Month: July 2022

Events are powerful tactics to deliver messaging. They’re also meaningful ways to celebrate achievements, train employees, and inspire attendees. Whatever the specific event goals may be, organizations rely on corporate event management teams to strategize, plan, and execute meaningful experiences. 

You wouldn’t trust just anyone to plan a million-dollar wedding, and you shouldn’t trust just anyone with your million-dollar meeting, either. Corporate event management comes with all the moving parts of movie production or concert experience. Execution of that level of production requires thoughtful design. Expert event managers bring the advanced talents and strategies needed for producing events, all to surprise, delight, and motivate your attendees into post-event action. 

Collaboration is vital

It’s not cost-effective to have your internal staff produce an exceptional event. Tapping an experienced production partner is an excellent and often necessary option when organizations don’t have the staff to execute corporate event management and logistics. Experts know what works. Choosing corporate event management teams with the experience and know-how to execute a successful event and ensure company goals are met can be the difference between meeting organizational objectives and an event that falls flat. 

Beyond the need to secure the right venue, technology, catering, and entertainment, event managers bring expert knowledge and a fresh perspective to an organization’s event strategy. They know what’s new and what works and can apply an objective view of a company’s initiatives to build something unique rather than recreating the same event year after year. 

Will some of your colleagues prefer to attend the conference from home this year? Corporate event managers have already thought through the unique circumstances that can change the event’s dynamics. They know which vendors have the capabilities to make just about anything happen. Corporate event managers get the right specialists in the room and know the right questions to ask to ensure the job is done the right way and on budget. Use their expertise to get the most out of your event. 

Recommended Reading: How to Measure Engagement for Your Next Corporate Experience

Experience matters

There aren’t many event crises that a seasoned event manager hasn’t experienced. The best event managers approach challenges with curiosity, creativity, and an affinity for problem-solving. When a last-minute vendor cancellation could otherwise mean failure, an event manager already has the contact information of other vendors who can get the job done. 

Years of experience prepare event managers to handle any issues that may arise. Veteran event management teams approach event productions, understanding that events are living organisms, adapting and evolving to many constantly changing factors. The best event management teams know those factors before they arise, from when your speaker will need a snack to how a venue’s floor plan might affect your attendees’ emotional response to a breakout session. 

For example, if you want sparks to fly (in a good way) at your event, your attendees need room to network. Is there an area where your award winners will want to chat after their big moment? Designing solutions for team-building moments to take place is critical, and an experienced event manager has the expertise to identify those important opportunities.

Find Out The Secret Behind a Successful Corporate Event – and How to Get it Right, Every Time

Strategic thinking

Careful logistics execution is crucial to an event’s success and requires superb collaboration. Logistics don’t add up to much if it’s not grounded in a solid event strategy. Event strategy is where it all begins and continues throughout the event.

Corporate event management experts must zoom out to consider the big picture and ask the right questions:

• What are the demographics of the attendees, and how might that inform their experience? 
• What’s happening in the company’s culture that might affect the attendees’ perspective? 
• Have the attendees faced setbacks that need to be acknowledged, or are they overdue for a celebration? 
• Will attendees benefit from a cathartic breakout session after the keynote speaker? 

Event strategy should guide all decisions. The answers to the right questions will directly impact each event detail, from the schedule flow to the entertainment. Experienced corporate event managers will create solutions to help organizations meet their goals and objectives.

Event managers don’t just jump in and start building. They develop a vision, determine what success looks like, and then deliver what attendees will need to make an experience worthwhile. This attention to detail is imperative to executing on-strategy.

Let experts be experts

Specific outcomes matter and those outcomes are achieved with thoughtful consideration. Corporate event management teams bring the strategic expertise to design and put together the intricate pieces of an event’s ever-evolving puzzle. 

You want your event’s schedule to be planned with purpose. The logistics of your event should be so flawless that no one notices the complexities involved in the event’s planning. And most of all, you want your event attendees to leave with sparks, ideas, and feeling a part of something. 

The team here at Heroic can do it all—from strategy to execution. Let’s partner on your next event and put our corporate event management expertise to work for you. Contact us today.

There’s a secret that the best corporate event planners know—and it has little to do with creative menus, spectacular venues, or swag bags chock full of trendy products. It’s this: strategy comes first—and the most successful corporate events get built around that. 

