Organizing a Successful Event: Our Tips and Tricks
From anniversaries to the launch of a new product, events are a great way of marking important occasions. After all, everyone enjoys a cocktail party or a great big celebration!
Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure your next event is successful.
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Establishing Event Goal
Taking the time to establish the objectives of an event is an essential part of the planning process. The desired outcome is what will guide the entire organization of your event. As you plan, keep in mind that every resource and dollar spent needs to relate back to what you’re trying to accomplish.
A clear and well-established goal increases your event’s profitability; it is key to ensuring that you get a good return on your investment.
Planning an Event: A 5-Point Checklist
Once you’ve established the goal of your event, you can finally start the planning process. Keep in mind that there are a few essential components that always come back, regardless of the size or type of occasion.
Here is a checklist to help ensure that you cover all your basics.
1. Establish a budget
First off, you’ll want to consider the overall budget.
Are you planning a small cocktail party for your team with a $2000 budget, or are you organizing a $200,000-budget seminar? Regardless, setting a spending limit is the key to ensuring that you don’t overspend.
Before you sign any contracts with suppliers, you’ll probably want to break expenses down into categories: food and drinks, venue, decorations, entertainment, etc. Do a little research to determine the approximate cost of each item. This will vary depending on the event goal and target audience. For example, you’ll probably have to spend more on advertising a public event than on a private one intended only for staff.
2. Consider the Atmosphere, Venue and Decor
Is this event going to be formal or casual? Will there be a dress code? A product launch for a high-end beauty product, for example, could be a good opportunity to dress up and pass around fancy canapés and drinks. A team bonding activity, on the other hand, is a good way of spending time with colleagues and administrators in a more casual setting.
The decor will help set the mood for your guests. Depending on the venue, decorating can range from needing a lot to very little work. Some venues even have things like tableware and lighting included. Why not go for a balloon garland?
You’ll also need to consider whether you’re going to buy the decorations or simply rent them. You can also hire someone to decorate your venue if you’re short on time or staff.
3. Food and Drinks
Make sure the food and drinks being served match the overall atmosphere and goal of your event. If you want guests to mingle, then serving canapés that they can easily eat while standing might be ideal. On the other hand, a sit-down meal might be more appropriate if your guests are intended to listen to multiple speeches or a presentation.
Make sure you anticipate that some guests might have special dietary needs. Prepare some vegan or dairy and gluten-free options, etc.
4. Advertise Your Event
Obviously, if you want people to show up, you’ll need to make sure your target audience knows it’s happening.
Here are several ways to promote your event:
- Social media contests
- Offering presales and incentives
- Press releases
- Finding speakers and partners
- Email marketing
- Creating a web page for your event
- Flyers
5. Determine Day-of Process
Create a to-do list and make sure everyone is clear on what they’re in charge of. This will avoid you from having 10 people helping with one thing and none with another.
The last thing you want is to be running late on your schedule because no one was there to greet the band or help show the caterers to the kitchen.
Why is Event Planning Important?
Regardless of the type of event you’re planning, they all have one thing in common: they create value.
Here are the 3 main advantages of hosting a corporate event.
1. Creating human value
Organizing a corporate event can help build your human capital. It’s no secret that your business’s success depends heavily on your staff and collaborators’ capacity to work together.
A well-planned event helps bring people together and create bonds between them. Seminars and team-building activities are a great way of helping them learn this essential skill while also having a good time.
Not only does this result in better internal communication, but it also contributes to overall well-being at work, increasing employee retention.
Check out our team-building article; it contains several activity ideas.
2. Creating corporate value
When it comes to choosing between two businesses that offer similar services, corporate culture is often the tiebreaker. Employees and external collaborators alike often base their choices on corporate culture, especially when it comes to larger companies.
Events intended to celebrate successes or anniversaries help cultivate relationships within teams, as well as encouraging networking between different departments. Hosting corporate events helps you build an attractive and strong brand image as an employer and partner.
3. Creating commercial value:
Events intended for clients and partners are a great marketing strategy. The financial return on investment is also easier to calculate during this type of get-together than during those that are aimed at improving human capital.
Events are an external communication channel in and of themselves. They allow you to reinforce your brand’s image as well as being a great way of informing your partners and customers of the latest happenings in your business. You can create events around the launch of a new product—you can even get customers to test products on-site.
Why Hire a Professional Event Planner?
The quality of an event is often directly associated with the image of the host’s brand. The best way of ensuring that an event contributes to generating an image of success for your business is to entrust its organization to a professional event planner. Plus, come D-day, you’ll be free as a bird to focus on spending quality time with customers, partners and employees.
Not only will they handle the organization of your event, but they’ll also shop around and make sure you get the best prices on things like venue, decorations, food and drinks, etc.
4-celébrations : Consultation Services
Regardless of whether you choose to plan the event yourself or if you decide to hire a professional planner, you’ll find everything you need on the 4-celebrations platform.
Our consultation service makes shopping for your event a lot easier. If what you’re looking for isn’t on our platform, just let one of our experts know. Not only will it be an absolute pleasure to help you find exactly what you need, but this also allows us to improve our services!