The list of reasons to host a corporate event is long: bring employees together, build a positive working culture, keep teams engaged and motivated, celebrate success, share business plans, launch new products, and invite business speakers are among the many objectives companies have. Whatever your purpose, let’s look at how you can ensure your next corporate event is a resounding success.
How will this guide help you?
While there are multiple reasons to host a corporate event, there are just as many different formats to consider. Companies hold annual meetings, which sometimes include renowned external business or motivational speakers. Some companies host one-time events for special occasions such as a merger or company anniversary.
Corporate events can be in-person or virtual or a hybrid combination. Whatever your needs, this guide is your go-to manual whether you are the employee in charge, an event consultant, or a corporate event planner. We detail everything to consider and cover when planning a corporate event and give you a list of different types of events to match your corporate or team needs. Let’s get started.
The event concept
The first step in your planning is to know exactly why you wish to hold a corporate event. What is my goal? The answer to this question will help you choose the direction of your event. The reasons can range from celebrating the accomplishments of your marketing or sales team to a team-building picnic in the countryside or a special dinner in conjunction with a shareholder or board meeting. It can be a wonderful way to show your employees how much you appreciate them or to celebrate their business development achievements.
Often employees — your most valuable resource — are the reason to host the event. A corporate event can provide an avenue to conceive new ideas. While the event can be entertaining and informative, it’s also a great way to foster camaraderie in the workplace or a sense of team spirit. The main purpose might be to show you appreciate your employees and their good work or dedication. A corporate event can help the company achieve its goals or foster team building among employees. At least once per year, every business should invest in creating lasting memories through memorable team-building events promoting team spirit and unity. What’s more, if there’s a sense of enthusiasm among employees who develop products or provide services to clients, this will positively affect the bottom line as well.
The next step is developing or determining a theme and knowing how it can be reflected — from the decorations to the agenda and activities.
Once you have decided on a corporate theme, determine who should attend — company employees only, employees and customers, external guests — and how you will invite them and get them to attend.
Next decide where the event will occur. Will it be an in-person corporate event or an online virtual event? If you are thinking of an in-person event, determine where you would like to hold your event. Do you need a meeting room? A large hall? A convention center? How do you choose the perfect venue? Or, are you leaning towards a virtual event?
Finally it’s important to determine the budget by making a comprehensive list of everything required.
If you have decided on a virtual event, Everytale can help you stay within your budget and offer all the event tools you need. Using an innovative platform that is a one-stop shop for your virtual events saves you money and time and allows you to take the corporate event to a whole new level.
Here are a few helpful tips for planning an event
- Always start with a goal in mind.
- Choose options that allow maximum exposure, reach, and ROI.
- Determine a date that works best for everyone involved — including yourself.
- Determine how you will invite people and if you will, for example, have gifts or special discounts to attract more attendees.
- Plan your budget around all of the elements of your event.
Don’t forget to give your attendees a great experience. This will spread the word about your event and attract more people in the future. Nothing works better than “word-of-mouth” marketing!
Now that you know most of the basics for hosting your corporate event, you may look at your budget and think, “WOW, this is not happening!” We all know that in-person corporate events can be expensive, especially since the cost of goods and services has skyrocketed in the past few years. Times have changed, and many companies are looking for innovative ways to conduct business, including corporate events. These days keeping people safe is also a consideration of paramount importance.
Is there a way to make planning a corporate event easier? Yes! Two little words can make your life easier: Virtual Events.
Virtual events are nothing new anymore, and they are keeping event planning companies very busy! They’ve been around for quite some time and are more popular than ever. Why? Because virtual corporate events offer many advantages over traditional in-person events or business seminars. Here are 15 benefits:
1- Virtual events are generally less expensive to organize. Many companies are on a tight budget and struggling with the downturn during the pandemic. In-person events can be costly and virtual events can be much less expensive!
2- It is easier to have access to more speakers. Being on-site is not compulsory for speakers when you are hosting a virtual event. It is less work and expense for your company if you don’t need to fly your speakers in, accommodate them in a hotel, and entertain and pay their expenses.
3- Virtual events allow you to achieve company goals beyond geographical boundaries. It is easy for someone to host or join your event from anywhere around the world in seconds! You can spread your message across global borders faster and cheaper. Imagine hosting a worldwide event with no borders or geographic limitations.
4- You can set up the event anytime you want, unlike in-person events where it needs time and date coordination with all the attendees. Virtual events take less time to set up, especially when using a platform like Everytale that allows easy, seamless setup.
5- A virtual event gives you more potential to garner press coverage. You have more chances of attracting media attention to create a buzz, which means that more people and potential customers will know about your brand or product.
6- Virtual events are less expensive to attend. You can boost your attendance by making it easy and inexpensive for your guests to attend your event online. Your attendees won’t have the expense of paying for transportation, hotel, food, and admission to your event, so they have more money to spend on your goods and services.
7- People are busy and have hectic schedules, so virtual events are good for them since they don’t have to travel anywhere. No excuses! People can connect from laptops, mobile phones, or tablets, so it is easier to fit an event into their busy schedules.
8- You can easily share your event on social media. Social media can help your content go viral. Since you can save your events on Everytale and allow others to watch on-demand, it helps people who could not attend to stay connected and feel like they didn’t miss a thing!
10- Virtual participants can ask questions in real-time via chat or email. It is very frustrating when someone wants to ask a question, but needs to wait for an answer! That could make or break your sales, customer service, and more! Being able to ask and answer questions in real-time is priceless!
11- People are less nervous when they participate online, which means that conversations are usually better than face-to-face interventions. If someone doesn’t want to be on camera, they can always turn their video off.
