7 Event Planning Tips for Corporate Events
Written by A-mazing Events on July 6, 2023
Written by Kelly Garrett
March 8, 2023
Do you remember the first event you planned on your own and all the details you wished someone had told you beforehand? Organizing a successful corporate event requires meticulous planning and attention to detail. Whether you’re planning a conference, an open house, or a company picnic, it’s critical to plan strategically to ensure your event is successful.
Here are 7 tips to implement into your strategy to take your event to the next level! Regardless of whether you’re an experienced event planner, these tips will provide you with valuable insights. Let’s get started and make your next event one to remember!
1. Establish Clear Event Goals
Before you start planning your event, it’s critical to define your goals. What is the ‘why’ behind your event? Are you celebrating a company milestone, encouraging your employees to grow together through team building, or communicating updates and company goals with a conference? To help you define your goals, we recommend utilizing SMART goals to help you stay focused on the essential aspects of the event.
2. Create a Detailed Timeline
A detailed timeline provides a road map for your event planning team to stay on track up until event day. It outlines all important tasks that must be completed to ensure event success. A timeline will help prevent last-minute surprises or oversights and will enable seamless communication between you, your planning team, vendors, and stakeholders. A great way to start an event timeline is to first outline all your significant dates, such as the invite completion date, RSVP date, final counts due to vendors, confirmation email to all attendees, and any other important dates that pertain to your specific event. After you plug these dates into your timeline, you can fill in the rest of it with all the small planning details, such as ordering linens, contracting entertainment, selecting the food and beverage, and determining any gifts or prizes for attendees.
3. Stick to an Event Budget
Your event budget serves as your guide to dictate what is and is not feasible during the planning process. Unless the sky is the limit for your event, it is crucial to establish metrics on how much to invest in the venue, catering, entertainment, and all other miscellaneous expenses. To avoid having your expenses soar far beyond your initial event estimate, you’ll need to consider all potential costs from the start. We recommend adding a range for your expenses to help determine the low and high estimates for the event.
4. Choose the Right Venue
It’s important that the venue you choose sets you up for success! When considering various venues for your event, you should confirm it will comfortably accommodate your number of guests, support your event goals, and be in an appealing geographic location. Selecting the perfect venue is vital to the event’s success. We recommend doing in-person site visits to your top venues under consideration, if you can, as you can get a very different impression in-person versus virtually.
5. Communicate with Employees and Vendors
Your communication with vendors, employees, and attendees is vital for event success. As an event planner, keeping all stakeholders up to speed is your main responsibility. This will ensure no one is left in the dark and everyone knows what their role is. We recommend adding a communication plan to your event timeline to help keep you on track.
6. Plan for Everything
As much as you want everything to go perfectly, you’ll handle unexpected situations with ease when you expect to face challenges during planning stages or the event itself. No matter how big or small the challenge, it’s important to stay calm and positive to keep everything else moving forward. Our recommendation to plan for these obstacles is to make a risk management plan to prepare for inclement weather, staff absences, or even an impromptu cancellation.
7. Contact A-mazing Events
Trust the experts. You can reduce some of your stress and workload if you hire a full-time event planning business to manage pre-event coordination and logistics and execute event day details. A-mazing Events is committed to designing and executing flawless events by listening to our clients, partnering with quality suppliers, and providing exceptional service through our attention to every detail.
Contact A-mazing Events today to make your upcoming corporate event AMAZING!
By following these 7 tips, you will plan an event that meets your goals, engages attendees, and leaves a positive, lasting impression. These tips will ensure that your next corporate event is a spectacular success!
Resources
“Event Budget Basics: What to Know to Stay on Track.” (2018, May 25). Peerspace. Accessed electronically at: https://www.peerspace.com/resources/event-budget/
“SMART Goals.” (2016). MindTools. Accessed electronically at: https://www.mindtools.com/a4wo118/smart-goals
“10 Best Event Venues Near Me.” Peerspace. Accessed electronically at: https://www.peerspace.com/plan/event