Enjoy this week’s guest post from Event Staff Scotland on How to Improve Your Guests’ Experience at Your Next Corporate Event!
What springs to mind when you hear the term ‘corporate event’? Stuffy, boring, never ending board meeting with lots of suits sitting at a LONG table? Sound familiar?
It doesn’t have to be that way. We (Event Staff Scotland), have years of experience working with businesses to run events and we’ve figured out a thing or two. In this article, we are going to tell you exactly how to get your guests to rave about your corporate event!
A corporate event is an event or activity put on by a company or business. It’s not all about board meetings either, these events can be anything, such as a conference, award ceremony, product launch, charity event, to name a few.
They can be team building events or even just ways to celebrate major holidays, like Christmas. They don’t even necessarily need to be large events either, however, for the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on the larger type of corporate events.
Planning your Corporate Event
You must begin somewhere, and this means planning. There is a lot to consider when planning any event and these are just some of the aspects.
Have a Goal in Mind
Firstly, what is the overall goal or purpose of this event? Are you trying to raise money for a specific cause? Are you promoting a new product or service? Maybe you are celebrating achievements of the company itself and the employees? Knowing the reason behind this event will massively help you with the rest of the planning and will also ensure your event has a clear purpose.
Who are you targeting?
Do you have a specific audience or group of guests in mind? Knowing how to properly define your target audience can have a massive impact on how you plan your event. On one hand, is your guestlist appropriate to the event?
If you’re trying to promote a new product or service, you target audience might be investors and the general public. Additionally, knowing your audience means you’ll know how they liked to be wined and dined. Millennial men will have a different idea of a good time than 60+ year old business veterans.
What is the Event?
What is the event going to be? Is it a ball? A dinner and dance? A conference? Have a think about what suits the purpose most and what will resonate with your guests. Are you having some kind of theme? If you are launching a brand-new product, the theme of the event would all be based around that product. Imagine you are launching a new type of gin. The whole theme could be based on the botanicals that particular gin is made from.
When and Where?
One major thing you need to think about is the venue. Where are you going to hold this corporate event? If it is a dinner and dance or conference, a large hall type space would be perfect. Plenty of room for a lot of people. Don’t forget you need facilities and furniture for this venue too. Seating and tables, maybe a podium if it’s a conference, even a PA system. Make sure your venue has the appropriate facilities for your corporate event and if it doesn’t, are you able to hire things out?
Promoting your Corporate Event
You’ve planned the event, now is the time to get it out there! You need to let people know about the event and where and when it’s going to be held. So how do you do this? That one is easy, marketing of course!
There are many forms and ways to market something, but what better way right now than to put it on social media? Everyone is on social media these days, so the best thing to do is find the right platforms for you and your company and get the information about your corporate event up there! You can even sell tickets on social media.
If your corporate event involves the public, like a conference or a charity event, you can use flyers and promotional staff as a way of getting awareness of your event too. Once you’ve figured out your target audience, you can effectively plan a promotional strategy that matches your goals.
Hospitality at your Corporate Event
What is hospitality? The term refers to how well you look after your guests. Whether it’s a corporate event, a personal event, or even a wedding, you want to make sure your guests have the best time. This includes how they are welcomed into the event, how they are entertained, their entire experience of being at your event. So where do you start?
Staff
Having professional staff in is probably one of the best things you can do for your corporate event. Not only can having experienced staff ensure your event is likely to run as smoothly as possible, it can leave a lasting impression on your guests. The impression that you are willing to do things properly and that you are the ultimate professional.
There are many types of staff that you can hire to support your event. These include wait staff, who will be there to serve your guests food and drink, whether it’s a sit-down meal or canapes. Behind the scenes staff, like caterers, who will prep the food and drink.
There is also staff you can hire to set up the venue, with décor, lighting and equipment, facilities, etc, and they can support you with tearing down too. Finally, you can even hire out hosts or hostesses who will take care of the whole running of the event, from welcoming in your guests and seating them, to distributing information and managing your staff.
Entertainment at your Corporate Event
Yes, the big one, however all the other elements are just as important. How are you going to entertain your guests? This greatly goes with the type of event you are holding. For example, if you are holding a conference, it is likely you will be booking at least one keynote speaker.
Depending on the theme and content of the conference, the speaker could be a celebrity, a brand ambassador, or someone just well known in the company. You want someone who can inspire emotion, as in a celebrity can inspire excitement and anticipation, a brand ambassador or motivational speaker can inspire confidence and determination.
If you are holding a dinner and dance, the entertainment might be quite different. Maybe there would be some live performances while people eat? Depending on the theme, there could be circus performers, show girls, or even a comedian line up. For after dinner, you might consider booking a band or a DJ. Go large, give people something to talk about.
Feedback
If you want to leave an even bigger impression on your guests, follow up with them to get some feedback on your corporate event. Did they enjoy it? Did they find it useful? Was there anything that could be improved? Following up will make your guests feel even more that they were appreciated at your event.
These are some of our suggestions for making your guest experience at your corporate event a memorable one.
Connor is involved with everything events and promotions at Event Staff Scotland, a staffing agency based in Scotland. With a team of over 300 event staff, ESS helps individuals and business run successful events.