Planning a corporate event is a major undertaking. And for those who get little to no help, it’s a feat. It requires exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail. To make sure your next event will be less stressful to plan, anticipate the most likely problems you’ll encounter and how to avoid them.
Venue is unsuitable
A lot of problems may arise when you settle for the wrong venue. For example, there might have been more guests than expected the venue can’t accommodate. Before reserving a place, it’s better if you do an on-site inspection first. It’s also good to visit multiple places so you’ll have other options.
Here’s a checklist for your venue:
- Is the venue accessible to the majority of your employees?
- Is the venue spacious enough?
- Is there enough parking?
- Are there any competitors present in-house at the same time as your event?
The venue might affect your guests’ impression of your company. If you want to give your event a different vibe, go either modernistic or classic, like an industrial warehouse or a 90-year old upscale skyscraper, like Kansas City’s The Grand Hall.
A speaker doesn’t show up
Nothing’s worse than having your number one guest be missing. Your speaker might have missed his plane, or he might have gotten sick so suddenly.
If the speaker doesn’t show up, communicate with your attendees as early as possible, and hope they won’t mind once they arrive. It’s also good to have a refund policy in place to cope with disappointed attendees.
To prevent instances like this, ask your speaker to notify you at least 24 hours before making any cancellations. If he does come, make sure he’s in the area the night before the event.
If he can’t make it, request for a recorded speech that you can flash at the event. Have a backup speaker that can be present immediately.
No guest shows up / too many guests show up
The last thing you’d want for the event you’ve worked so hard for is empty seats. This is a common risk for events that are free to attend.
Use Eventbrite to track sales of your event’s tickets. If you think you’re not generating enough sales, consider promotions and tease surprises.
But what if your event is turning out to be a hit? If you’re getting so many signups, consider moving the event to a bigger venue. You can also limit tickets and set up a waitlist. You can conduct a survey first, whether on Twitter or on Google Forms. This helps you get an estimate of how many people are interested in your event.
A sponsor complains
Businesses use corporate events to advertise their brands. However, the IEG Sponsorship Report found in 2016 that nearly six out of every ten sponsors look to exit their sponsorships.
A beverage company may offer to cover drinks for your event in exchange for advertising. What if their brand’s logo displayed on stage wasn’t as big as promised? Or what if there weren’t enough attendees? Or you accidentally advertised a competitor?
It’s hard to repair a broken trust but this is the best you could do. Salvage your relationship with the sponsor by explaining how things went wrong, and how can your company make up for it.
When cutting deals with sponsors, make sure everything is laid down in a contract. Managing expectations from the start is always ideal.
Planning a corporate event can be very stressful without figuring out things ahead of time. With a clever plan and dedicated mind, you can solve any problem you might encounter in the next event you’ll plan.
