Important Dos and Don’ts When Planning Your Live Corporate Event

Let’s face it — planning and executing a successful corporate event, awards reception, or multi-day conference can be a massive undertaking. From finding a suitable corporate event space to coordinating with third-party vendors, a wildly successful corporate event requires expert planning and organization skills.

Your company makes a significant investment when producing their corporate events. There is a lot at risk if your event goes sideways, and an unsuccessful corporate event can reflect poorly on your company (and YOU, if you are the one planning it). Fortunately, there are a few quick and easy corporate event planning dos and don’ts that you can follow to maximize the effectiveness of your next big event. To help with your event planning, here are some important dos and don’ts:

DO – Define Your Objectives

Start by outlining your corporate event goals and objectives.

– What are you (and your organization) hoping to accomplish? Be specific. Shoot for 3-to-5 primary “success goals” for your event, and list them out. Keep them front and center during your planning.
– Who are the main stakeholders at your company, and what are their expectations? A little support from key leadership goes a long way.
– Who is your target audience? What are their demographics, their habits, their needs?
– What is the end objective? Are you trying to drive brand awareness, increase employee engagement, connect with customers, train employees on new products, build a stronger clientele and sales network?

After you’ve aligned around your event goals and objectives, you’ll be more focused as you develop the content, creative, and experiential elements that will drive your event’s success. If you have sign-off by your company’s leadership in advance, it will keep everyone on the same page. From there, you’ll have a much easier time gathering the resources needed to see your plans through to fruition.

DO – Start Planning Early

Start planning for your corporate event right away. Whether you’re planning a seminar, conference, sales meeting, or product launch, planning a corporate event alone can leave details overlooked, or possibilities missed.

There is an old saying when it comes to just about any project or product. It goes like this,

“Fast, cheap, and good – you can only choose two.”

The reality is that we all wish we could have all three, but if you want it fast and cheap, it probably won’t be good. Good and fast will probably not be cheap. You likely won’t get both cheap and good very fast. The sooner you begin planning, the sooner you can end up with both good and cheap.

Give yourself plenty of time to find a great corporate event venue, hire resource partners, choose entertainment, and secure catering.

DO – Create a Budget

If you’re operating on a limited budget, it’s critical to begin with a realistic budget plan. It’s easy to get overly optimistic when it comes to planning. We can fall into the trap of planning based on the “best-case scenario.” It all looks so good on paper, but our best-case scenario often turns out differently in real life. The unfortunate fact is that the best-case scenario seldom happens.

To protect your project, your company, (and perhaps your own job!) it is important to plan for some contingencies and unexpected circumstances. Always plan for additional add-ons or last-minute expenses. Build them into your budget. Then, if the unexpected does happen, you’re covered. If not, then you’ve not spent all of your budget – and you end up looking like the hero you truly are!

DON’T – Plan Everything on Your Own

During the corporate event planning process, avoid working alone. The most successful corporate events are organized and executed with the help of experienced corporate event production agencies. The best corporate event production companies encompass excellent time management, resource allocation, content and creative development, and communication skills. It’s these skills that produce the most favorable results. Partnering with an experienced event production agency, such as Transperia Group, relieves you of some of the planning, headaches, and day-of tasks and responsibilities.

Planning and creating a memorable experience for your attendees CAN be a daunting task, but if you take these Dos and Don’ts to heart, you’ll be on the right path to a successful event.

To learn more about how you can successfully host a corporate live event with these essential tips or to get started on planning for your next event, contact Transperia Group today.