Earl Timothy
Seminars, workshops, conferences, and other large events or gatherings have been prohibited in the past few months due to the danger brought by the Covid19 pandemic. It indeed affects many people, especially those that are into organizing events.
Although the event planning industry has been in a rough situation, event organizers are able to adapt and are still able to manage multiple events while in the comfort of their own homes. Most of them hosted a virtual event. But now that everything is getting better little by little, events are slowly getting back to normal. That is why many event planners are excited to get back into what they are eager to do.
So, if you are one of them or are still thinking about getting into the industry, this article will remind and teach you the helpful guidelines for organizing an event.
What are the important things to consider in organizing an event?
Whether you are an aspiring event organizer or already working in the industry, you should know that there are essential things you need to know and remember in order to manage a gathering successfully. Whether the occasion is for executives or not, the following are crucial aspects that your event should have.
I. Purpose
In terms of event planning, one of the most crucial things to consider is the goal and purpose for putting on the event. You do not want to hold a corporate event with no specific event objective because goals will help you focus and base your decision on creating a successful event.
II. Event type
As you define the purpose of your business occasion, you can then identify the type of event that it could fall into. Take note that every event category may come with different planning, approaches, and ways to measure success.
Product launch, conferences, seminars, corporate events, and workshops are some of the few options of the event categories. To know more about the different types of events, you may read this article.
III. Event budget and unforeseen expenses
Corporate event planning does not come for free, be sure that you prepare yourself for the upcoming expenses. Funding can impact almost every aspect of the occasion, such as the venue, guest speaker, staff’s compensation, design, event website, event app, etc.
Aligning to the event budget, setting aside some funds for unforeseen and unwanted expenses is also vital. During the execution day of the occasion, there might be an unexpected thing to happen, like buying a pen, running out of bottled water for the guest speakers, and even worst, an equipment malfunction. Given that, it is vital that your budget is controlled tightly and you have contingency plans and funds.
IV. Venue
A gathering will never happen without having a venue for it to take place. If you choose to have a large-scale event that will involve panel discussions, a venue with a big auditorium is recommended. Perhaps, if your corporate event features smaller networking or breakout sessions, the venue must have a lot of space to handle breakout groups effectively.
The mentioned examples are essential for in-person corporate events, however, if you’re hosting a virtual event, this doesn’t mean it won’t be useful. For organizing online events, make sure that the event app or event technology tools you will be using can handle more than your expected attendees.
Take note that your event goal, type, and budget will affect the venue or online platform you will use. So, make sure that you plan well with your team to create a successful corporate event for executives.
What are the five stages of the event planning process?
A corporate event or events, in general, do not just happen without putting any action into them. It passes through the different corporate event planning processes before an organization or event planner publicizes them. In this part of the article, you are about to learn the five stages of the event planning process.
1. Researching
Researching is a phase where you figure out the answers to the event objectives and other important things you need to consider, as mentioned above. Some event planners or organizing companies disregard this part, and if you are planning to skip this crucial step, be advised that it can harm your occasion for not having concrete information about it.
During the research phase, you may have a set of questions to help to find the valuable information that you will be needing. The following are a few questions you might want to consider asking yourself:
- How many guests shall I cater to?
- What type of event am I going to host? Is it a product launch, seminars, or workshop?
- Will I be needing security personnel for peace and order?
- Can I offer online registration?
- How much money shall we allocate for the budget?
- When is the event schedule?
- Can I partner with local businesses for my supplies needs?
Make sure that you have a corporate event planning checklist to ensure that you do not miss out on any essential aspects needed. Take note that if you are working with a client, it is best to ask your client a lot of questions to uncover their expectations.
2. Design the Event
The design phase will help you identify the theme, program flow, venue layout, event website layout, number of event attendees, guest speakers, etc. In this phase, you will be brainstorming with your team or client to ensure the success of your event.
During this phase, you can also equally delegate the task to your team so that it will be easier for everyone to reach out to the assigned person if they have questions or concerns with the particular subject. By doing this, you can ensure that everything runs smoothly, establish corporate communications, and avoid unwanted scenarios during the occasion.
3. Brand the Event
Branding means creating a strong perception about your event to attract sponsors and attendees. Branding is a major aspect because it will showcase why your occasion is unique and why it is worth attending.
Promotional materials are one of the common ways to build brand awareness. You want your target audience to think of your event as having a strong personality. As a result, when picking branding ideas and methods, choose the one that will surely help you publicize your plans. The following are some of the necessities in event branding:
Event name and logo – Does your business gathering have a name? Your event’s name will be the first thing that your attendees will notice, so make sure the event name will reflect the event’s goals and objectives. Meanwhile, the logo is also essential because it serves as the face of the occasion and quickly identifies your brand among its competitors.
