How to Plan Successful Corporate Events

A corporate event could be any of a number of activities. Some of the common activities are seminars, exhibitions, conventions, conferences, seasonal parties, dances, annual dinners, celebrations for shareholders, or client entertainment.

The purpose of the event could be to celebrate a significant client acquisition, to thank employees for achieving milestones, to improve client achievement, improve business image, form new business relationships, increase public knowledge about the business or even to launch a new service or a product.

No matter what the activity or the reason is, planning corporate events takes considerable effort. After all, you would not want to cut a sorry figure in front of clients, nor would you want the event to turn out to be a failure. Therefore, when the role of corporate event planner has been cast upon your shoulders, use the following steps to ensure that it is a success.

1. After you get all approvals for the event, share information to other departments within your organization. Publicity is what drives the success of most corporate events, and you should therefore try to get as much publicity as possible. Publicity also helps out with the costs involved in an event.

2. Ensure that you have enough time to plan the event. The best events are those which are planned at least six months in advance. While this might seem a very long time line, you will find that when it comes down to making actual arrangements such as confirming venues, placing orders and issuing invitations, six months tend to fly by.

3. Follow an organized sequence of steps to plan the event. Start off by identifying objectives and identify costs. If there is a budget, you will need to consider it. Consider your target audience and client base, and fix up a theme. Once the theme is chosen, think about whether you require an internal sponsor, entertainment or any extra resources from an event management company. If you are going in for external resources, shortlist a few of these based upon their past performance. Plan for additional attendees, which could include competitors and clients. Once you have this planned, document your plan and get it approved.

4. Once you get the approval for you plan, put it into action. You can also run a direct mail campaign for corporate events in order to get more publicity. You can even get ideas from colleagues as publicity increases, and you could implement these ideas if they do not deviate from the objectives.

5. Hire the services of a good and reputed caterer. If alcohol is served, ensure that there is a way to keep a check on over-indulgence and drunken brawling.

6. Once everything that you have planned has been done, go over the list again to ensure that nothing is missing. On the big day, ensure that all AV equipment is set up and is working without hassles. If there are handouts, make sure that these are printed and ready to be distributed.

Once all your plans have been put into action, you can sit back and watch as the event that you have planned unfolds to perfection. Planning successful corporate events is not easy, but it is not impossible, either.