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Effective event planning is crucial to ensure a successful and memorable corporate meet. However, even for veteran event organisers, certain missteps are easy to overlook. Read through ten of the most common mistakes event planners forget to focus on when planning a corporate event.
Starting without a clear objective can lead to disorganised and inefficient events. Defining your goal gives you a focal point for your planning process. This will also prevent the inevitable 'no ROI' conversation. If you haven't set a target, you aren't going to hit your goals and eventually, your event schedule will shut down.
Remember, while an attractive venue might pique interest, but it's practicality and amenability for your specific event needs that is paramount.
Timely and clear communication with attendees, suppliers and staff is vital for seamless execution. Communicate early and often and ensure you are sending event invitations via email.
Ensure sufficient seating, accessibility and refreshment facilities. One way to minimise this is to check for accessibility of the venue. Things like external signage, zero step entries, clear pathways to the room and airconditioning go a long way to all guests, not just those who require it.
Careless scheduling, such as in conflict with other significant events can lower attendance. You need to be considering your attendees and your target market. Consider if your event is targeting trades. A standard 9am start time is extremely inconvenient for someone who often starts on-site at 7am. Once you have tested timings by customer group, you will find your events will have higher turn up rates and more attentive guests.
This also applies to time of the week. Are you busier on a Monday or Friday? When are your stress levels higher and energy levels lower? We typically find Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday (in order) to be best days for B2B corporate events, with this time leaving enough for the start of week choas and end of week workload overload.
Complex plans become burdensome. Keep things simple and focused, without overloading the agenda.
Anything can happen. Always establish a backup plan to handle unexpected mishaps seamlessly.
Ensure adequate staffing to handle all requirements, from registration to logistics. There is nothing more uncomfortable as an attendee than arriving to an event, and standing around waiting for staff to appear, fumbling the registration or having to awkwardly huddle away. Cue the fake phone call emergency...
If you aren't following up with attendees post-event to maintain relationships you are missing out on a great way to generate new ideas, obtain feedback and potentially make more sales.
Always measure the event's outcome against the objective for future improvement. Chances are there are things that could be changed or tested to improve the result. Learning how to evaluate from an impartial standpoint is an essential workskill and something that will skyrocket your corporate event.
Simply knowing what these common pitfalls are, you can prepare your event to avoid them. Whether you're planning a product launch, conference or networking gathering, the goal is to delight attendees and deliver memorable experiences while meeting your event's objective.