10 step guide on how to plan a corporate event

Have a big corporate event to plan? This article will guide you through the process of planning a successful event. Corporate events bring people from different walks of life to one place. Some of the common corporate events are exhibitions, annual conferences, and festivals, which attract more eyes to an organization or its product. Corporate event planning turns out to be one of the most profitable areas of event planning. Companies like Apple, Tesla, and Google organize at least one mega event every year to market their products and share their stats with their stakeholders. For example, in the Apple event in 2020, Apple released its new iPhone. After that event, Apple witnessed a steep increase in new customers joining the IOS atmosphere.

The company does not organize these events itself, but a special corporate event management company is hired to organize these large-scale events. These corporate events can sometimes be fun and partying, and sometimes it is serious motives like board meetings, fundraisers, and team-building events.

Every successful corporate event requires a strategic plan. If you are planning any corporate event, know that a lot goes into a corporate event, from organizing your team, selecting your vendors, to finalizing your venue. After consulting top corporate event organizers, we compiled a guide of ten steps to organize a successful corporate event. Take a look to prepare your event checklist within the next 10 minutes while you scroll through these 10 steps.

1. Understand the context

Prepare a template for yourself with all the aspects that go into a successful event. In that template, gather all information for your event. You must create this template in such a manner that when you refer to it, you should know:-

• What is the purpose of the event
• Whom are you planning the event for
• What should be the flow of the event
• What will this event bring in

Once you have all your goals sorted, you can determine what type of event you should organize. This can either be a small-scale event or a large-scale event.

2. Plan your budget

Once you got your event figured out, the next item on the agenda will be planning a budget. To organize a successful event, you need to plan more than one budget. Plan three different budgets for your event, like the base case, best case, and worst-case budget. When you create multiple budgets, you know how much you are going to spend on the event and will be prepared for any surprising elements.

Every event has at least two surprise factors, for which you have to allocate 10% of the budget. For example, there might be a food shortage due to a large number of guests, and you need to place last-minute food orders or any vendor might have canceled on you and you need to book someone at the earliest. After you have your budgets ready, start breaking them down and allocate funds to different tasks of the event.

3. Work according to timeline

Set a certain amount of time for each task. Prepare a to-do list for all tasks that need to be done before or during the event. When you have a team of people working for you, consider making an online spreadsheet and distributing it among the team members. This will check the team doing all the tasks, and when a task is not completed in its set period, you can coordinate with the member responsible for that task and follow the timeline.

4. Use online tools

Use online event collaborative software to keep track of things, like keeping track of sponsors, and creating your event map for your event. When you use online tools, your team can update everything happening in real-time and can save double work and redos. You can use a cloud service where you can upload your ideas and plans and share them with your team members.

5. Make guests feel exclusive

The guest list will include board members, employees, stakeholders, consumers, and community members. From this, the guest list can be a long one or a short one. We will have to make sure that every guest attending the event must experience that the event is exclusively for him/her. Guests will remember the experience of the event, and every guest is a brand ambassador for our product or company. Every item at the event must have a personalized touch, from writing their names on the invitations to the food they will be served.

6. Choose an interactive format

When you choose a format for the event, make sure it is unique. Check out themes used by competitors, and find out the response of the audience to that theme. Research your audience’s interest on Google Analytics and search for what is more engaging with the audience. Plan your event in a way that people learn something at every step, don’t get bored, and interact with other people.

7. Pick a local venue

Location is a critical aspect of event planning. Host your event in a prominent location so that no one misses your event due to far off location. Explore all local events, from public gardens to auditoriums and banquet halls. The venue you pick must be comfortable and have a pleasant atmosphere. Do visit every possible venue to experience it yourself.

8. Real-time updates

Real-time updates are very important on the day of the event, and before the event. Use online collaboration tools to keep the vendors, colleagues, and venue on the same track. Share updates with helpers, chefs, decorators, painters, drivers, so everyone is at the right place at the right time doing the right task.

9. Sales and Marketing

People won’t come to the event if they don’t know about the event. You need to promote your event so that many people attend it. Create a website for your event and display all the necessary information about the event on the website. Tell people that if they register on the website, you will send them reminders about the event. Work with your marketing team to place advertisements in newsletters and on social media this will help reach the news of the event to the masses.

10. Ending the event

We spend much time at the start of the event, from the inauguration to welcome speeches. You should make the end of your event so empathetic that the audience walks away with a big smile on their face, and in return, it satisfies your goals. You can end your event in many ways, like talking to the consumers about the product, let them have an experience of your product. You can also give out freebies to people attending as a token of appreciation. Furthermore, clear all the due payments, and note down all the experiences and challenges faced during the event to overcome any problems in the next event.

This is the complete guide following which you can organize one of the best corporate events. You may face many challenges through the whole process, but once you overcome these challenges, you will have a sensational event and loads of experience with you.

We at RamadaBanquets have the best banquet halls in Chicago where you can organize your corporate event. The thing that makes us better than our competitors is that we provide our clients with a team of professionals to use their expertise and plan the best corporate event for you. Our banquet halls are located in the prime locations of Chicago, which makes them easily accessible. We provide you with all the technical & non-technical support and services to make your event a grand success. Contact us today to host your next corporate event at Ramada!