How to Plan a Corporate Event Guide

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Are you in charge of planning a corporate event for your company? 

If so, you might want to think about hiring an event planner to lend a hand. There are almost 140,000 event planners scattered across the country that can assist you with corporate event planning. 

But if that's not an option, you're going to have to go through the process of corporate party planning on your own. And it can be a daunting challenge in many cases. 

The good news, though, is that you can make your big event a massive success by learning about how to plan a corporate event in advance. As long as you take the right steps, you should be able to plan a corporate event without a problem. 

Here is a guide that will help you out along the way. 

Start by Setting a Date for Your Corporate Event 

The first thing you should do when it comes to planning a corporate event is come up with the right date for it. You don't want to go through the trouble of planning a corporate event from start to finish only to find out that your CEO is going to be out of town on the day you're holding it or that it's going to be held on the same day as the Super Bowl. 

You should consider several different dates and then run them by others at your company. They'll be able to let you know whether or not certain dates will work well for everyone. They'll also be able to point out any conflicts of interest that might exist with the date you pick. 

Whatever you do, don't begin planning anything with regards to your corporate event without setting a date for it first. You'll be asking for trouble if you do. 

Find the Ideal Venue for Your Corporate Event 

Once you have a date picked out for your corporate event, the next order of business will be finding a venue for it. One of the reasons why it's so important to have a date circled on the calendar is so that you can search for venues that have availability on that specific date. 

The corporate event that you choose should be: 

• Situated in a place that will be easy for everyone to get to 
• Big enough to cater to the crowd that you plan on inviting 
• Set up in a way that will work for the kind of corporate event you have in mind 

You should spend at least a week or two, if possible, researching different venues for your event. By doing this, you should eventually be able to land on one that stands tall above all the rest. 

Figure Out the Food Situation for Your Corporate Event 

What kind of food are you going to serve to the people who attend your corporate event? This is a question you're going to want to ask early on in the process since setting up the food situation is something that will need to be done well in advance. 

If you're planning a relatively informal corporate event, you might be able to get away with hamburgers, hot dogs, and other barbecue foods. But if you're planning something fancy, finger foods served on small platters might be a better fit. 

Don't put off planning out a menu for your corporate event until the last minute. You might have a hard time finding a caterer to help you if you do. 

Equip Your Corporate Event With the Right Technology 

Depending on what kind of corporate event you're going to be holding, you might need to get your hands on different types of technology. It'll help improve your event by leaps and bounds. 

For example, if you're planning a party to celebrate the great year your company just had, you will probably have some speakers on hand to address the crowd. You will, therefore, need to have a microphone set up as well as a screen to show off everything your company has accomplished. 

You might even want to get an LED video wall for your event to take things to the next level. There are all kinds of technological touches that you can add to your corporate event to make it pop. 

Hire the Best Entertainment for Your Corporate Event 

No matter what kind of corporate event you're planning, you're going to need to have some entertainment in the house to keep the people who attend it entertained. There are lots of different types of entertainment that you can hire for your event. 

You can go with a: 

• DJ 
• Band 
• Choir 
• Singer 
• Comedian 
• Magician 

If you don't have an entertainer at your event, people are going to start to get restless before too long. The entertainment you hire will keep the party going all night long. 

Decorate Your Corporate Event Venue 

One of the final things you should do when planning a corporate event is decide what kind of decorations you're going to scatter throughout your venue. The decorations should tie right into the theme that you go with for the event. 

You don't necessarily have to blow your entire budget on decorations for your corporate event. But you should put some real thought into which ones are going to make your venue look the best when everyone in your company comes together for your event. 

Use These Tips to Make Your Corporate Event Successful 

If you don't know how to plan a corporate event, it can be an overwhelming experience. There are so many different elements that go into this kind of event, which can make it more stressful than it should be to plan one. 

Utilize the tips found in this guide to throw a successful corporate event without all the usual stress. You will be surprised by how smoothly things go when you follow the steps that we just laid out. 

Would you like to get your hands on more tips for planning out an event? Read through the other corporate event planning articles on our blog right now.

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