Corporate Event Planning Tips

Four men in business attire sit in a row on a seminar panel discussion stage. The man in the center, wearing glasses, looks attentively at another speaker. Blue and purple lighting highlights the corporate event setting in the background.

1. Who is your target audience?

The first step — before you do anything else — is to clearly define who your target audience is. From here, all the other decisions will fall into place in terms of format, content, prices, location etc. This structured approach will also help you to stay focused on achieving specific goals and not allowing the scope to become too broad or watered down.

Three men stand in a well-lit corporate event space; the man in the center wears a virtual reality headset and holds a controller, while the others observe. Other attendees mingle in the background.

2. Define a clear purpose for holding the event.

For an event to be successful, you must be clear on why you are doing it in the first place, because every decision after that should support your main goal. Is it lead generation? Team building? Boosting morale? Is your organization’s goal to create awareness of your company or a product? Is it to develop customer loyalty? Or do you simply want to make money (which is completely acceptable as well)?

Having an answer to this question will allow flexibility in the venue, content, and activities planned thereafter. For example, if you have team building in mind, go with hands-on activities, games and amusement parks. This also goes for boosting morale. It makes no sense to wrangle up your staff to stare at a projector in the banquet hall of the Hilton practicing their role-playing techniques. Some goals require concentration while others should encourage movement and improvisation.

A group of people in formal attire stand together, smiling and holding up one finger each in front of a "SHINE" step-and-repeat banner at a corporate event.

3. Consider crowdfunding to raise money for an event.

Whether this is your first time running events, or you’re a seasoned vet, try crowdfunding platforms to ease the risk and inspire interest. By opening up, your events on these platforms attendees will have the option to pledge for tickets for a particular event to take place. Typically, when the minimum number of attendees required to show up is not met the event usually does not take place.

Offer more than one option to introduce voting and competition. This also engages your entire organization in the planning process which encourages trust, engagement and morale in itself.

People are gathered at night at the entrance of El Chorro Lodge, elegantly decorated with string lights. A sign reads "Deluxe Exchange 2017." Desert plants and a festive atmosphere set the scene, creating an ideal backdrop for corporate event photography.

4. Define good reason(s) for people to show up.

What’s the draw for attendees? You need to define WHAT it is that you’re trying to achieve at the event that will bring those target attendees in the door. For consumer products think about a party with entertainment and product demos with freebies. For a business-minded group, your content could be based on educational content or an exciting, well-known expert speaker. Whatever it is, don’t lose the connection with why you want this particular audience clamoring to get in.

A group of people seated at tables attentively watching a presentation during the corporate event. Several attendees, equipped with laptops and tablets, enhance the focused atmosphere captured in this event photography. The room is softly lit, fostering concentration and engagement.

5. Iteration of an Invite

The invitation to your event is one of the most (if not the most) important aspects of the complete planning process. Invitations for corporate events should be perfectly timed as to arrive neither too early nor too late. Three weeks out is a good rule to schedule this and other invitations by. But if you want to get on executives’ calendars, you might want to send it out even earlier. The more detailed and elaborate an invitation is for a dinner event, the better, but you may want to be more simple and straight to the point if you’re presenting a demo. Include directions that include access to public transportation. Make it easy to be an attendee.

Consider method of delivery. Do not miss out on opportunities to market your event on social media platforms relevant to your industry and attendees.

Corporate Event Photography Portfolio

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