Corporate event planning can feel like herding cats (minus the claws, hopefully!). The first time, you’re blindsided by the chaos, but as you gain experience, you learn to keep a few treats in your pocket. Metaphorically, of course. That’s where this corporate event planning guide originated.
As difficult as they are to plan, corporate events are a big deal. They help you grow brand awareness, build valuable connections, boost employee morale, and advance your brand like nothing else.
I want to give you a leg up and set you up for success. To that end, I’ve prepared this corporate event planning guide to help you skip some of the catastrophes and get more wins with your event, even if you’ve never organized anything.
If you want a little more peace of mind, our team at Imprint Engine can lighten the load. We can partner with you to transform your event into an unforgettable experience for attendees, with all the best event swag they’ll be using for years.
Need to Skim? Key Takeaways:
- Corporate events are great for boosting employee morale, building a positive company culture, making professional connections, and raising brand awareness.
- Planning a successful event means juggling a lot of details to create a memorable experience for everyone involved.
- Adding branded merchandise can really elevate your event and help make sure everything feels connected to your brand.
Table of Contents
- Critical First Step: Clarify Event’s Purpose
- Which Event Type Best Fits Your Objective?
- Tie It All Together With A Theme
- Logistics
- Set Your Budget
- Organize an Engaging Event Schedule
- Captivating Voices: Keynote Speakers and Entertainment
- Create a Buzz-worthy Marketing Plan
- Bring it to Life: Event Merch and Signage
- Wine and Dine
- Draft a Rainy-Day Strategy
- Practice Makes Perfect
- Post-Event Communication
- Evaluate Success
- Ready to Get Planning? We’re Your Event’s Secret Weapon
Critical First Step: Clarify Event’s Purpose
Would you ever book a flight if you didn’t know where the plane was going? My advice is to lay out the specific purpose and goals of your event before you take any other steps in planning.
The goal of an event and the purpose of the event are not the same thing. While a charity fundraiser may have a goal of raising $20,000 for a cause, the purpose of that event may be to boost employee morale and connect people to the company’s values of community action.
Establish the purpose of your event, then think about any event-specific goals. Once you know the purpose and the goal, you can underline what success looks like.
- Boost employee motivation/retention: Events can be a great opportunity to celebrate, acknowledge, grow, and reward employees.
- Launch a new product: Events may give you a way to get more eyes on a new product as you’re launching it.
- Increase brand awareness: Being present and visible in your network provides more opportunities for positive brand interactions.
- Celebrate successes: Celebrating milestones acknowledges your success and helps you reorient to new goals in the future.
Which Event Type Best Fits Your Objective?
You’ve nailed down the “why” for your event—now it’s time to figure out the “what.” From hands-on workshops to digital meet-ups, events typically fall into five big buckets:
- Professional development events: Workshops, conferences, seminars, and coaching sessions designed to give your team that extra boost and help them level up professionally.
- Networking events: From industry conferences and Q&A sessions to charity events and product launches, these events foster professional connections and relationship building.
- Trade shows: From big conventions and expos to consumer showcases, these events let you put your products or services in the spotlight for potential clients and industry insiders.
- Company culture events: Team-building activities, retreats, and diversity celebrations strengthen internal culture, creating a more connected organization.
- Virtual company events: Webinars, online courses, discussion groups, and presentations let you bring people together from anywhere—and they can check all the boxes of any category above, with just a click.
Tie It All Together with a Theme
I get it—theme parties have a mixed rep. But pick the right one, and it’s exactly what a corporate event needs to bring everything together. An event with a theme or concept will help you get your message across clearly and give you something to plan around.
Themes help your event to be memorable and exciting instead of corporate and stuffy. You can choose to make the theme as immersive as you want, depending on how much control you have over the event and what your budget is.
Align your theme with your company values and the purpose of your event, as much as possible. If you have any trouble settling on a theme, we can help you narrow it down to match your budget, expectations, and most importantly, your brand.
Logistics
The devil is in the you-know-what (details!). Where and when will it happen? Are you planning a virtual company event or an in-person event? Who’s in charge of what?
The more you organize upfront, the less you have to do later. Take your time and plan well to avoid a larger headache down the road.
Note: Some venues are booked out far in advance. Get this part organized quickly and don’t make assumptions!
Set Your Budget
Stop! Before you take another step, establish your tentative event budget. Your budget will direct your event planning, guiding you to choices that meet your company’s spending expectations.
Base your budget on the estimated cost per attendee plus the fixed costs like venue rental and fees for guest speakers. Continue refining this rough number as you get more clarity on the event details.
