What Does It Take To Plan An Unforgettable Business Event?

Event planning is an integral part of running most businesses. You will want to hold an event at one point or another. Whether it’s your company anniversary party or a corporate event for your clients, you’ll enjoy the occasion to be a success.

Of course, the question is, how do you go about doing that? Do you attempt to manage it in-house, maybe assigning the task to a personal assistant or using an event management company?

Budget

Hosting an event needs a budget. To know what budget your event needs, start with a task team.

Meet online using Zoom or another video chat app or in person to determine what the event needs. For example, if the event is for a service or product launch, you’ll want to create a perfect first impression for your existing and prospective customers.

Everyone remembers Apple product launches as big and bold. However, most companies have a fraction of Apple Inc.’s marketing budget.

Ideally, your marketing team has already allocated a budget for events, including launching new offerings. However, if it’s an impromptu event, i.e., it’s so unique that there is no allocated budget, your management team will need to determine how to fund it. Bring in an external event management consultant with knowledge and experience planning similar events. Your budget will need to cover the following:

• Venue costs
• Hospitality
• Entertainment

Your event budget will also need to cover staffing, accommodation for priority clients, senior management, and maybe entertainers. As you’re already aware, the budget is likely to be substantial to ensure a memorable event that retains existing customers and secures new ones.

Look for a sponsor

Lastly, make sure to look for a sponsor. This is especially important if you are a small business, as a sponsor can help with the costs of your event, making it more affordable.

Look for a more prominent local business that would be happy to sponsor your event in return for being able to market themselves at your event.

Or seek a company that can help towards the cost of the event and is also able to provide goody bags for your attendees as a bit of thank you for coming along. You could use a national one if there’s no suitable local business.

Event Task Team

With your budget approved, there’s no time to lose your task. The team needs to work on the event’s schedule – the content.

The key to event planning success is learning the essential elements that all the best events share and ensuring your event has them, too.

To help you ensure that your event is a roaring success, below is a valuable guide to all the essentials you need to know.

Get inspired

The first step to event success is to get inspired. Research similar events to the one you are planning and see what others have done to make their events exciting and memorable.

List all the best ideas and consider how to incorporate them into your event. For example, say another business conference hired a photo booth machine to make their event more fun and memorable; perhaps you could consider doing the same.

Maybe another business event you researched changed how presentations were given, using more innovative techniques – ask yourself, could you use the same techniques at your event? Take the time to get inspired, and you will be amazed at the ideas you come across.

Find ways to be unique

If you want to make your event a success, you need to focus on ways to make it unique. This is important because it will not be memorable if it’s the same as every other business event. Location is critical for people to turn up.

So you need to put on your thinking cap and develop ways to ensure your event is as unique as possible. It is essential to consider your business and what makes it unique and use that to make your event unforgettable.

Say, for instance, you run a unique social media consultancy because it has a relaxation room for the use of its clients. You could use that to theme the event – make it an event about relaxation. You could offer mini massages, other relaxing treatments, and talks and demonstrations about your business and products.

Remember, the more unique your event is, the better. Another option could be implementing event marketing that no local businesses use, such as digital signage software. Instead of having printed signs and banners, go all out with technology and include digital signage.

Summing up

Hosting a business event can be more fun than stressful. The key to its success is having the proper budget, managing event tasks, and ensuring the event creates the right first impression. The content must be relevant to its audience, and your task team must plan every minute of the day to ensure nothing is forgotten. Attendees provide favorable feedback online for your social followers.