If you follow that single principle, corporate event planning becomes an extension of your brand’s marketing and communications objectives, and everything else—theme, program, food, decor, entertainment, swag, or more—can fall into place. That’s because every decision and detail either furthers your central strategy—or it doesn’t. 

For corporate event planners and their clients, the key question then becomes: how do you establish and execute a clear and achievable event strategy? Simple. Answer these three critical questions.

Question 1: Why are you gathering people? What’s the message or goal?

We’ve all been to the meeting that could have been an email, the lunch that could have been a call, and the call that should have been canceled. This principle intensifies with an in-person corporate event.

So why are you gathering this designated group at this particular time? Is it for a product launch or a new sales initiative? Maybe it’s to celebrate a corporate merger, make key leadership introductions, or rally the troops after a milestone year. Take a moment to consider what you want to achieve—and how that will be measured. 

What’s the key message? What are the metrics of success—the data that will convey you’ve gotten the message across? This might be ROI, quantified by sales lift, stronger customer relationships, or some other measurable KPI. It might include attendee happiness, as demonstrated by a certain percentage of positive post-event evaluations (hint: consider the questions you’ll ask them before you start planning). What other data do you want to gather to track the success of your event? These will differ according to your greater purpose—but being clear on these metrics helps you know what you’re aiming for. 

Time is valuable, and attendees will appreciate your thoughtful crystallization of why they’re being brought together for a few hours or days. And when whatever you’re hoping to communicate—the magic of a new product, the synergies of a merger, the vision of fresh leadership, a collective monumental achievement—gets soundly received in a way you can quantify, you will know your event has been a success. 

Strategists figure out the “why” so planners can figure out the “how.” Now that you know what your event is intended to achieve, you can fill in the event details. 

First, ask yourself what kind of event would serve your strategy best? Is it big and high-energy or smaller and more intimate; splashy or discrete; daytime, evening, or multi-day; fiery or icy; loud or soft; eccentric, trendy, or classic? Or somewhere in between?

Question 2: What’s its shape, structure, and flavor?

Next, put yourself in your attendees’ shoes at every stage of the planning process. Great corporate event planning results in attendees feeling seen, thought of, and cared for. You want attendees to feel a gamut of emotions: from motivated to empowered to connected, surprised to energized to delighted. Understanding the emotional journey and how it evolves will help you sustain engagement throughout. 

Some do’s:

1. Design branded and customized experiences. Think about the continuity of the message throughout the event and even how the food and beverage can tie into that message. 
2. Impact all five senses when possible. 
   • For example, use script writing and creative visual support to awaken sight and sound (and to prevent ‘death by PowerPoint.’) 
   • Use stellar food and beverages and even aromatherapy throughout to tantalize taste and smell—and to carry the continuity of a well-crafted message. 
   • Think about volume control and temperature. When will you make things cozier? When would you cool things down? 
3. Build on previous successes, or utilize learning moments drawn from past events. 

At every step, go back to your objective and event strategy. Make sure that every decision you make supports and aligns with that strategy.

Question 3: How do you keep everyone safe?

Covid changed the rules—and the expectations.

Pandemic added new challenges to event logistics, and it raised the stakes, too. Anticipation is currently soaring. Most event attendees have been working remotely for two years, and they’re ready to celebrate. Maybe this is their first opportunity to meet—and bond with—new colleagues. Maybe they’re experiencing concerns about Covid, and you’ll need to assure them they’re safe. 

Covid has also changed timeframes: lead times are much shorter now, with two or three months settling into more of a norm. For one thing, it’s challenging to plan when it’s unclear if there will be a Covid spike, a new variant, or a transportation barrier. For another, communication with venues has become challenging, due to staffing shortages. 

The best event planners are prepared and adaptive, with an affinity for problem-solving. Now picture this: it’s been weeks, and people are still buzzing about your corporate event. The word is that everyone left the event feeling like it was time well spent—connections were made and the level of engagement hit just the right mark. 

So the event was a success? Well, you tell us. You now know the secret.

At Heroic Productions, we are supportive, strategic collaborators. We know the right questions to ask, and how to guide you toward solutions that serve your company best. And we know how to create an event strategy—and complete it.