An event manager’s guide to corporate event planning

Corporate event planning involves organizing business events to engage with customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Common reasons for hosting corporate events include:Be it a client hospitality event or an internal training seminar–the ultimate aim is to bring people together and help them develop business relationships.

Booming businesses usually have several events on the horizon. You can categorize them into the following types, depending on their size.

Small events host smaller groups of up to 250 people and are flexible with venues or activities. Common examples include training days, seminars, or departmental conferences.Small event planning requirements:Some small events could be twenty people on a training day, or it could be 150 people attending a company mixer. Either way, event planners need to prepare and accommodate all attendees.

Midsize events include conferences or leadership summits for up to 1,000 attendees. Such events rely on technology to create and execute well-oiled plans and bring together employees from all over the organization, valuable customers, and senior leaders.In addition to the requirements for smaller events, midsize event planning requirements include:

Large corporate events are complex and can be incredibly tricky to handle. These events often take place over multiple days and attract thousands of attendees.Comprehensive event planning is vital for successfully managing these events. Typical examples are multi-day conventions, business conferences, award ceremonies, and trade shows.In addition to the requirements of a small and midsize event, large event planning requirements include:Large events require months of planning and precise coordination. You’ll need to approach these events with ample time to plan and execute your ideas—or you risk things going wrong.Now we’ve looked into the different-sized events you can host, let's take a look at the different types of corporate events.

There are many different types of corporate events—some more common than others. Here are some of the types of events you can expect to encounter in the corporate world:

Corporate event planning takes your events to the next level—but it doesn't come without its fair share of challenges.Your event can fail despite your super-human organizational skills. That’s why corporate event managers need to expect the unexpected and prepare accordingly.Let’s look at the common corporate event planning challenges you want to avoid running into.

There’s no bigger problem than having too few staff for an event. Understaffing increases work pressure on the event day and leaves your team scrambling to meet attendee expectations.Consider your event and the expected numbers, and how many members of staff are required to ensure you’re never run off your feet. Be clear on roles and responsibilities—managing your events should be similar to managing your company.You want to err on the side of caution when it comes to staffing—if you’re unsure, be generous. If you’ve run past events, look back on how they were staffed—did you have too few or too many staff on the event? Get in touch with an events company to source staff for your event—they can advise on the optimum staffing levels.

Event budgeting can set you up for success—or failure—when planning an in-person, virtual, or hybrid event. Budget is an issue that troubles even the most experienced event planners—costs quickly add up and, before you know it, you’ve blown the budget.Things change all the time, and you may have additional requirements just before the event. For example, supplier costs may go up based on the actuals or you may encounter an unanticipated expenditure. That’s why it’s wise to keep your expenses modest and ensure you budget a contingency fund.You can even analyze previous research and data to identify the specific spending on each occasion. For example, compare event lifecycle budget line items—such as venue, food, beverage, travel, accommodation, speaker fees, staffing, and marketing—with those from your previous events.You can also use dedicated

corporate event management software

to plan event budgets, create budget reports, and uncover the total return on investment (ROI). These tools will help you track spending, and help ensure you’re making budget-friendly decisions.

Pinning down the right venue is crucial for event success.You want your venue to fit the event, but you often need to secure a location before starting to plan. Venues require a lot of advanced notice, which is why it’s essential you’re organized from the get-go.You want to consider multiple factors before choosing a venue, such as:There is no easy way to source the perfect venue—but there are a couple of ways you can make sure you’re not scrambling to find a venue at the last minute:If you’re flexible with event dates, look for venues with seasonal pricing. You might get a better deal since some venues offer lower prices during certain times of the year.

A solid attendee engagement plan is key to exceeding attendee expectations. That’s why it’s vital to consider your prospective audience and understand their preferences.You also need to avoid information overload, which can quickly disengage participants. Here are a couple of ways to ensure that your attendees remain engaged throughout an event.You want to learn from feedback—use technology tools to run live polls and gather data that’ll help you adjust priorities. That way, you can continue to learn as you organize more and more events.These are the common problems you’ll face regardless of the type of event you’re hosting. Even smaller events can run into these issues—so, how do you avoid them?Let’s look at the five C’s of corporate event management for tips on how to ensure your events are a success—from attendee registration to post-event reporting.

Let’s explore the 5C’s of event management before discussing best practices for organizing show-stopping corporate events. These 5C’s will help ensure your event runs smoothly from start to finish.Keeping track of the 5C’s of corporate event planning enables you to break your event up into stages, and seamlessly manage your event management process.Having trouble mapping out your corporate event? Try

TravelPerk’s Event Management Solution

to find out how you could speed-up your event-based business trips by managing attendees, booking travel, scheduling meetings, and choosing a location—all on one platform.

Now, onto the dos and don’ts of event planning. Whether you’re a new or a pro event manager, follow these steps when planning your next big corporate event.

You can’t create a compelling event plan without knowing what you’re looking to achieve. Discuss even objectives with your senior leadership team and develop a solid understanding of why this event matters.Consider the following when setting your event objectives:Once you identify the focus of an event, you’ll be in a better position to tackle the event budget.

Budgeting is one of the top challenges of planning and executing events. It’s essential to map event costs beforehand to ensure you don’t overspend.Here are some event budgeting best practices to create a successful corporate event.You can manage the event budget on a simple Google spreadsheet, or use event management software for added capabilities.You’ll often have a set budget for your event—you need to make it work. Don’t hesitate to ask vendors for several quotes and choose those that fit your vision.

For your public events you’ll need to allow time to market your event—all your planning is for nothing if nobody attends, after all.Ask these questions to better understand your audience:These answers will help you lay the foundations of your event marketing strategy. Think of every touchpoint you can use to reach attendees throughout the event lifecycle—be it with in-office displays or company-wide emails.

Finding the right sponsors for your public events can be a win-win for both you and your chosen sponsor. Event sponsors provide you with key event resources in return for promotion—you can have more than one sponsor at a time, especially for bigger eventsHere’s how you can go about finding a sponsor for your event:Building relationships with sponsors helps your long-term corporate events plan—one successful event could easily turn into a dozen.

Once you’ve taken care of the event goals, budget, marketing, and sponsors—take time to think about attendees.How can you ensure all attendees enjoy the experience? The answer lies in personalizing the attendee experience with mobile experiences and engaging content.Here’s what you can do to ensure interaction among your audience:Lots of these features are made a whole lot easier with event management software. Many event management solutions offer a mobile app to facilitate the experience for attendees.

Your event isn’t over once the last guest exits the venue—there’s still lots of work to be done. This is where the post-event engagement phase begins. It’s a key stage for gathering feedback to improve future events.Consider these post-event engagement strategies to provide a great post-event experience for your attendees:

Planning corporate events can be overwhelming even when you know what it takes to bring events to life.We’ve put together this corporate event checklist to take the guesswork out of planning and free up your headspace. When planning your event, make sure you:Our number one item on any event planning checklist, however, is to ensure you’ve got a powerful corporate event planning tool on your side. This makes every step of the corporate event planning process a whole lot easier.

TravelPerk’s event management solution

can help you take your corporate event to the next level. It allows you to get all your attendees and employees from wherever they are right to your event–safely, fast, and seamlessly.With TravelPerk’s event solution you can manage everything you need from the same platform:Forget the constant back and forths, and rest easy knowing your event-based business trips are under control. 

Get in touch

with the TravelPerk team today to find out how you can start mastering your corporate event planning process and more.