Your organisation is fortunate to have a corporate event planning team on board. You’re planning a big event. So what should you expect from your motivated corporate event management team? As it turns out, there’s a lot more to event planning than you might have imagined.
Venue sourcing
The kind of venue you need depends on a lot of different factors. How many people are going to attend? Do you need somewhere central so everyone can easily travel to it, or are you happy to book somewhere out of the way and provide transport there and back? Is there a need for specialist equipment? Is it a serious event that demands a venue with gravitas, or all about pure fun and entertainment? Do you need overnight accommodation and if so for how many? Will it involve food, a bar or both? Your corporate event planning team will pin all of this down early on and use the information to inform their choice of venue.
Negotiating good rates
Unless you choose a date on which everyone wants to hold an event, like the first two weeks of December where everyone is trying to secure a venue for their office Christmas party, there’s often plenty of wriggle-room around the rates that venues charge. It takes confidence and experience to haggle effectively but doing so can deliver impressive cost-cutting. Sometimes paying a deposit or paying nice and early can get you a discount worth having. An experienced corporate event planning team will be prepared to do whatever it takes to slice as much off the price as possible, whether it’s a ‘per head’ cost or an overall price. Oftentimes your event planners will already have long standing relationships with event venues in London and this itself can help reduce certain costs.
Arranging online check-in and booking forms
Some venues require attendees to check in via online ticketing gateways. These can be complicated and time consuming. Our expert event planners at Good Look Events will ensure that everyone concerned gets their online check-in and booking information through safely, and deal with anything that falls through the cracks.
Arranging the decorations
Some venues look the part from the offset, others need some embellishments to make them suitable for your purpose, your people, your brand and culture. A talented event planning team will know exactly where to go to source the decorative items they need and if not, every good venue should have contacts of their own who can provide everything you need as regards print and production, floristry, table decorations, posters, balloons, name cards, competition prizes and more.
Theming the venue
Does your event have a theme? If so your team will spring into action to research memorable and creative ways to reflect that theme in a way that speaks without words, supports your brand, makes the right kind of corporate impact, sticks within your budget and delights guests and employees.
Taking into account any special dietary or accessibility needs
If there’s food on offer our London event planners will do the rounds of all the guests and attendees well in advance to make sure every special dietary requirement is logged, passed to the venue, and taken into account at every stage. It’s more important than ever these days with so many potentially fatal food allergies around. The same goes for accessibility – your event planners should ensure all your guests, delegates and staff can physically access the venue with ease.
Audio Visual (AV) and tech
Will anyone be making a speech or a presentation as part of the event? Will attendees need to take notes? Do you need a professional photographer to record the event so you can use images from it in your marketing and PR materials? Or would a trusted employee with a good quality camera be good enough? Do you need a whiteboard and pens, a projector and screen? Is there going to be music? What about entertainment? Your event planning team will list every item of technical equipment and associated support you need and make sure it’s all there, working properly, when needed. They’ll also be on hand to do whatever is required to make sure everything goes smoothly on the big day.
Things to do at the end of an event
Once an event has finished and everyone’s gone home, the event planning team will make sure the venue staff are happy. They may check that hired equipment has found its way back to the rightful owner, and can deal with any issues that arise before concluding the event project and drawing a neat administrative line underneath it. They might even collect staff, guest and delegate feedback to inform the next event they project manage.
When your event planners do all of the above, you can fully expect a successful, smooth-running event with no problems.
Learn more about how our London event planners can help by calling 0207 148 1665
About The Author: Levent Niyazi
Levent Niyazi is a prominent figure in the events industry with a rich experience spanning over two decades. In this time, he has masterminded numerous unforgettable events. As the visionary founder of Good Look Events, Levent has propelled the agency to become one of the UK's fastest-growing event agencies.
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