budget, design the catering menu and placement.
You might also want to consider the dietary restrictions of people before finalizing the menu. You can then go looking for vendors for the same.
Just a tip, pre-packed meals are cheaper than buffets. Buffets are cheaper in comparison to a-la-carte.
11. Market your event
If you’re looking for mass registrations, even outside your organization, then you’ll need an event marketing strategy.
Good news for you, we already have a guide in place for the same. One tip we can give you here is to list your event on online platforms.
For planning corporate events specifically, you can list your event for free on LinkedIn.
12. Design the event flow
With all the vendors at work, you’re left with the major task of coordinating everything.
Now, that you’re getting closer to the actual event, you should come up with a detailed event flow.
Know the minute-by-minute details of how your event is going to function. This way, you will be able to keep track of whether or not things are running smoothly on the day of the event.
You’ll also be able to keep a closer track of the seemingly small but important tasks.
13. Evaluate your event’s result
When your event is over, you circle back to the first step of corporate event planning. You need to now know whether your event was able to achieve the SMART goals you had set in the beginning or not.
If you weren’t successful, you need to identify the gaps in your event planning skills. Even if you were largely successful, you need to jot down what worked for you so you can replicate it in the future.
D. How can technology make corporate event planning better?
When you’re working with corporates, know that the use of technology is always appreciated.
Here are some interesting ways for you to incorporate available technology into event planning:
- Phygital events: Yes, virtual events were all the rage during the pandemic. However, now we’ve understood how convenient they are. You can use various tools like GMeet and Zoom to still keep your event virtual or phygital
- VR and AR: You can take phygital events to the next level by incorporating these technologies
- Chatbots: You can use online chatbots to easily address queries of potential customers and future attendees
- Event automation: You can had over repetitive tasks like email campaigns and event reminders to tools like Marketo and HubSpot
- Event ticket: You can easily create secure tickets and also scan them for entry using Ticket Generator and its scanner app
If you found these tips to be insightful, you should also be looking at AI. Here are ways in which you can use AI to make event planning easier.
E. FAQs
1. What is the purpose of corporate event planning?
Corporate events are organized to meet goals like:
- Promoting a brand
- Fostering team-building
- Achieving business goals and sales
- Creating memorable experiences
2. What skills does an event planner need?
Some necessary skills to become an event planner are:
- Organizational skills
- Attention to detail
- Communication skills
- Creativity
- Problem-solving
- Negotiation
- Time management
- Adaptability
- Strong network in the industry
You can learn how to build a career in event planning with EventTube.
3. What is SWOT analysis of an event?
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths can refer to your existing resources such as an experienced staff and sponsorships. Weaknesses could be your budget.
Opportunities refer to better sales and market demand for your event. Examples of threats include competing events and unfavorable weather conditions.
F. Concluding the process of planning corporate events
As an aspiring or experienced event planner, you must agree that planning corporate events are the best way to step into this field.
With SMART goals, experience in event processes, and good vendor relationships, you can succeed in this field.
We highly recommend that you don’t skip the post-event evaluation as a step as it’ll help you improve.
It’s also in our hopes that you’ll learn to embrace technology as an ally while planning corporate events.
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