Five tips for organising a corporate event

Corporate events are great way to bring your whole organisation together or reinforce relationships with your partners, clients and suppliers. As with any event, preparation is key if you want it to be a success. You’ll need to have the right team assembled to support your organisation efforts, but here are a few helpful tips to point you in the right direction.

Confirm the date early

First things first, you’ll need to confirm a date as early as possible in the planning stage. This will lay the foundation for your event, allowing you to organise other timelines and schedules in due course. You may also want to send the proposed date out to potential attendees, so they know to reserve the date in their calendar.

Find the right venue

Perhaps the most important part of any corporate event is the venue. It needs to have sufficient capacity to hold all your attendees comfortably, whilst not being too big that it lacks atmosphere. The space will need to accommodate your requirements for the event, whether you need a big screen projector, catering facilities, bar area or even a dancefloor. Ensure that your chosen venue can cater to your every need before booking it.

Provide travel and accommodation recommendations

Your guests are more than likely going to be travelling from elsewhere in the region or even from overseas. Providing them with travel guidance and accommodation recommendations is always a good idea. Busy cities like London can be overwhelming, particularly if you don’t spend a lot of time there, so let attendees know how to get to the venue and back out again. If guests want to stay for the duration of a longer event or even just overnight, serviced apartments in London are a viable alternative to an ordinary hotel stay.

Sort catering well in advance

The last thing you want is an event with a poorly organised or even non-existent catering and drinks arrangement. Catering is a process that needs sorting far in advance to allow enough time for preparation. Collect your guest’s dietary requirements as early as possible too unless you are providing food for all types of people anyway.

Prepare for the worst

Unfortunately, elements of an event are always prone to going wrong. While you are planning, outline your response to contingencies that could happen, so you are better prepared if they do occur. These could include catering issues, drinks shortages, faulty technology or equipment and unexpected travel disruptions. The better prepared you are, the more effective your response to issues or concerns will be.

If you are planning a corporate event in the near future, make sure that you plan things well in advance. After all your hard work you should hopefully be able to relax and enjoy a brilliant event.