12- If you’re targeting a specific group of people, virtual events may be an easier way to distribute relevant content to them, which wouldn’t happen if you organize an offline or in-person event. You can create “break out” groups for a more personal setting for your event. Break-out groups are little mini-workshops usually based on a topic and work rather well.
13- Your speakers will be more relaxed, which means that they’ll deliver better presentations. Speaking at virtual events is much easier on the nerves than having to stand in front of an audience not knowing what the heck to do with your hands!
14- Virtual events are less stressful since you don’t have to coordinate with so many people at once instead of sending emails or contacting speakers one by one. It’s easier to share information with a large group of people at once when you’re online. This way, you can influence all your target audience in one shot! Hit SEND, and DONE!
15- Everything is transparent when it comes to virtual events since everything is on the web. Having everything online makes it easy for people to quickly find the information they need. No mailing things out and hoping they get there in time! (plus saves a ton on postage!)
Of course, for these benefits to be fully appreciated by your team, you need a trusted partner like Everytale who not only has years of experience organizing successful virtual business seminars and corporate events but will make sure that all of your team members will gain something of value from attending each session.
How to choose the best corporate event for your company
Here are some examples of popular corporate events:
Product Launch or Brand Introduction
It gives companies a chance to introduce their products or services in front of the target audience.
Gala Dinner
These are formal dinners where recognition is paid to the brightest and best employees by the company. It’s organized in an impressive venue like a five-star hotel.
Conference or Meeting
It’s used as a platform to discuss future strategies with prospective clients, shareholders, etc. They are organized in conference venues of any hotel or convention center.
Training Seminar or Educational Event
People love to learn! Providing them with the opportunity to connect by sharing their experiences, concerns, and new ideas is key. When you hold an event, be sure you gather everyone’s information to follow up with them later. The more people you have at the event, the more connections will be made.
Business to Business Networking
You can expand your network of possible vendors and service providers here. Build a “shortlist” of reputable, reliable, and successful business people to call upon. You may even want to inquire about co-sponsoring a seminar or recurring meeting.
Team Building Program
Team-building events for business organizations act as the perfect stress busters; they help people interact well with each other and provide them with fresh perspectives on different problems related to work. Participants can share their views, insights, etc.
Sports Event
Organized to motivate employees and promote teamwork, these events can include football, baseball, soccer, relay races, etc.
Trade Show
A trade show or convention is a large exhibition designed to showcase the products and services of various companies. It’s mainly targeted towards business organizations, and they can be held at convention centers or exhibit halls, and yes, virtually.
Dinner Meeting
These events focus on employee engagement and team building. They may involve dinner meetings, casual get-togethers, etc., and help reduce the gap between management and employees by relaxing after regular work hours. It is common in many IT companies where clients regularly visit. Having a dinner is a relaxing way to get to know your clients better, and there are clever ways to do this virtually.
Retail Promotion
These days, with so many eCommerce platforms with multiple vendors including some with headless commerce capabilities, retail promotions are very successful as a virtual event. These can be held at malls, exhibition halls, any big venue, etc. They are organized to attract a lot of foot traffic to increase sales. You can also plan a flash sale event for your online retailing business that will help you generate more revenue.
Picnic
These events are ideal for the summer season. Families love them because they include fun activities like dancing, karaoke, magic show, games, etc.; These events are often held in a park in your local community.
Award Ceremony
Organized to acknowledge talents and achievements of employees, they often occur in auditoriums where the top achievers are honored with awards. It is possible to do it virtually and make it just as meaningful and special.
Sports/Athletic Competition
A sports competition between companies of the same industry is organized to enhance communication between management and employees. Mainly held at stadiums or college grounds.
Music Night
Employees can relax after a hectic day at work by listening to soothing music under one roof.
Themed Event
Create an event based on a holiday! Fall, Halloween, winter holidays, July 4th, and Christmas all provide opportunities for themed events. You can base an event around a holiday or just an excuse for some fun.
Corporate events should be planned with proper business event management so employees can enjoy and get some benefits at the same time. Being a corporate event organizer is an important job! These events must add value to each other’s lives and make it worthwhile for everyone to participate.g One can choose from the numerous types of corporate events depending on their requirement and budget.
Make your corporate event memorable
You might ask yourself, “How do I connect my audience and keep them engaged?” The most important aspect of business event planning is to have appropriate and relevant content. Useful and actionable content is what most corporate attendees want. Give attendees a reason to attend and a reason to remember your event and your company.
So let’s look at what makes good content. Most speakers would agree that the critical elements of an engaging presentation include:
- Be clear about who you’re speaking to and what your objectives are.
- Make the content relevant.
- Be truthful and honest
- Make it fun for your audience! Be friendly, funny, and tell jokes.
- Use good images and videos when appropriate.
- Be considerate of others while speaking; leave room for questions.
- Provide interesting, relevant and timely information..
- Use slides to aid your presentation.
- Ensure your delivery is engaging with an energetic style.
- Use Gamification! People love games. You can even hand out prizes.
- Leave a lasting impression: “What will they remember me for when they leave the event?” “Will they want to come to my next event?”
Everybody wants their event to be memorable. Beyond that, we all want people to remember the event because it was sensational!
To sum up, planning and running an event doesn’t have to be complicated. If you follow the steps and plan your event step by step, you will actually be able to enjoy yourself. Hopefully, we have shown you the steps for planning and running a successful corporate event, both in person and virtually.
If your event is virtual, we hope you choose Everytale as your online event platform! Everytale allows you to create, promote and broadcast events of any size with a few clicks!
Remember to be creative with your event! Don’t stick to the same old boring type of event! Mix it up a bit. Have contests, give away prizes, make sure you have good content, and keep in mind that your bottom line is to entertain your audience.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Will Rogers said this, and even if he wasn’t talking about corporate events it is very applicable.