There are various types of events that your business might seriously consider holding to help spread the word or develop staff skills. Those events could include retreats, product launches, and teambuilding events. However, there is a range of things that you need to account for if your ultimate objective is ensuring an event that stays in its attendees’ memories for the right reasons.
Pinpoint the event’s purpose
Put simply: Why do you want to put on the event? You might want to attract people interested in joining your company’s base of employees or volunteers. Alternatively, you could be eager to spark new sales – perhaps even through launching a new product. You only have to watch the iPhone launch events hosted by Apple year-after-year to see how exciting product launches can be – and, more to the point, how they can generate favourable publicity for a business.
However, when clarifying your own hopes, don’t be afraid to be precise. For example, the product you want to launch might be a new type of tuxedo; alternatively, it could be your company’s eco-friendly credentials that you want to promote. Whatever intricate information you know about your aim with the event, you can later impart those details to others who will help organise the event.
Draw up an event plan
After settling on the “why”, you can turn to what an Eventbrite guest post calls the “how”. There are four main aspects of a successful business event: the venue, entertainment, food, and guest list. However, there could remain many other aspects that you need to consider for your event in particular. One idea behind the plan is that you should be able to follow it step-by-step.
It should also be intended for your utilisation before, during, and following the event. Along the way, you could notice two particularly strong benefits of keeping a written plan at hand. One, delegating responsibilities is easier; and two, you can help prevent the financial costs of the event preparation spiralling out of your budget.
As you work on your plan, continually ask yourself these two fundamental questions: what would you like to happen at the event? What steps need to be taken to make it happen?
Keep your communication channels regularly active
You could be surprised by how much can go wrong when you don’t make an effort to keep in the loop with everyone participating in the event preparation. Imagine if, just hours before the event, your assistant admitted that they had forgotten to tell everyone that a certain guest speaker was no longer able to attend. Similarly, picture the scene if vital presentation handouts are missing, staff having assumed that you, not them, were responsible for arranging for those papers to be printed.
Therefore, keep everyone – including employees, special guests, and vendors – well-supplied with updates about what has been done and what remains on the to-do list. Regularly sending out those updates by email should suffice.
Specify your requirements to a venue you wish to book
In an article on Bdaily, it is advised that, when you get in touch with a venue in an attempt to book it, you detail precisely what you need. For example, don’t simply say that you require one large room; instead, explain what the space needs to accommodate. The venue might be able to suggest one of its smaller spaces that would meet your needs better than you would have expected.
If you wanted to plan your next corporate retreat at Château Bouffémont in France, you could choose from conference rooms of capacities reaching as high as 200.