Most corporate events include gift bags, branded merchandise, presenter gifts, catering, and a number of other specialized items. We partner with vendors worldwide supplying top-notch products to fit what you need at a price you feel good about.
Organize an Engaging Event Schedule
Any event worth its salt needs a well-planned, functional schedule. You can’t just wing it and expect things to run smoothly.
Start by setting clear boundaries: the event’s duration, the key activities that must happen within that timeframe, and the specific needs of your participants. With these in place, you can fill in the rest of the schedule with engaging interactions and activity options.
Aim to offer a mix of engagement types. Create opportunities for people to connect with each other over refreshments, take in the event content, and enjoy moments for personal reflection. A balanced schedule keeps everyone dialed in and alert.
Captivating Voices: Keynote Speakers and Entertainment
Events need a USP (unique selling point). What are you pitching as the central part of your event? Maybe it’s a standout keynote speaker, memorable entertainment, or a little of both!
Research options that fit with your event type and the theme. Think about what will add the most value and who will have your attendees on the edge of their seats to see.
Tips for choosing speakers and entertainment:
- Play to your audience
- Budget appropriately
- Book as early as possible
- Always plan a backup
Create a Buzz-worthy Marketing Plan
How do you get people talking about your event? In my experience, it’s all about showing attendees what they’ll walk away with. Put a strong value statement front and center in your marketing—it should be bold, clear, and get people excited.
Use messaging that’s all about the value for them: create posters with event details, set up a landing page, send out invitations, and promote your event on social media with an emphasis on what they’ll gain.
Event registration is a big moment in your marketing. Framing it with a sense of exclusivity and inviting people to claim their spot builds anticipation and excitement.
Bring it to Life: Event Merch and Signage
If you want your event to turn out better than the infamous Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow, direct your energy towards making it feel immersive and lively. Thoughtfully chosen decor and signage, custom event merch, and atmospheric elements that play to the theme can make all the difference.
Custom is the keyword here. Whatever you choose to use for your event should feel purposeful, like it was meant to be there.
Need help coming up with clever merch, swag, or gifts for your event? Get some inspiration here.
Wine and Dine
Events are built around people, and people have needs. No one will enjoy sitting through 5 hours of lectures when they’d normally be eating lunch. Providing food, drinks, and snacks at different points during your event will help people focus on presentations—less on their stomachs.
Match your refreshments to the event type and theme, allowing time for everyone to sip, snack, and settle back in between activities.
Draft a Rainy-Day Strategy
Do you know what kind of risks your event faces? What would you do if a key part of your plan fell through? If you don’t have answers to these questions, it’s time to get your Plan B in place.
Cover your main event features with backups: have a secondary speaker ready in case your keynote speaker gets sick or cancels, and book a bit more space than you think you’ll need to allow for rearrangements. Designate a point person who will take charge if something goes wrong, and be sure everyone knows how to reach them—this person is your fire extinguisher!
You can’t eliminate risk, but with a solid plan, you’ll be ready to adapt to whatever comes your way.
Practice Makes Perfect
Just like a wedding has its rehearsal, your event should have a rehearsal so all the contributors know what they’re doing and when. Provide them with an agenda beforehand and run through that agenda before the event starts.
I recommend putting someone in charge of managing the event itinerary specifically. Having a single point of communication will make sure everyone is getting the same information.
Post-Event Communication
If you want to host the best corporate events, build feedback into your event plan. Provide easy ways for participants, speakers, vendors, and other contributors to comment on your event.
Here are a few ways you could ask for feedback:
- Post-event polls
- Q&A sessions
- Surveys (anonymous or not)
- Future event wish lists
- Simple scale ratings
Always thank those who were part of your event for contributing or attending!
Evaluate Success
After the event has passed and people have had time to submit their feedback, hold a debrief to see what went well and where you could improve.
Ask these questions:
- Were the event objectives met?
- Did attendees receive the value we promised them?
- What was the highlight of the event?
- Were there any issues, whether visible to attendees or not?
Answer based on what you and the other organizers experienced as well as the feedback you received from both attendees and event contributors.
Ready to Get Planning? We’re Your Event’s Secret Weapon
We’ve covered a lot in this corporate event planning guide. From budgeting and event gifts to food and schedules, there are countless moving parts. It’s no simple task, but luckily, you don’t have to do it alone.
Our team at Imprint Engine is ready to jump in the deep end with you. Tap into our network of trusted partners and leverage the years of experience we have working with companies just like yours to make your next corporate event a sensation.
Let’s make some magic happen. Together.
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