The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Event Planning

Does your company have an upcoming business event? Thinking of diving into the world of corporate event planning with this opportunity? If so, your timing is perfect!

Corporate event planners are the heart and soul behind every business event.

They plan all the little details from venue selection to creating the guest list. Follow these step-by-step planning tips and you too can create an event that will have participants talking about your company long after the event is over.

Corporate Event Planning: Getting Organized

There are many event planning checklists online that can help corporate event planners get organized. These checklists can also help with budgeting costs and brainstorming topics and speakers for your upcoming event. Use these checklists to lead you through the steps outlined below.

Planning

The goal of any corporate event should be to draw new customers, strengthen existing customer connections, or highlight new as well as current business products.

Begin planning your event by outlining your goals for sponsoring the event. Are you planning a seminar, conference, or customer appreciation event? Have a solid business rationale for sponsoring the corporate event and a detailed work plan that helps you achieve it.

Identify Your Participants

Once you’ve outlined your event goals, it’s time to pick the audience you want to invite. To reach the right participants, you need to know who they are and where they are coming from so you can create an appealing agenda that meets their expectations.

Try free online registration tools such as 123Formbuilder or EventBrite. These online tools collect important background information about your attendants like their home or work address, phone number, gender, and profession. Use this background information to structure a program that engages your audience’s attention and meets their business needs.

Select the Event Location

Consider your participant’s travel interests. Would they rather come to a site that is centrally located and easily accessible? Do a little homework and you are sure to find a location that’s designed to attract as well as accommodate corporate events.

Choose the Start/End Times for Your Event

Avoid scheduling event start and end times that conflict with your customer’s peak business cycles, if you know when they happen. Organize live social media streaming and record speakers or product demonstrations. Viewers can then share social media streaming with other viewers and direct web traffic to your company website.

Create a Marketing Plan

Draft a marketing plan that outlines your event’s advertising vehicles, messaging and intended audience. Consider using a GIF (graphical interchange format) to personalize one-of-a-kind emails or online advertising. Read more here about how digital marketers use GIF’s and how you can even try to make your own.

Use your company’s digital properties to get the word out. Create an event page on your website that includes a list of the day’s start/end times, speakers, and venue details that followers can share with other colleagues.

Schedule Off-Site Networking

Advertise networking opportunities to draw more participants to your conference. Networking allows participants to share their experiences and meet subject matter experts in person. Discover more valuable tools here to facilitate productive corporate event networking.

Next Steps

Start your corporate event planning tasks today! Consult with co-workers or other business partners to strategize location ideas and create your marketing plan. Consult with company leaders on your event budget.

Follow these step-by-step planning ideas and all your corporate events will be a success. For more tips on how to boost your business presence, check out our collection of business posts.