Would you like to give your employees a memorable day? Organising a corporate event is a long-term undertaking! There are a multitude of possibilities. In this article, we help you ask the right questions and give you a few tips to make your event a success, whether it’s a team-building exercise, a seminar or a festive evening.
Let’s reframe everything!
It is important to define all of the following points in general terms; we will go into detail later.
- The main objectives of the day: have you identified the objectives you want to set: offering time to work outside the office, re-motivating employees, building partner loyalty, presenting figures and objectives to the whole company, etc.? What message do you want to convey during this seminar? ?
- The audience: have you clearly identified who your event is aimed at: whether it be employees, customers or partners, are you able to identify the target audience and how many people it comprises?
- Criteria: What are the most important criteria for organising your event: the date or period of the event, the type of venue, the activities for the day, the budget? This will guide the first steps of your search.
- Constraints: Are you aware of any constraints that may affect your organisation, such as site accessibility, special dietary requirements, flexible working hours, etc.?
- Service providers: once the above points have been defined, which service providers would you like to work with? List them, contact them and encourage them to compete for your business.
Define my objectives clearly
Why do you want to organise this event? Do you want to offer a different working environment for a day, where your employees can take part in small workshops to reflect on a particular theme? Following good results, before or after a difficult period, do you want to organise a team-building outing during which your teams can strengthen their cohesion and have fun and interact in an unconventional way? Do you want to introduce your new product/service to your closest customers or prospects? Do you want to build loyalty among your partners through a friendly exchange where the focus is not on business but on strengthening the bonds between you? Ask yourself the right questions.
Establishing my target audience
Once you have set the objectives for your event, identifying the target audience is crucial: is this event aimed at your employees, your customers, prospects or partners? The theme and constraints of your event will naturally follow from this. Obviously, the number and status of people matters a lot in event planning. You cannot necessarily invite everyone, so you may have to make some choices. Can you afford to take your entire company on a seminar? If not, you can identify a specific team that needs it or deserves it particularly. And depending on the status of the guests, the constraints will also be different, as your employees will not necessarily be received in the same way as prospects, as each of these two categories of audience has different expectations.
Define my criteria
Firstly, it is very important to decide on the timing of your event. Depending on your objectives, will you opt for the festive season or a beautiful spring day? You can then start looking for a venue for your seminar. Next, define your target area and the maximum distances from your establishments. Close to your employees? Or, on the contrary, far enough away to offer them a break?
In addition, what activities would you like to offer your guests? If it is a simple seminar, then a meeting followed by a cocktail reception will suffice. If the initial objective is to enable a relatively young team to bond and get to know each other better, while promoting themes such as collective effort, mutual support and cohesion, then opt for team-building activities involving physical exercises, dexterity and concentration. In the case of an event designed to thank your clients, you will want to build a highlight around a meal preceded by a cocktail reception and a speech, possibly with entertainment.
That’s it, you’ve done your research and you have all the information you need. Now set a budget that suits your wallet, of course, but also the realities of the market! You can choose to be the conductor of your event or delegate this to event professionals who will make you suitable proposals.
What constraints need to be taken into account?
Constraints are very important in event planning! To make this day unforgettable for all your guests, it is important to take them all into consideration to avoid unpleasant surprises. The accessibility of the venue, for example. Do your employees have access to public transport, or will they need to take their own vehicles? If so, don’t hesitate to encourage carpooling, as the team-building day will begin as soon as they are all together in the same car. When it comes to meals, are there any specific allergies or vegan diets to consider, and are your guests light or heavy eaters? It goes without saying that if you are organising an event for 200 people, this is something you will need to consider well in advance to ensure that your catering provider will be able to adapt to the different expectations of your teams on the day.
One last thing that you might not necessarily think about is ensuring that your guests are flexible about the timing of this event. Do they have any time constraints? It would be a shame if they were unable to complete their team-building activity due to family commitments, or if the big announcement planned for the end of the meeting took place after a number of teams had already left.
Selecting my service providers
Identify a few service providers that seem to fit your specifications (venues, activities, caterers) and get started! To begin with, choose the seminar venue that offers the most important services for you: accommodation for an overnight stay, unusual spaces for a surprising meeting, team-building activities tailored to your needs, etc. This venue will probably help you with your next choices. Indeed, seminar or team-building venue managers are often used to working with different event service providers, such as caterers. Before making your choices, don’t hesitate to put the different providers you have identified in competition with each other. This is very important in order to assess the quality and prices of the service providers.
Trust your instincts!
In reality, there is no such thing as a perfect event. The most important thing is that it conveys the message you want to deliver. That your partners recognise the values for which they chose you. That your employees enjoy a unique experience that reflects who they are. You must follow your desires and get as close as possible to what you want to convey in terms of message and image!
