For a corporate event to run smoothly, thousands of tasks have to be simultaneously planned and executed perfectly. That’s a major headache for anyone not used to working on larger scale events.
When it’s your reputation at stake, you can end up focusing on every detail, tying yourself in knots over the smallest thing and losing sight of the content you want the event to actually deliver.
At Noble Events, we’ve spent years delivering exceptional brand experiences for some of the most coveted brands across the globe.
So we’ve prepared this guide to equip event planners with the knowledge and tools needed for successful corporate event execution. These are the top ten questions – in no particular order – that all event planners need to ask to ensure a headache-free experience.
- Will your event budget stretch?
A few years ago, it was common practice for businesses to throw huge sums at corporate events without a care in the world. Things are different now.
Yes, everyone wants that wow factor but sustainability, authenticity and budget justification are equally important if you want your event to have credibility.
When you’re working out your budget, every single penny should go towards making the experience as memorable as possible for delegates. From speakers to serviettes, lighting to linens and floral arrangements to feedback forms, everything has to be costed and planned for.
The first thing you need is a ballpark figure that takes into account all the major expenses associated with your event – venue hire, registration, catering services, technology, entertainment, staff, speakers, transport – the list goes on.
And then you need a contingency pot to accommodate any changes or unexpected costs – because they absolutely will come up. The best-prepared planners allow an element of versatility – up to 10 to 15 per cent of the overall budget – so there are no nasty surprises in the post-event review meetings.
Once your budget is locked in, everything else falls into place. It allows planners to get going on all the major decisions and you to start visualising what your event is going to look like.
- How many people are coming?
Again, a fundamental consideration that needs establishing as early as possible in the planning process. You don’t need exact numbers from the start, just a ballpark figure to allow planning to proceed and to guide you on the venue to look for.
An important consideration here is your breakeven point. How many people do you need to come along to make the event financially viable? It’s also worth having in mind the absolute maximum number of delegates you can accommodate, for practical reasons as well as safety ones.
When you’re talking to a venue about the number of attendees, expect them to be flexible. It’s often simply not possible to give them a precise number, especially in the early planning stages. If they want your business, they should be prepared to give you some latitude.
Another important point when thinking about numbers – a good venue will give you a price based on the minimum number of people turning up. That way, the hit to your bottom line will not be as damaging if fewer than expected people walk through the doors.
- How can I get sponsorship for my corporate event?
Never overlook the chance to get your event sponsored by a corporate partner. It’s the ultimate win-win scenario for both event organiser – who gets help paying for or publicising the event – and sponsor – who gets exposure to potential clients and the feelgood factor of seeing their name everywhere and have a mention of their brand from the podium.
To find one, look for strategic partners whose goals might be aligned with yours. Do some research and get out and network with promising contacts. Try to offer them something that is worthwhile for them to sponsor; it may be that having their name everywhere isn’t rewarding enough so consider what would be beneficial for them – would a breakout session or a networking hour present a more attractive proposition?
Fashioning your pitch to a potential sponsor is crucial. Point out all the things they stand to gain by getting involved, whether that be broad exposure to a new audience, direct client contact, association with your brand or just the chance to highlight what they do to a large audience.
And don’t rule out the possibility of bringing in several sponsors, all with different levels of involvement. From individual table sponsors to ‘name above the door’ headline sponsors, there’s something to be gained for all involved.
A sponsor can inject cash into the event, broadening the scope of what’s possible, or give you credibility through brand association. Either way, they can ultimately be the key to your event fulfilling the possibilities you had dreamt about.
- Where should I hold my event?
This is arguably your biggest decision of all because there are so many different considerations that go into deciding where your event should be held. They are:
- Transport to and from your venue
How easy is the venue to get to? If it’s in the middle of the countryside, how are people getting home or are they staying there? Think about parking, road closures, strikes on the railways and Tube. If your event is abroad, ease of communication with the venue hosts is absolutely crucial if you’re not going to risk disaster.
