So you’ve planned birthday and holiday parties before. What could be so different about planning a business event?
Unlike family events where if the party turns out to be a damp squib you can make up for it by throwing a better party for the same people next year, a business event is often your one chance to make the best impression toward customers, clients and business peers. If you have a business event that fails to meet expectations, the chances are that the same people won’t attend the next one as this factor can impact the sales and operations of your business. Please look after your brand. It takes years to build but one poorly managed event can cause untold damage.
Make every event an investment into your business
Before you take out your address book and start writing out the business event invitations (or if you are more tech savvy, open up your digital contact list on your tablet), you have to decide upon two important factors. What will this business event accomplish, and who will be the target audience? There are several different types of business events that you can host:
- Customer appreciation days
- New product launch
- Grand opening or reopening
- Business marketing seminar
- Industry-related conference
- Sales blowout events
- Meet and greet business networking
- Employee team-building events
- Community events
Check out our list of 70 event types that you can choose from. It’s a pretty comprehensive list and there will be several options for you to choose from to plan a successful business event.
Once you decide on the type of event, you can figure out the important people to invite. Obviously, you wouldn’t ask business clients to attend customer appreciation days, or invite customers to networking events and industry news conferences. By deciding on these two factors, you can then focus your resources on all the right elements and people that will be needed for the event. It is also the perfect time to decide on a theme, if appropriate, such as a costume party for employee office events.
I can’t emphasise enough the amount of prep and planning that you should do for an event. For the Sponsor for a Day event last January we left no stone unturned. Even though Bank of Ireland had their own team we didn’t leave anything to chance. You get one bite at the cherry with an event like this, so we paid attention to every detail so that our customers, prospects and fellow staff members had an enjoyable and memorable day. Be as attentive and particular to every detail when it comes to your event.
Schedule appropriately to bring in enough guests
Always keep an eye on the calendar and schedule events during the days when people can attend. Try not to create a schedule conflict around annual conferences by having them decide which to attend. While it is okay to schedule theme-related events around holidays, especially when you are hosting sales events, keep in mind that people will be extremely busy and may not be able to attend. So your attendance numbers will be more unpredictable as one day the room will be packed and the next event day there is nobody in the room except for you and your team.
Create lists to better manage your budget and itinerary
There are a million and one things to plan for your event, from the lighting to the catering. Lists are a great way to iron out the details and have a better understanding about the things that you need and want at your event. The list will also allow you to budget out your funds in the best way so you don’t stretch your money too thin. Types of things that you should create a detailed list for include:
- rental items (equipment, tables, chairs, rental hall, etc…)
- food & entertainment
- transportation
- accommodation
- marketing and promotional materials
- event itinerary
- decorations
- setup and clean up teams
In addition to planning the event itself, also plan for contingencies. A guest speaker may run late or never show up, requiring you to have something else to entertain guests during that time frame. Always verify services and items that you contract for from vendors at least two days before the scheduled event. Then you will have enough time to make different arrangements if anything goes awry so you can have the most success at your business event.
