Events that are being held in the corporate environment are normally staged to communicate or discuss the company strategy, launch of a product or service, influence the behavior of customers towards the company or brand, motivate, reward, or train staff members, and change the internal behavior of the company.
In such events, companies bring their employees together to make important announcements. Mostly, big companies and brands hold corporate events to announce important initiatives or achievements, etc.
What is corporate event management?
Corporate event management goes beyond normal meeting planning. Although conferences and meetings may take up most of your time, you may also be asked to organize corporate hospitality, client entertaining, conventions, exhibitions, and employee events such as incentive travel reward programs, team building, motivational events, receptions, parties, and charity fundraising days.
It is not easy to plan and execute a successful business event. It is often a months-long procedure with various phases and several organizing processes. In corporate event management, different companies can hold a single event together to know and help each other in times of need.
There are many other things that you need to know about corporate event management. Such as,
- Types of corporate events
- Event budget
- Event objective
- Venue sourcing
- Corporate event planning checklist
Let’s get started.
Corporate event types:
You may know or not, but event size matters the most and depends on the event’s nature. Events can be so much smaller if there are not many people to join or be invited. Most corporate events range from the company’s internal training seminars and conferences to client hospitality and team away days.
So, if you plan to arrange any corporate event, it is better to know the types of corporate events.
Micro events:
Micro events are also known as simple events, which are held for up to 100 people. These micro events might be some kind of meeting or training session for potential or new employees.
The planning for micro-events might involve a single meeting room, facilities for presentations, break-out refreshments, and registration of every employee available in the event.
Small events:
These events are larger than micro events and include persons between 100 to 250. The events can be training days, departmental conferences, and seminars.
You can hire event management in smaller corporate events to make the main stage, lunch in several break-out sessions, refreshments, audio-visual facilities, transport, and online registration.
Mid-size events:
These are more technology-based events, and there can be up to 1000 people. Mid-size events might include company-wide conferences or meetings of important clients with the company’s big name.
In these types of events, organizers might rent a hotel for the whole night, so all the guests will be able to feel comfortable. Moreover, the organizer can provide transport for the attendees.
Large-scale events:
Large-scale events sometimes necessitate corporate IT platforms to manage features such as hotel room reservations, delegate flights, budgets, and online registration.
Offsite activities, banquets, partner programs, awards ceremonies, or other sophisticated itinerary preparation may be required for multi-day events.
Staffing, food, registration, speaker, and delegate management require careful scale planning. Conventions, for example, can draw up to 10,000 participants and span several days.
Event budget:
Any type of event requires money, so deciding the budget is very important. Your planning, designing, venue, lighting, sound equipment, and other important things depend on your budget. If your budget is insufficient to make all the arrangements you want, then there’s no reason to organize any event.
Even if you do not have any budget, you can always go for sponsors for event sponsorship. Or if you can’t decide your budget, you can always ask the event management companies to give you an idea about the budget for the whole event. They can give you an idea about the event’s budget to help you collect the money from different sources.
Moreover, you can figure out your budget from past experiences if you throw events time by time. But you have to estimate the price according to the current time, not the time from the past. Because the prices can vary from the past events, you held.
Event objective:
The objective of the event you want to hold must be very clear. Also, this is the first question that any corporate requires to ask with full clarity. Once you have figured out the event’s objective, things get very easy, like what do you want from the event? Is there any awareness about your product that you want to spread? Or is there any service that you want to discuss?
If your objective is clear, you will have no difficulty organizing the corporate event you want. But if the objective of your event isn’t clear, it’ll be something to worry about. Because you will be unable to explain to the event organizer what you want to held and your needs. So, the event planner or organizer cannot organize things with clarity.
The event objective must be SMART,
- Specific: What outcome do you want or what do you want to achieve from the corporate event?
- Measurable: What do you want? Return on objectives or return on investment? Or Both?
- Achievable: Ensure that your objective is achievable or not.
- Relevant: Your whole objective needs to be on track throughout the event.
- Timebound: Everything must have to be on its time.
Venue sourcing:
Venue sourcing is also one of the important things that you can add to your checklist. Because the venue makes a huge impact on the event. Like if you are organizing an event and want to discuss some serious issues in that event, and you held that event on the beach at night. This will look more like a romantic date than a serious meeting.
So, decide with care, or you can ask the consultant about the venue after discussing the event’s objective. They can always help you with such things because they have experience for many years and after organizing many events.
Three steps will be involved in selecting the right venue for the event.
- Find the perfect venue
- Write the perfect Request for proposal (RFP)
- Send and evaluate proposals
What will be the checklist for corporate event management?
There will be 21 action steps to ensure your event will be effective and successful.
- Determine the overall purpose and major objectives you hope to achieve by organizing this event.
- Define the audience to determine the tone of the event and the takeaways they will anticipate.
- Determine how the event fits into the wider business plan. What are its long-term goals?
- Make a thorough list of all budget line items in the event lifecycle.
- Form a planning team and assign duties.
- Set a timetable for planning meetings.
- Determine the date(s) on which the event will take place.
- Create a rough budget based on historical costs and supplier bids.
- Make a list of the venue’s needs.
- Compare and negotiate venues.
- Plan the arrangement of the event.
- Protect your speakers.
- Create and implement an event marketing strategy.
- Prepare an event timetable that allows for appropriate transition time between sessions and activities, as well as for any potential delays or technological challenges.
- Make arrangements for lodging and transportation.
- Plan menus for meals and snacks while keeping dietary restrictions in mind.
- Make and print event materials.
- Confirm or recruit event personnel.
- Rehearse speakers if necessary.
- Follow up with speakers and attendees after the event to thank them and share important takeaways.
- Conduct surveys, collect comments, and compile final costings for future use.
To sum up:
A corporate event is something that no one wants to mess up. So, it is important to handle everything with care. Make notes of everything you want to include in the event, so you don’t forget anything important.