- Layout of your event space
Without careful planning, issues with the layout you’ve chosen for your event might not become apparent until it’s well under way. Long queues, bottlenecks and disruptive noise can all cause major problems for the smooth running of proceedings. Always choose a venue where staff are knowledgeable here and happy to talk about these problems with solutions already to hand. And don’t forget additional spaces like breakout rooms, cloakrooms and storage areas.
- Character of the venue itself
Your ideal venue isn’t all about capacity but character as well. The assembly rooms in a seaside town might be great for a trade union conference but is that the right place for your swish awards or business presentation? Surroundings play an important role in people’s perceptions of your event so they are well worth giving due consideration to.
- The small print of your venue hire contract
The last thing you want to discover is a buried clause that adds thousands to the cost of your event but which the venue owner conveniently overlooked during discussions. Typically, these may include fees like service charges for putting the chairs away or for dressing the room. If you find these clauses early on and the management hasn’t discussed them with you, then alarm bells should be ringing.
- Sustainability policies of your chosen event venue
It’s completely acceptable to ask a venue owner what their policy is on waste management and how their energy efficiency stacks up. Indeed, if you book a venue where sustainability is not near the top of the priority list, that could affect your reputation. It doesn’t look good to have 30 minicabs sat outside the place with their engines running, neither does a blank face when you ask the restaurant manager if the fish is sustainably sourced.
- How important are clear objectives for my corporate event?
Spend time before you dive into any of the practical stuff to work out exactly what you want from your corporate event. Are you looking to widen your contact base, get your key messages out to a wider audience, introduce a new product to market or encourage delegates to complete a specific outcome?
When you’ve worked that out, you’ve completed the first step to ensuring every aspect of your event contributes to your overall goal. For example, a product launch has a different set of venue requirements from a networking day and will affect your planning accordingly.
Setting deliverable objectives makes it much easier to measure the success of your event. If the goal was for 200 visitors to sign up to attend a supplementary event and 300 people did that then you’ve got a successful outcome.
The setting of clear objectives is the difference between a nice event and one that makes a long-lasting impact on your delegates and delivers a great return on your investment.
- Can I pivot my planning and objectives as I go?
Of course you can – all good planners refine and adjust their arrangements and the architecture of their event, often right up to the day itself!
As you proceed down the planning process, it’s essential to keep asking yourself if what you are doing is still going to hit your initial goals. If you’re veering off track, refine your planning to start heading back in the right direction.
And during the event itself, you can use real-time feedback from attendees, stakeholders and on-the-ground observations to gauge if everything is going as planned. Don’t be afraid to change things – running orders, menu items, who’s sat where – if you feel it could improve your event.
And make sure never to waste feedback. If it comes in too late for the current event, tweak your approach to improve future ones.
This agile approach will set you in good stead for the next event you plan, ensuring good things are carried across and procedures that didn’t go according to plan aren’t repeated.
- My budget isn’t stretching as far as I’d hoped. What can I do?
Money seldom goes as far as we would hope. It’s common for seasoned event planners to adopt some savvy planning ideas to wring the most out of every penny in their budget.
Technology can be a massive help here. Using a comprehensive event management platform can dramatically reduce manual labour costs and improve efficiency. They do everything from managing registrations and tracking budget expenditure to coordinating vendor activities and even handling participant engagement. The equivalent of a Swiss army knife, these multi-faceted online tools are a Godsend, particularly when it comes to the bottom line.
Selecting the right venue and timing can significantly reduce costs. Consider venues that offer comprehensive packages including AV equipment and catering (see more on this in the next question). Booking during off-peak periods can also mean you’ll get a discount from the venue – if they’re empty, they’re making nothing.
Engage with vendors early to negotiate prices before demand peaks. Establishing strong relationships with vendors can lead to discounts and more favourable terms. And for recurrent events, it’s well worth considering multi-event contracts.
- What’s the situation with the event AV and food?
