Earle Brown Newsletter July 2010

Five Keys to Success When Planning
Your Corporate Event
Planning an event is tricky enough! Then consider all of your guests are employees, potential clients or business insiders. Arranging and conducting a corporate event is no walk in the park, but an essential facet of business.

Earle Brown Heritage Center understands that. As a way to help enhance your chances of success and manage any pitfalls, we have compiled a list of five useful tips when putting together your corporate event. Simple enough suggestions, but oftentimes overlooked.

1.	Find out what your audience wants before the event. Successful events expand out of great ideas. And those planning the event, while engaged, don't necessarily have all the answers. As cvent.com notes, too often event organizers focus on what they want to say rather than finding out what their audience wants to hear. Delivering on the latter not only improves your event, but the return attendance on future functions.

2.	Invest in your event. Whether that means a time-commitment or cash, no one should ever feel like your event was a wash. Informational resources, audience comfort level and timely presentations are all pieces of an event needing equal attention. Attendees can very quickly recognize when an event planner hasn't put in his or her due diligence. And if you don't care enough to present your event professionally, why should they care enough to invest their time and effort in listening?

3.	Everyone should always feel engaged during the event. In an information-rich environment, it's important to connect attendees with useful material in a stimulating way. By delivering key messages with a backdrop of dialogue and participation, attendees will more likely be interested in the issues pertinent to the event.

4.	Location, location, location. An attendee's surroundings are just as paramount in retaining interest as a presenter. According to cvent.com, ambience is a difficult piece to unravel, but some useful tips include: Be flexible with your budget and needs when selecting a location Look for ample parking and an easy-to-access facility Define your event requirements Negotiate a multi-year deal with a conference center for a reduced rate
5.	Never walk away without info. No matter what type of corporate event you are planning, you should always get feedback from those attending. Good or bad, attendees should feel like they have the ability to explicitly voice the positives and negatives of the event, rating its efficacy and value. Not only will this exhibit to attendees your willingness to consider constructive input, but it will also help you improve future events.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but by keeping the previous five suggestions in mind, your event will be well on its way to success. And while corporate events may not be the first thing on a person's "favorite places to be" list, you can definitely make sure it's not the last! Read Less Printer Friendly Version