Planning a Successful Corporate Event

Plan a successful event for your company that will leave your guests and employees feeling inspired and energized.

Define Your Goal – Define Success

Before you can plan out the format for your business event, you need to be clear on what your desired outcome is. Ask yourself a few questions: What business objective are we working toward? What’s the intended outcome of this event? What end result would define it as successful?

Know Your Budget

We often get people looking for corporate event space who really haven’t planned through the total budget for the event. A clear budget will help you determine how much you can spend on necessities, if you have funds for any extras, and what you need to do to achieve your overall goal.

Primary (Necessities) Expenses:

Venue
Food & Beverage
Speakers and/or Entertainment
Materials (handouts, program, learning materials)
Gifts, Awards
Rental/Vendor
Marketing & Advertising (if applicable)

Just like everything, what you budget could very well run over once you start finalizing the details. It’s wise to add a cost buffer of an additional 10 – 15% for unexpected expenses.

Sometimes, a business event can get some budgetary assistance by hitting up your vendors for sponsorship or donations. Your bookkeeping firm might sponsor the food for your annual meeting, your regular printer might donate course materials printing costs, and so on.

Design for Engagement

ALL events, whether business meetings or celebration banquets, are experiences. How can you make your event memorable for those attending. What needs to be part of the design so attendees can get the most out of your event? When you plan the details of your event to engage people, your event will be successful.

Think about these creative aspects of any event:

Theme – what ties your event all together to make it enjoyable and relatable to your audience?
Content – focus on the agenda for your event and what content is necessary for each component. Think back to the engagement factor, and plan for the best content to make attendees feel part of things throughout the event.
Participation – there is nothing worse than hosting a boring event. When participants spend most of the time as passive participants, they get bored. Where are the opportunities to get your audience to interact with the content? Think: workshops, Q & A sessions, networking and socializing time.
Technology – there are so many options to incorporate technology into corporate events, don’t drop the ball on this chance to wow people. You can use simple things such as slideshows, videos and music, or get more creative with a digital photobooth, AI-enabled networking, virtual escape rooms or team building games.

Include Your Team and Employees

Who knows the company better than the staff themselves? Getting your team involved in co-creating the event can go a long way in generating great ideas, improving morale, and allowing them to have a sense of ownership of the event. You might even achieve a little informal team-building in the process!

Choose the Right Venue

We saved the best for last! Finding the right space to host your corporate event has a tremendous impact on its success. The space must be conducive to your overall goal – equipped to accommodate all the aspects of the event, with an atmosphere that supports what you are trying to accomplish.

The location and space for your event influences people’s experiences on every level. From a location that is easy to find and park at to space that is the right size and comfortable for all your guests. No matter what the purpose of your event, you want people to feel welcome.

Space considerations include:

Convenient Location
Parking
Size Requirements
Accessibility
Cost
Technical & Sound Needs
Food & Beverage Options
Venue Event Staff Support

River Winds Farm & Estate can accommodate a variety of corporate event and business function needs. Our experienced team can help you plan and host a memorable experience for all your guests, and a successful event for your company!