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The core objectives of events in the corporate world are to establish the company strategy, uproot internal company behaviour, motivate, train or build a network among staff or influence the external behavior of customers, stakeholders and partners towards the brand.
It can also be one of the best ways to establish connectivity with other fellow peer companies and build authority over the field or industry. While the aims and goals of a corporate event are paramount, it's planning also needs to be serious and decisive.
If you are looking for ways to host an event for your company and thinking about where to start, then this article is for you. This simple corporate event planning guide will help you understand a corporate event's essentials and guide you through the stages of successful event planning.
Why special attention to corporate event planning?
Often, corporate event planning is mistaken for planning for a meeting or a conference. But the reality is it is way beyond that. Although the meeting is the core feature of the event, you also need to focus on corporate hospitality, client entertaining, exhibitions, and employee fun and entertainment events.
Researching, planning, executing and administering a corporate event is not easy. It's a long process with many stages that requires various resources and human communication.
Steps involved in planning a successful corporate event
- Set goals and objectives - The first step towards event planning is setting the goals and objectives of the event. When you know what outcome you need to achieve, you can plan the event accordingly to achieve it.
- Define the Budget - Next step is defining the budget for the event. Budgeting helps in identifying all the expenses at the same time, helps in avoiding overspending. Budgeting at this stage should have allocated a specific amount to significant expenses like venue, hospitality, food and beverage, corporate kit, etc. So when the budget is defined, it is easy to opt for the choices within the budget.
- Guests list - Make a list of guests, speakers, staff and members related to your company whom you want to invite. Determining the event's audience at this stage will help in further planning. Create the invite and send them to the guests and speakers first to confirm their presence and the date of their convenience.
- Fix the date - After confirming the presence and knowing the possible dates of the speakers and guests, fix the event date when you could accommodate them together.
- Venue - With the objective set, the guests and audience list ready, the date fixed, and the next step are to select the venue. Choose a venue that will be easily assessable for the audience, speakers and guests. Also, keep in mind that the venue needs to be comfortable, luxurious, and within budget.
- Marketing and promoting - Corporate events are a majorly are of two types - one that is organized within the organization and second, the events that accommodate common people. If your event is completely an in-house corporate event, there will be zero to minimum marketing requirements. Suppose your event is open and looking for participation from common people outside your organization; in that case, you need a concrete plan for marketing and promoting your event to bring in participants and registrations.
- Event day activities - The next step is to plan activities that need to happen on the event day. Along with the core meeting, you can plan networking events, workshops, fun activities, games, trivia, and exhibition or shops. According to the objective, you can create a theme and align all the activities under the theme.
- Make arrangements - The next step is to arrange all the requirements. It includes food and beverages, transportation and hospitality, venue decor, gifts, prizes, souvenirs, certificates, etc. It is also the right time to work on the content and communication part of the event.
- Venue arrangements - A couple of days before the event, check on the venue decor and other arrangements like seating arrangement, etc. It would be best if you also get the technology setup arranged and test it once before the event day. Check on the speakers, microphones, projectors, QR code scanners, and event app alignment.
- Rehearsal - If possible, try to organise a rehearsal with your event planning team, staff and a few participants. It will help you perform better on the event day.
- Follow-up arrangement - It is essential to plan for the post-event communication beforehand. It includes planning a complimentary kit for the participants, forwarding necessary content, receiving feedback and getting essential contact data.
Summing up
Though this may seem lengthy, planning a corporate event as a team will make it fun and seamless. If you don't have the manpower to pull the whole planning, you can associate with event planners or you can partner with event apps that will help you plan, organise and execute the event smoothly.
Wizit is an in-person DIY event experience app that helps event organisers streamline the process of planning and organising in-person events, reducing their workload moderately. The inbuilt features of Wizit - ticketing and event check-in, live streaming, unified communication, lead scanning and networking make it the best companion for organisers, participants and sponsors.
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