With the events industry slowly getting back on track and restrictions easing up, businesses can now start organizing corporate events again. Once they do, the vying for corporate and conference attendees is now a lot competitive. This is naturally so as corporate events can turn into strategic marketing when done right.
Planning for a corporate event shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you want it to be something to remember, it may require lengthy and thorough preparation. Your goal should always be to make your corporate event flawless and a success.
If you’re planning a corporate event, remember to have these four items on your checklist.
Table of Contents
1. Hire A Business Speaker
No corporate event will ever be complete without hiring a business speaker. This should be one of the first things you should do to get a higher chance of scheduling your preferred professional. If you delay this step, your desired speaker might already be too busy, forcing you to settle for the next best thing.
Hiring a business speaker is an essential step to get right to make sure that your chosen individual is the one that can contribute the most in making your corporate event impactful and memorable. Some of the best tips you can apply when hiring one are the following:
- Have a framework of what kind of speaker you want to have in your corporate event and what it is you’re looking for in a business speaker;
- Talk to speakers from your past corporate events as they may also have a network of connections for people they can recommend; and
- Talk to the speaker before booking to get first-hand information on their personality and if they are, in fact, good at what they do.
2. Book The Venue
Once you’re ready to make bookings, it is best to do it early, especially if you’re planning a massive corporate event. Corporate events often require booking a venue months ahead of time, which means that you might need to do it early to get your preferred date. Also, once a location has been reserved for your event, they’re not likely to give it up. This means that once it’s gone, it can be challenging to get your hands on it again.
If you’re going to host a local corporate event, choose a venue within your local area. But if you’re organizing one out of state or overseas, you need to brainstorm with your team where your official location will be.
Many factors can shape your decision for an event venue, and these include:
- The number of attendees. The size of your event is one of the first factors you need to have in mind when choosing an event venue. This is for obvious reasons, as the location needs to be large enough to cater to all your attendees.
- The budget. Some event venues are more expensive than others, but you shouldn’t have to pay any more than you can afford. Stick to your budget so your entire event won’t suffer.
3. Select The Date
The date has to be confirmed before it is officially announced to all attendees, and it usually isn’t chosen until an internal team has decided on a venue, food, and entertainment options.
Apart from the availability of your speakers and corporate executives, you have to choose the date strategically to not interfere with other local events. Otherwise, you may not be able to achieve your target number of attendees.
For instance, avoid setting your event during major holidays in your local area. Since it’s a non-working day, most of your employees might be on an out-of-town trip with their families to celebrate holiday festivities.
4. Look For Event Sponsors
What’s a corporate event without sponsors? Yes, your company will foot a majority of the bill, but this doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay for everything. If you take the time to plan your event thoroughly, you’ll come across major and minor sponsors who can finance some facets of your event in exchange for media exposure on their products or services.
To attract good event sponsors, you will have to be generous with your media and advertising packages. Here are some tips to help you out:
- Determine what your media exposure offers are, such as whether or not you’re going to have live coverage and what kind of audience you’re going to have;
- Assess what the market rate is going to be for your packages; and
- Research other events similar to yours in your local area, then find out who their sponsors are.
Conclusion
Corporate events are primarily a fool-proof marketing strategy to bring more attention to your business. Whether you’re planning a small or large-scale corporate event, you’ll have to prepare the necessary costs and planning requirements. You can be more confident that your corporate event will meet its intended goals by getting everything right during the planning stage. Most importantly, you’ll have a corporate event that isn’t just successful but also makes a significant positive impact on your employee morale and company image.
