The 5 "Must Haves" of Successful Corporate Event Planning

As a top event planning company, we try to educate businesses large and small on the fundamentals of corporate event planning and management. You might be surprised at how many companies fall down on the basics. Here are five "must haves" to remember:

1. You must have a strategy. A properly conceived corporate event uses an overarching strategy as its road map to success. Strategy includes such essentials as business plan and budget preparation, sponsorships, audience acquisition, creative direction and content development.
2. You must have brand unity. Each building block of your event must be consistent -- consistent with each other and consistent with your company’s brand and culture. This congruency is what makes a message powerful, and it’s what makes branding work. Align your brand communication and watch your event make an impact.
3. You must have a plan. A strategy without a plan is like a conceptual drawing without a set of working blueprints. Every logistic must have a management plan, complete with goals, processes to accomplish those goals and milestones to mark your status.
4. You must have your teams in place. The best-laid plans are worthless without smooth execution. You must know who’s handling your site logistics, attendee registration, billing and customer service tasks. You must establish strong lines of communication with them and make them accountable for their progress. One of EMP’s strong points is its ability to expedite these processes with professional aplomb.
5. You must have metrics. Speaking of accountability, you must have systems in place that record and make sense of your attendance and registration statistics so you can get a clear sense of the event’s ROI. If you don’t treat your event as a business, you’ll have no idea of how well you did or how you can do even better next time.