Whether you’re looking to get your business off the ground or hoping to forge some more significant relationships, a business event or corporate event is something that should factor highly in your decision-making process. An event, no matter how small, can gather a lot of impetus for a business to ascend to the next level. Some companies host events on a regular basis, like conferences, or something akin to a summer party, but what makes a business event such an occasion, and how can you get it off to a flying start, not just so the event makes an impact, but your business does as well?
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Matej Kastelic
Choose the Purpose
It’s important that you nail down the definite criteria, and by choosing this, in conjunction with the overall theme, you are able to choose aspects of the events that will work to serve this vision. As you may think about a way in which to encourage more stakeholders, or you are launching a product, once you’ve nailed down the specific purpose, rather than a generalized one, this gives you a lot more to work with. Take some time to determine the theme, and from there you are able to implement a structure that will serve the attendees and the business.
Determining the Scale
Depending on the magnitude of the event you want to put on, this will result in numerous other factors being set up. Not just the venue itself, but the entertainment, the overall structure of the day, and if you need additional help. External help can be acquired through an agency, where representatives and general staff can be hired to make for a smoother event. It all depends on the number of people you have at your event, and what sort of day you have planned. A business breakfast is going to be a more formal affair but will require more people to wait on tables and so forth. On the other hand, if you’re looking to make an event with entertainment, fancy lights, sound, and all the bells and whistles, you will have to get specialist agencies that can ensure all the technicalities go off without a hitch. And in conjunction with this, it’s not just about giving all the orders and letting them get on with it, you will need to ensure that you are running the event smoothly.
What You Need to Do
Maybe you’re integral to the events of the day, or you are hosting the event, whatever it is, ensuring that everything is planned down to the finest detail will make life easier for everyone. Luckily, you have experience of running a business where things need to be working together and you may very well have a few tricks up your sleeve. Encouraging teamwork in a business event is entirely different to the office setup. But there are some tricks you can news. Productivity is always the name of the game, and the right software will work wonders. In this respect, workforce management software used specifically for live events can help you maintain some order. Likewise, you have to learn the power of delegation if you haven’t already. A live event isn’t just about ensuring everything is fluid from the perspective of the attendees, but everything behind-the-scenes needs to be as to time as a Swiss watch. And what’s important for you to take in is the importance of keeping calm throughout this. You may very well have the idea that everything else is working for you, so all you need to do is stand back and watch it happen, but people will be coming to you with last minute issues, and various problems, not least technical issues or a lack of staff. And these sorts of problems need a cool, calm, and collected individual to deal with it.
The Buildup
It all depends on what you need to achieve. If your aim is to acquire customers, this is where the precise marketing strategy will work wonders. It’s not just about the social media aspect though, you need to encourage a more personable and inclusive manner of communication so people don’t feel that they are on the peripheries of the event. Email marketing techniques are great in this respect, but it’s important not to over-saturate everyone’s inboxes with the information. By all means, send an email, but sending one every few hours in the buildup to the event can be overkill. And at this point, you may not have the time to integrate such a campaign anyway. Getting the venue set up can take a lot longer than you realize. And with a lot of these components, they can be very last minute. You may have prepared caterers and entertainment months beforehand, but in the week or so running up to the event, it’s always best to touch base with these resources so that they still have you in mind. You’d be quite surprised as to the most organized of businesses that hire caterers’ months beforehand, only to find that the caterer didn’t even make a note of the event. Always double-check!
After the Event…
You’ve gone through the big day, solved the problems, and the event went off without a hitch (at least you hope it did), but your work isn’t done. As soon as the event has finished, you can follow up just to see if people have enjoyed, which can be done by a survey. Or if you aren’t aiming to acquire custom, but clients, you will soon discover what they thought of the event. You can always schedule a follow-up call with these people, or if you are confident that it went well, a more professional encounter, like a meeting. But between the event finishing and you liaising with the clients, you can beat yourself up over every little thing that you think went wrong. Business events don’t always run smoothly, especially if it’s something you haven’t done before. And as the goal is, usually, to put your business on a larger scale, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ve done this, regardless of the fallout.
Also Read
A business event can be a very difficult thing to get a right, but when you’re looking for a quick way to increase custom, improve your catchment, or just get your name out there, there aren’t many more successful ideas!