Theme – A name alone cannot tell the whole story of your event. An event theme will make your audience more curious about the occasion, which can then bring up constant communication between the event organizers, audience, and guest speakers.
Color palette – The color should be consistent with all the marketing materials and even souvenirs if you have one. In this way, the potential sponsors and attendees will never get confused about the event.
These are just a few details that can make your branding or event marketing plan more successful. Branding is a big task, so keep in mind that every element that comes along, such as decorations, email blasting for specific invitation lists, media relations, mobile event app for virtual events, registration process, and more, should come together to support the occasion that you are hosting.
4. Coordination
The coordination phase is where your entire event process comes together. Coordination refers to finalizing plans with the members of the team, staff, company employees, and volunteers.
Everyone involved in the meeting planning should know how vital their role is to the success of the event. Especially during the execution itself, tighter communication and coordination are required to ensure that everything runs smoothly. So, make sure you practice coordination with everyone beforehand to guarantee that everything will work together for good. If there are any problems, you should be able to resolve them as soon as possible.
This stage is critical and requires hard work! But this is what makes organizers successful because they have excellent attention to detail.
5. Evaluation
The fifth and final stage is where the surveys and post-event follow-up come in. The evaluation stage is where you check and review all of the steps that you have gone through. This stage is functional, specifically if you are new to the industry or want to collect positive feedback and reviews to build your reputation as an event planner.
For virtual events, you can send online surveys or questionnaires to your attendees, while for in-person events, you can give a handout survey or use online surveys forms as well to collect feedback about the event.
The feedback you gathered from the participants is only a portion of the event evaluation. After the event, everyone involved in the process should come together and discuss whether the goals and objectives were met.
Now that you have learned the five phases of event management and planning, I hope that you become more confident with organizing an event and delivering the best out of your next event where it deserves to be. Also, always remember that the only way to improve your event planning skills is to be willing to grow and improve.
What are the three important steps in organizing an event?
There are many factors and vital aspects to organizing a well-planned event. But there are still important things that stand out. Here are the three most important steps in organizing an event.
Team planning
I know for sure that you are aware of the old man proverb, “no man is an island.” This means that no person can be self-sufficient and must rely on others in order to thrive.
When it comes to event planning, a single person cannot organize the business gathering alone; you will badly need a team to work with. Why do you need a team? As a planning team, you will quickly achieve what you want your business gathering to reach. Also, during the planning, your team members can give ideas that could enhance the experience of the participants and the project management system or event logistics.
Venue and marketing
Even if you plan to start small events or large-scale events, it will never happen if it does not have a place for them to happen. Also, the concept or theme can be challenging in the overall organizing process if you do not have the right venue for it.
Venue affects the marketing efforts because it catches your audience’s attention and potential attendees. If you have a suitable venue, people are more likely to join.
Your marketing plans are essential to your viewers because they need to know the details about the event. Marketing also comes with working with sponsors, partners, influencers, or brand ambassadors. These people or organizations will help your event to stand out from other events and receive recognition.
As for potential sponsors and business partners, they might depend on your branding and marketing plans to see if your occasion will be beneficial to them before they give out their sponsorship packages. They remarkably examine every piece of your document to make sure that your team has a plan and brainstorming session.
Communication and public relation
To avoid misunderstandings and strengthen connections, it’s important to communicate with the event management team. Communication comes with cooperation and coordination; when these are followed strictly, conveying ideas makes the team bolder and trust each other to work together in meeting the same objective.
As for your target participants, communication is crucial because it makes them feel that you care about them. When your team addresses the public, people are more likely to spread the message and talk about your event. Providing enough staff or information desk to assist your participants with their queries is another way of communicating with them during the event.
You are not just building trust with your viewers, but it also helps to increase brand awareness and serve as an advertisement because they are more likely to encourage other attendees like their colleagues and family. As a result, when these viewers enjoy your company a lot, they are more likely to attend the next event that you will be hosting.
Keep in mind that organizing a business gathering is not just about the profit that goes to your sales teams or the business partners and sponsorship opportunities you had. Hosting an event requires patience, knowledge, and a deep understanding of how the industry really works. Remember that you are hosting a corporate gathering, not just as your career but to help your attendees to learn new things or meet networking opportunities. So, make sure that you do things wholeheartedly to assure the event’s success.
