How to Throw the Perfect Business Event

As life enters the beginnings of returning to normal, it’s only to be expected that office life and business events will pick back up again.

Of course, taking a year off of planning and holding business events is enough to make anyone’s event planning skills a little rusty.

The good news is that you can still get back into the swing of things and plan a killer business event.

Outline a Plan

If you want to have a chance at pulling off a successful event, the first thing you’re going to need is a plan.

First and foremost, you need to understand the purpose of the event. Is it a training event? A holiday celebration? Something to celebrate a new product being rolled out?

Understanding the purpose of the event should guide every other aspect of the planning and execution of the event.

From there, set a goal for what you want the event to accomplish. Create a schedule for both the event itself as well as preparations leading up to it.

Send Your Invites

One of the things you need to schedule is sending out your invitations. If you do it too far in advance, people are going to forget about the event. On the other hand, if you don’t give enough notice people won’t have time to prepare for it or arrange their schedules so they can attend.

Either way, attendance at your event will suffer. Knowing when to send invitations is going to be critical. Once you’ve figured out the timing, decide how you want to send them out.

Emails and physical invitations both work, though one option may work better than the other depending on the circumstances surrounding the event.

Make sure you know who you’re supposed to invite as well. If you’re supposed to have media coverage at your event, that’s something you need to plan for in your invitations.

Decorate the Venue

On the eve of the event, you’ll need to make sure the venue is properly decorated for the occasion. What that means specifically will depend on the purpose of the event, as well as any theme you’ve decided to use.

This is something you should prepare for well in advance so you can be sure to have all the necessary supplies on hand when it’s time to decorate.

Decorating the entire venue by yourself can be an overwhelming prospect, so this is something you’re going to want to have a team for. Delegate tasks out to team members to lighten the load for everyone.

Offer Good Food

Depending on the event, it may be appropriate to have some light refreshments available for event attendees. If that’s the case, good food is a must and will help keep the mood pleasant.

Small appetizers and finger foods can be great options. They give people something to do with their hands, help keep rumbling stomachs at bay, and can be a decent conversation starter.

You can enhance the presentation with knotted bamboo skewers, which also helps keep things clean. Especially given the pandemic we’re still working on getting over, no one wants someone else’s fingers touching their food.

Stick to Your Budget

During the planning stage, you should have been given a budget for the event. If you weren’t, you need to get one ASAP. Your budget will determine what you can do with virtually every aspect of the event.

Once you know what it is, you can plan around it. This will help you prioritize the most important aspects of the event. Do everything you can to stick to the budget.

It may be helpful to set aside a portion of the budget as a sort of emergency fund to cover any unexpected costs that crop up.

Choose Your Date Wisely

Knowing when to send out your invitations isn’t the only aspect of timing you need to have figured out for your event. You also need to choose the date for the event wisely.

Consider the time of year it is. Are there any holidays coming up? What about events in your local community? How much time do you need to comfortably plan and pull off a successful event? When are venues available?

The answers to these questions can help you decide when the best date for your event will be to encourage a good turnout.

Give People a Reason to Show Up

While some of the people on your guest list are bound to be social butterflies who are eager to attend any event that crosses their desk, others are going to need a bit more encouragement.

You need to give people a reason to show up. To that end, you need to be nothing but positive about the event. If the person throwing it isn’t excited about it, no one else is going to be.

Build some buzz and hype surrounding your event. Market it like you would for a sale or promotion. Speaking of which, consider offering a promotional deal to those who attend to encourage people to come.

Follow Up

The event was a success, so now you’re done, right? Well, no, actually you’re not. As it turns out, the event itself may have been more of a halfway point rather than an endpoint.

To make the most of your event and capitalize on it, there’s some work to be done afterward as well. Follow up with your guests and use this as an opportunity to build your relationship with them.

Thank them for attending. Ask for their feedback about the event so you can make the next one even better. Assess what worked, what didn’t, and how well the event accomplished the goals you set for it.

Throwing the perfect business event isn’t something that just happens on its own. It takes careful planning and preparation to put together and pull off. If you want to nail it, make sure you have the tools and resources, as well as the time you need to get it done right.

Doing these things will help everyone to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

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