Three crucial considerations for the corporate event planning process
The corporate event planning process is vastly different to that of a private affair. Not only is your client’s reputation on the line, yours is too. Extensive guest lists that comprise of high-profile and influential guests need to be handled with the utmost of care. For this reason, your corporate event planning process needs to be meticulous and professionally conducted from beginning to end.
1. The demographic of your guests will influence all aspects of the corporate event planning process.
In order to plan a corporate event that’s well attended, and that results in a return on investment as well as brand advocacy, it’s imperative to give consideration to the type of guests who’ll be attending the event. After all, the purpose of all corporate events is to make a lasting impression on those who attend.
If you’re planning an internal corporate event, you’ll need to determine whether the guests are employees from all tiers of an organisation, are from one specific department, or are VIPs like board members or an EXCO committee. These differentiating factors will influence the way in which you go about the corporate event planning process.
The type of guests invited to your corporate event will also dictate the kind of touch points that are most likely to resonate. These include: the invitations, venue, catering, entertainment, and a whole host of other elements of the event. Importantly, the demographics of your guests will enable you to refrain from using entertainment (for example) that’s inappropriate. A local comedian who’s known for their risqué jokes may be a hit at an internal team-building function, but may leave VIP guests at a gala dinner unimpressed.
Above all, the corporate event needs to engage and impress guests, and accurately reflect the values and personality of the brand.
2. It’s imperative that you have as much information about your guests on hand, in order to conduct a corporate event planning process that’s efficient.
The more information you have at your disposal, the easier your corporate event planning process will be.
In order to plan an event that makes the best impression on guests – and your client – you’ll need to collect as much data about your guests as possible. This includes their contact details, dietary requirements, the name of their partner (if invited), their job title etc. Manually collecting this sort of information is almost impossible and requires an extraordinary amount of time. In addition, human error often means that this vital data is either incorrect, or goes missing.
In order to ensure that you have a detailed database that’s accurate, up-to-date and manageable by all staff members concerned, you’ll need event planning software. This eliminates having to use spreadsheets, and importantly, is linked to your online invitations which allows for real-time updates to your guest list. What’s more, because this software is cloud-based, you won’t have to worry about data going missing, and, you’ll be able to access this on-site too.
3. The invitation process differs from event to event, and needs to be tailored accordingly.
Corporate events involve the investment of a substantial amount of money, which means that professional events agencies need to do all that they can to ensure that the event is as well attended as possible. The date and time of the event needs to be factored in. If it’s during peak event season – November to December – you’ll need to send out ‘save the dates’ well in advance.
In addition, some companies don’t want to give out too much information about an on their invitations; the type of corporate event will determine this, as will the guest list. If you’re planning an internal corporate event, your client may request that certain information – such as the line-up of speakers – is left off the invite. This is to safeguard against guests arriving late or leaving early so that they don’t have to sit through a specific presentation. Other invitation considerations for optimal corporate event planning are whether you’ll need to design the invitation yourself, or whether the client will provide you with graphics.
The corporate event invitation process is lengthy, and requires a system that consolidates and stores all information to prevent conflicting data. Bear in mind that guests respond to invitations at different times. When planning a corporate event with a guest list of hundreds – you can’t afford to miss one acceptance or decline. Using software like ours will enable you to stay up to speed with guest list developments as they occur, and ultimately, conduct your corporate event planning process in a way that’s efficient, and effective
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