Five Things to Consider When Planning a Company Picnic Or Corporate Event

Whether you are planning your first or fifteenth picnic, the amount of details to consider is enormous. Here's how we'd start thinking about our company picnic:

1. Pick Your Date

It's important to pick your event date early in the process, choose a day that works for as many people as possible, and start getting the word out. The best day is usually a Saturday, but companies often have successful events on weekdays. Clear the date with all involved parties, check for conflicting events both in the workplace and in your community, and make sure your company's production schedule allows for people to be mostly available that day.

2. Budget

Determining a budget is crucial to know what shape your picnic will take. A budget determines the scale and scope of your event. It establishes a framework for your planning process so you don't plan something grossly over-budget or end up with areas you wished you would have spent more on. Your budget establishes your options. With a budget, you can prioritize aspects of your picnic and maximize the results of your event and planning. One little rule of thumb we have, for budgeting purposes, is that the amount of attendees at your picnic will be extremely close to the total number of employees you invite. Trust us.

3. Choose Your Site

Make sure your site is big enough for the number of people you're going to have. Do you want a pavilion or shelter? Do you want a local park? Can you bring alcohol? Are inflatable games and activities allowed at the site? What are all the various permits you need? Is the availability of your site time-sensitive? Does your location have all the necessary facilities and infrastructure such as electricity, water, restrooms and parking? Try to find a place that's central to most of your employees, which is perhaps why we see more and more companies that choose to hold company events at their place of business. The Company Picnic People also helps clients across America find the local site that is just right for their employee celebration while taking care of the nitty-gritty logistical details.

4. Committee

Put a committee together. Try to get people from different parts of the company. It's good to delegate roles: someone on finances, another on promotion, maybe someone on logistics, giveaways, etc. Try to keep your committee small and active with people passionate about the event. However, we know the difficulties of pulling people out of their workdays and the time consumed by simply organizing a committee. For most of the picnics we do, there are one or two people in charge of organizing the event and we handle all of these things for them at no additional cost.

5. Contact Vendors

There can be a lot of pieces to organizing a picnic - a lot of vendors to be contacted and organized. You need to secure a venue; pick out food and hire a caterer; coordinate games, activities, clowns; rent tents, tables, chairs, etc.; determine electricity, water access, order portable restrooms...the list drags on. At The Company Picnic People, we provide all of these pieces in-house so you only deal with ONE vendor and don't miss anything you need for your party.