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Corporate event planning requires several crucial steps like determining a budget, hiring a quality catering service and hosting enjoyable entertainment. Of course, it takes a lot of effort to conduct a corporate event for your associates, employees, customers and prospective customers to take part in it. Moreover, corporate event planning improves the image of your company, enhancing its brand value. In this post, some practical tips have been discussed to guide a corporate event planner in planning your next corporate event.
Set Your Budget
Whether it is a black tie corporate dinner party or corporate holiday events in NYC, deciding the budget is the first step of corporate event planning. Once you have set the budget, it becomes much easier to find a good venue or fix the menu. It is better if you can break down the budget to separately calculate the cost of food, drinks, decor, marketing and labor. This breaking down of the budget allows you to methodically proceed with the corporate event planning.
Determine The Guests
Before planning any corporate event details, you should find out who will be attending the event. The venue, programs, format and timing depend largely on who the guests are. Unlike a house party, corporate events are held for a particular purpose. It will also determine if everyone will wear business uniforms or formal attire. Certainly, finding out who the guests are helps stay focused on the specific goals of the corporate event. As a result, you can plan the corporate event with the taste and purpose of the attending guests.
Select A Theme
Now that you have a fair idea about the budget and guests, you can easily pick a convenient theme for the corporate event. There are various themes that go perfectly well with specific types of corporate events. Some of these themes are a cocktail party, company picnic, annual day or professional workshop. Undoubtedly, any destination events can take on a cultural theme. You just have to accommodate the TravelHost arrangements. By selecting the theme, you can choose food, decorations and other details to match it. Surely, selecting a theme sets the tone of the event, making corporate event planning highly effective.
Consider Training Options
Planning corporate events presents the opportunity for everyone to come together. At this time, you can educate and train the company about key initiatives for the company. This is a great time to offer professional development of some kind. Naturally, the reinforcement of the corporate culture, values and vision should be included. Use the opportunity to ingrain the company culture and feel at every event. When building on the ideals that everyone has come to live by, it makes any event more authentic and successful.
Make Check Lists
With a fair idea about the theme, guests and budget, you are now ready to make corporate event planning checklists. A detailed checklist of the tasks you need to perform helps keep you on the track. Additionally, creating an event checklist ensures that nothing is left to be done at the last moment. In order to utilize the checklists, you should create deadlines while assigning tasks to yourself, employees or volunteers. Furthermore, double check the checklist, marking the completed tasks as done. All in all, making check lists can simplify corporate event planning.
Start Negotiating With Vendors
As mentioned earlier, corporate event planning involves choosing location, determining the menu and other details. To get these tasks done, start negotiating with vendors as early as possible. Negotiation is a useful skill and something you can go to college for. While selecting a venue, negotiate everything you can, including if food and decoration is included rental costs. Or, find out if you have to pay additional charges. After finalizing the venue, speak with decorators and caterers for the event. Start by giving them a budget that is 5% to 10% lower than your actual budget. Many times, vendors calculate post event taxes and service fees. By quoting a lower budget, you will have more flexibility for negotiation and these additional fees. Of course, negotiating with the different vendors early and efficiently will reduce corporate event planning costs.
Promote The Corporate Event
Another important aspect of corporate event planning is promoting the event. Informing everyone about the event can be done though a simple email to colleagues. For larger events, a well conceived marketing campaign makes your corporate event stand out. To really get the word out, you can get the company’s PR team involved too. Of course, using social media tools like a custom hashtag to spread word about the corporate event you are organizing. Whether your event is one for team collaboration or just for investors, you will have greater success if you promote it first. Undoubtedly, the event promotions and invitations must be appropriate for everyone.
Follow Through
If you want to guarantee that you corporate event is a success, stick to the plan you outlined for yourself in the form of checklists. It is one thing to write everything down, it is another thing entirely to actually cross off every item on your checklist. Following through is what separates the good corporate event planners from the best corporate event planners. Be sure to follow through with every event detail you anticipated to make the event a success.
Corporate event planning is an essential part of a successful business event. Without meticulous planning, allocating funds, creating themes, catering to the tastes of guests and promoting, the corporate event could fail its original purpose. On the whole, corporate event planning saves corporate resources, making the best utilization of the event.
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I love all of these tips for planning a corporate event, but the one about negotiating with vendors was particularly interesting, to me. I though it was interesting how you said to give vendors a price 5-10% lower than your budget so that you’ll have flexibility. In the end, a corporate event or party is only as good as what goes on at it, and that has a lot to do with the vendors you select. If you find it a bit overwhelming, like me, there are such things as corporate event planners that can help you work out the details.