The advantages of throwing a business event are many and include raising the profile of your brand, finding new customers, and creating even better links within your community. Of course, putting together a business event can be a challenge, especially if you’ve never done it before. The good news is that you can find some simple step-by-step information on precisely this subject below.
Plan It
When it comes to throwing a business event, planning is everything. Indeed, you can just expect all the right people to turn up on the day, or cross your fingers and hope they have a good time. Instead, you need to carefully think about all aspects of the event, from the day and time you will pick to the food you will provide and the guests you will invite.
Ensuring the comfort and convenience of your guests is crucial, and considering amenities like a well-equipped restroom trailer and comfortable seating arrangements can contribute significantly to their overall experience. Providing on-site charging stations for electronic devices and having a designated area for networking are additional amenities to consider.
Another vital aspect of planning a business event is setting a goal to achieve while conducting it. No business event, whether a company picnic, exhibition, or trade fair, should be planned without a specific goal that you are looking to achieve. It could be to increase your number of prospects, improve your reputation in the community, or even foster positive regard with your employees; just make sure that you have one and that you are aware of how to collect and analyze data to check that you have been successful.
Staff It
The next aspect of running a successful business event is to make sure it’s staffed correctly. What this means is that you need to identify the areas in which staff will be needed and then fill them with the people best suited to the role. For example, if your event is running a stall at a trade fair, then having plenty of people that can answer customers’ questions, bag up products, and take payments is crucial. However, if you are hosting a stand at an exhibition, only a few staff members will be needed there, but more may be required to walk the show and direct customers to your location.
Finally, if you are running something for your employees, remember that it’s vital that you do not ask or expect them to work. Instead, you will need to hire outside help, especially when it comes to catering or, where possible, reverse rolls, and get management to wait on them for a change.
Promote It
The next step in throwing a perfect event is to make sure to leverage its promotional capabilities. After all, if you are sinking all that money and effort into your event, one of the main benefits you can reap is promotion and improved brand recognition.
Of course, there are several ways to promote your event. One of which is effective signage. Good-quality signage should be the first thing you think of, as it will help you brand any event, from a company party to a charity-funded gala.
Next, do remember that social media is highly powerful and influential when it comes to promotion and marketing. With that in mind, it can, where appropriate, be useful to create opportunities for candid photos that directly reference your brand and encourage shares. To do this you will need to come up with a fun novelty photo set, and a catchy hashtag that will be easily remembered for use on social media.
Last of all when it comes to promotion, using t-shirts with your business names and logo on for your staff to wear is ideal. The good news is that even if you haven’t previously, you won’t need to worry about long turnaround times as it’s now possible to get Same Day Custom T-Shirts made. Therefore allowing you to get the most out of your event, no matter how close the date is.
Run It
When it comes to the big day, or evening itself there is much you can do to make sure everything goes smoothly. First of all, make sure you can be there for the entire duration of the event. Arrive early if you can, and expect to stay late to make sure all goes to plan.
You will also need to be sure that everyone knows where they are meant to be and what their responsibilities are is a smart idea. You could even have a master document displayed behind the scenes to help people remember and stay on task.
Next, double-checking all plans with suppliers can also help things go off without a hitch. Make sure to confirm numbers, arrival time, and payment details here to avoid any issues later on.
Last, of all, be sure that you are prepared for all eventualities. For example, if you have a live keynote speaker, have something in reserve like a recording of their speech in case their plane or train is delayed. Similarly, if the forecast looks like rain, moving the event inside, or providing guests with branded umbrellas can help keep them dry and happy and provide some great branding for your business at the same time.
Use It
Once you have put all that effort and cost into throwing a business event, you will want to make sure to squeeze as many benefits as possible out of it. What this means is making a concerted effort to follow up with new leads and contacts you have made at the event. Having promotional offers, or specific things of interest to talk about them with can be very useful here. After all, success flows from making meaningful business connections and offering as much value to potential prospects as possible.
Learn From It
Last of all, remember that any event, even those that were less than a roaring success will be a learning experience for your business. Indeed, evaluating your event once it’s over in terms of what went well and what could be improved can help you and your business shine even brighter when it comes to the next one you put on.
In Conclusion
Throwing a business event may now be easy, but if you follow the simple steps above, you can maximize the chances of success.
