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.

The question is, of course, how can you go about doing that? Do you attempt to manage it in-house, maybe assigning the task to a personal assistant, or do you use 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 work out what the event needs for the occasion. 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 they are big and bold. However, most companies have a fraction of the marketing budget of Apple Inc.

Ideally, your marketing team has already allocated a budget for events that include 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 work out 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

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

Look for a sponsor

Lastly, make sure to look for a sponsor. This is especially important if you are a small business, as by having a sponsor, you will be able to get 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. If there’s no suitable local business, you could use a national one instead.

Event Task Team

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

The key to event planning success is learning the most essential elements that all the best events have in common and making sure 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. Take the time to research similar events to the one you are planning and see what others have done to make their events exciting and memorable.

Write a list of all the best ideas and consider how to incorporate them into your event. For example, say another business conference hired a photo booth machine for their event to make it 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 a success of your event, 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 key for people to turn up.

So you need to get your thinking cap on 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, event task management, and ensuring the event creates the right first impression.  The content must be relevant to its audience, and make sure your task team has planned every minute of the day to ensure nothing has been forgotten. Attendees provide favorable feedback online for your social followers.