In terms of an event organiser’s nerves, these two areas are where the most pain points are to be found. Disappointing food and error-prone AV equipment are the stuff of nightmares and can haunt an organiser for years to come.
Always remember – the venue has likely done all this before, they want your repeat business and they’re there to help. Lean on them, communicate regularly and make sure they know with mathematical precision what it is you want. They’re used to it.
For AV, a good venue will be able to provide a robust audio-visual set-up as standard – with time allowed for rehearsals. It should be very straightforward to use and leave presenters and your event team with nothing to worry about on the day.
Sometimes you can recover from a fluffed PowerPoint slide or a short microphone glitch. But get the food wrong and your delegates will be in open rebellion and certainly won’t be enamoured about attending the next event. It doesn’t just have to be good, it has to be tilted to fit all dietary requirements.
Allergies, preferences and other needs all have to be catered for, smoothly and without any fuss. If someone has to watch everyone else eat for ten minutes while they’re waiting for their gluten-free egg mayo sandwich, they’re going to judge someone for that delay, probably you.
Good food and plentiful supplies of tea, coffee and water are the order of the day – and they have the power to gloss over any minor issues delegates may come across as the day goes on. Talk to the venue, ensure staff know what you want and when you want it.
- How can data help me?
Good data provides a window on your event, from the amount of money you’ve spent to measuring the key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you determine success.
In terms of KPIs, think about number of attendees first and foremost. How many people came compared to the number of invites that went out? What does that piece of data tell you about the invites and the delegates who didn’t attend?
You can also look at how long attendees stayed at the event or specific sessions, which can indicate the event’s relevance and value to the audience.
You can track things like session attendance, app usage, participation in polls or surveys and questions asked. All of this provides valuable insights into engagement levels and general interest in what was happening. Also count the number of new contacts or leads generated through the event – that’s great background information for trade shows and sales-focused events.
You can also get a Net Promoter Score (NPS) which measures attendee satisfaction and loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your event to others. NPS provides a clear metric of the overall event experience from the attendees’ perspective.
- What else do I need to know for a successful event?
While the above points deal with specific aspects of planning your event, a good deal of it will come down to your instincts. Chances are, you were chosen to make an event successful because of your prowess in this area.
Not every scenario has a definite yes/no answer, and not every dilemma has an obvious solution written in a book somewhere. Sometimes you just have to go for it – but there are some tips that can help you.
Always start by thinking about what it is you want to achieve. What’s the aim? Who’s attending? What needs to happen to reach your goals? By laying out these parameters, you can start to get to grips with the practicalities in terms of venue size, budget, etc. Ultimately setting the stage for everything that follows.
Get the hard work done. When it comes to planning an event, there really is no substitute for getting your head down and working through the problems. Set out all your potential expenditure, list the people you’ll need to help you, list every item of the agenda and start separate lists for all the things that need to happen for that agenda to be followed. Hard work and attention to detail takes the fear away.
Spending. If it’s a choice between the caviar or the next tier up for your headline speaker, make the call and stick to it. That’s what you’re there for. Never accept the first price thrown at you. Make it your mission to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck without compromising on quality.
Get help. Having said all that, it’s never all on you. Regularly involve key stakeholders in the budgeting and planning process and keep them in the loop all the way down the line. That way, you’ve got some form of consensus behind you and, if you’ve involved others, they’re far more likely to back you up.
When all’s said and done, the success or otherwise of your corporate event is almost always dependent on the work you’re prepared to put in days, weeks and months beforehand.
And that’s tough to do when you’ve also got your day job to think about. Producing a world-class event is challenging to deliver without the right support. At Noble Events, we work with you to create a tailor-made plan that will relieve the pressure so you can relax with an expert events partner with a forensic attention to detail.
We will achieve your objectives, amaze your audience and deliver an event your stakeholders will love – all within budget and on time!
Ready to start enjoying the spotlight at an event that’s as cost-effective as it is spectacular? Schedule a call with us today.