If you have attended a fair few corporate events in your time, you will know only too well how tedious these can be. You see the same people, eat the same food, and make the same small talk. But what if it didn’t have to be that way?
The beauty of being in the planning stages of any event is that you can pretty much do whatever you want, so why stick to the same boring formula when you could do so much more?
Find out how to make your next corporate event a memorable one, with practical tips and advice that are easy to apply.
Plan ahead
The sooner you can start planning your corporate event, the better, with clear deadlines and benchmarks for you to achieve along the way. This will enable you to navigate any problems with ease and prevent any disasters from occurring.
One of the first jobs you should do is pick a date for your event as you will need this before you can book a venue, caterer, or any entertainment (and before you can send out invitations).
Make sure you give yourself enough time to plan all the different elements, as you don’t want to be rushing around like a headless chicken in the weeks leading up to your event.
Create a buzz around your event
One of the best steps that you can take to make your next corporate event more memorable is to get people talking about it long before it even takes place. There are lots of ways in which you can create a buzz around your event, such as posting videos on social media to show snippets of the entertainment you have booked or the food you are going to serve.
You could also create a website for the event where you can post updates on your plans and showcase what people can expect from your event.
Pick the perfect location
If you want to get people excited about your event and encourage more guests to attend, you need to think carefully about your choice of venue. Purely on a practical front, you need to pick a location that is easy for everyone to get to. For example, somewhere with good transport links and on-site parking for those who intend to drive.
Take the time to research different corporate event destinations to find ones with the wow factor and make sure you read customer reviews to see what experiences previous event organizers have had.
Aim to impress
When it comes to the décor, the entertainment, the catering, and the music, you want to do your best to impress. If you are already feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of organizing all of these important elements, it can be a good idea to choose one to focus on and then build everything else around it.
You don’t have to decide on a theme but this can be a good way to bring everything together and it can also help to dictate the dress code for your guests. There are lots of themes for corporate events to choose from, with options to suit all business types and budgets.
Engage with your audience
At the event itself, you need to be actively looking for ways to engage with your audience, as this will help to make your event more memorable. Some of the best ways to engage with guests at a corporate event include taking song requests, reading out social media comments from guests that were made before the event, and using a combination of visual aids such as images and videos.
You may also want to invite influencers from within your niche to speak at your event as this can help to drive engagement and make your event more memorable.
Delegate tasks
It can be all too easy to become overwhelmed when planning a corporate event, especially if you try and take on everything by yourself. To avoid this, make sure that you surround yourself with a reliable team, ideally filled with people who have experience in organizing events, and then delegate tasks accordingly.
Make sure that everyone is informed about each aspect of the event and that your team has visited the venue at least once so that they are familiar with the space.
