Event Planning - Let Event Planning Companies Take the Worry Out of Arranging Corporate Events

You've been tasked with organising another major event: a conference, training, a roadshow or specialised corporate entertainment. What are the main steps to consider when planning it and how can event planning companies save you time and money and take the stress out of running successful events?

Determine the event's purpose

Without a clear idea of what your event must achieve it's hard to start planning. Once you've decided on this (and prepared a brief to guide you and your suppliers) your decision will determine the subsequent course of events - whether you handle the planning yourself or outsource it to special event planning experts.

Choose between in-house or outsourced event planning?

Depending on the time and budget available you may choose to manage the events planning process yourself ('in-house' planning) or outsource to a professional planning company. The latter is popular because it frees your time for other business activities and takes the pressure off overloaded internal departments. What's more, for the same reasons that you'd outsource accountancy or other professional services, outsourced planning can deliver a better result more efficiently than trying to do this yourself.

Find a suitable venue

Next comes your choice of venue. Maybe you already have a preferred venue. If not, your corporate event planning partner can help - and some event planners even have their own venues. Whether you need a well-equipped conference suite or a mud-spattered quad biking day on a Welsh hillside, event planning companies can find exactly the right venue for you.

Organise the event

With the venue agreed, event planners can save you lots of work on the run-in to the event. Event marketing, delegate management, booking speakers or facilitators and managing event finances all have to be co-ordinated and managed. With the event date and venue set, the clock's ticking, your event budget is on the line and there's no room for delays or oversights. Specialist suppliers are used to managing the complexity of event organisation - and have the experienced teams to do so. Compare this with the time and worry of handling this yourself on top of your normal duties...once again, independent help makes perfect sense.

Run the event

Events planning leads seamlessly into running the conference, meeting or corporate event. Leading event planning companies can handle all aspects of this, as well as event catering, on-the-day co-ordination and tasks such as delegate reception - it leaves you with more time to spend with delegates, customers or colleagues on the day.

You may ask yourself though, do I have the time or skills needed for the management of a major conference or one-off corporate entertainment? With so much at stake and growing demands on managers' time, organisations increasingly outsource event management. Below are some of the things to look for when choosing a professional planner.

How to find professional planners

The decision to hire professional event planning is a vital one. The right supplier can save you valuable time, ensure a better event than would otherwise be possible and build your reputation. Buying-in these services needn't be prohibitively expensive either. As with any specialist service, the cost of hiring event planning services is often low compared to going it alone - and you get priceless peace of mind from knowing your event is in the hands of professionals.