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Corporate Event Planning 101- Making Your Trade Show A Huge Success

The key to the success of any corporate event includes effective planning and organization and setting an appropriate budget. In addition, you must include personalized promotional items, effective banners, and unique giveaways while effectively marketing to prospective customers and clients.

Keywords:

event planning, corporate events, corporate event planning

Article Body:

The key to the success of any corporate event - such as a trade show, a retirement party, a sports outing, or any hospitality event, a sales meeting, or the annual holiday party - is Corporate Event Planning 101. Corporate events vary in size and purpose. Some corporations host corporate events that consist of thousands of invitees, while some organize events for all employees, and some for only select employees. Whatever the occasion, you require proper corporate event planning to make event memorable and a roaring success.

With a variety of people attending these corporate events, their tastes and preferences are bound to be different. Workplaces have a diversity of people, and this makes corporate event planning stressful and difficult. It takes a lot of quality time for excellent corporate event planning, and still many may be disappointed with the results.

The major part of Corporate Event Planning 101 is the appointment of a professional Corporate Event Planner. He/she can plan and produce a great corporate event for you and save you time and money. In fact, due to poor planning, many corporate events have failed to draw clients. Well, you can definitely avoid this.

Planning Your Trade Show

Planning and organizing corporate events, such as a trade show, requires investing a lot of time and money. To make your corporate event a showcase of your products, you need to plan for personalized promotions items, effective banners and unique giveaways. Corporate event planning for business events involves ways to find new prospective customers and clients, reacquaint yourself with old customers, plan a couple of seminars, and network with your peers and your competition.

You will need to plan well in advance. First and foremost, plan and set a budget. Train your representatives who will work for you at the corporate event. Draw a list of people you would like to talk to at the event.

Your prospective customers are your target market. You need to draw them to your event. Announce your participation in the corporate event; make your sales staff personally invite select prospects you would especially like to be present. A personalized invitation to key prospective customers is a great way to ensure success of your strategy.

Plan to follow up the visit by your prospective client with a thank you note, email, or a phone call. Do this immediately after your corporate event.

Event Management, Body Language And Qualified Release

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

Article Body:

Stuart Burns was having a bad day. Not only had he arrived late for the seminar because of the server problem at work last night, he was finding it difficult to concentrate because of the stream of text messages coming in to his cell phone. He couldn't bring himself to turn it off just in case something catastrophic was happening back at base so he set it to mute and tried to keep an eye on it while he listened to the presenters. Now the effects of his disturbed sleep were catching up on him and his extreme body language shouted that he was in the wrong place.

Audiences suffering from information overload will give very clear signals that they are ready for a break. Their eyes start to glaze over, they slump in their seats and when you ask them questions, it is as though you are rousing them from a deep sleep. Bladders may be straining, nicotine and caffeine cravings may be kicking in and vibrating text messages are surreptitiously being viewed. It's time to declare an unofficial break! If you push on regardless you may lose your audience completely.

This situation can often happen on hot, humid days when the air-conditioning is underperforming or in windowless rooms where the lack of outside views can have a profound psychological effect on your delegates.

A ten minute unscheduled break in these circumstances can make the difference between success and failure for your event.

Manage the coffee and meal breaks rigidly as a few 5 or 10 minute overruns can soon lose you half an hour from the program.

Managing early departures

It is a fairly frequent occurrence that a proportion of your audience will be unable to stay for the entire event. This is understandable in these times of full schedules and instant communication. The more polite amongst them will forewarn you of this and tender their apologies. Some will make a dash for the door with their heads down and others will mumble an excuse as they walk sideways past the presenter towards the exit.

If you have prior warning, try and sit your early leavers close to the exit even if they have been sitting elsewhere during the event. That way, when they have to take their leave, they can do it with minimum fuss and interruption.

Whichever exit routine your early leavers use, make sure that they have an opportunity to give you some instant feedback before they leave and take the time to thank them for however much time they have been able to spend with you. Their early exit is unlikely to be an insult to your organizational or presentational skills. More likely they have a plane or train to catch, so treat them respectfully.

Stuart was so relieved when one of the seminar administrators approached him during a coffee break to ask if there was a problem. She listened and, promising to book him on the next seminar, helped him organize a taxi.

Do You Have The Right People To Organize Your Event

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

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Jenny Jones would never have considered she had any skill when it comes to running seminars. She was just quietly and competently doing her job when she was asked to organize an event to help promote the services that her company provides. Fortunately for her, she recognized instantly that she did not have all of the necessary skills herself and, by borrowing some tips from her recruitment experience, amongst other things, she saved herself from a great deal of stress and put together a team that delivered the goods, and more.

Almost before doing anything else, she recognized that, as the event organizer she should draw up a list of the numbers and types of people she needed in order to deliver the seminar. Against each job, she noted the competencies that are important for success in that role and any other traits that she felt would enhance the potential for crowning glory.

You'll note that Jenny did not produce a list of names. That can be an easy trap to fall into, especially if yours is a large organization. Instead of deciding what you need for success, you will be working out who not to offend by leaving them off the list. The formal process of defining people specifications, which is what Jenny was doing, actually gives you a viable and mostly acceptable reason for using only the most appropriate people.

If yours is a small organization, like the one Jenny worked in, and you don't have the luxury of choice, specifying the people may actually highlight the need for outside help rather than muddling along with the skills that you have inside the business.

Here are a few examples of people specifications:

Presenter : Good communicator, good impact and influence, technically knowledgeable, acceptable to director level delegates, good attention to detail

Course Administrator : Confident, excellent customer focus, good planning and organizing, good influencer, good initiative

Booking Administrator : Good information gatherer, good organizer, excellent customer focus, good initiative

Supplier Co-ordinator : Good planning and organizing, good influencing, good directiveness, good team worker

Jenny chose what she believed to be the five most important characteristics in each job and checked with a few of her management colleagues whose opinion she respected to ensure that she hadn't missed anything critical. She explained what she expected the people to do and was open-minded to the feedback that she got.

Selecting and briefing the event team

If yours is a large organization, you may want to advertise formally to ensure that you get the best people on board. Many will see this type of project as an opportunity to pick up new skills and experience and will be willing to compete for a place on the team.

The tougher your selection process is, the easier it is for rejected candidates to accept your decision. If you base your selection on a five minute chat in the company restaurant, you may be accused of nepotism and worst of all you may not end up with the best people to help you.

Always insist on evidence of your candidate's skills and competencies. As a rule of thumb, the more recently they have done something similar, the better the chance that they will be able to do the same for you without climbing the learning curve again. If you have the time, it may be useful to set them a task that will demonstrate to you that they can fulfill the role. When you are faced with twenty people all claiming they are the best, this is a great way to compare their actual capabilities.

If, like Jenny, you are unable to fill key roles from inside the organization, there are many consultancies and service organizations only too willing to help out for a fee. They are capable of doing everything from managing the entire event right down to administering your bookings or providing project co-ordination services. Some online booking organization can also manage telephone bookings on a 24 hour basis, will manage the payment process and can conduct post-event evaluation on your behalf.

Arrange a time when you can get your team together to talk through the purpose of the event. Please DO NOT just hand them a copy of the purpose document and expect them to understand everything that you know about it. They will all have very pertinent questions to ask from their very different perspectives and they should all be keen to make sure that they understand what is expected from them.

Brief job descriptions would not be out of place here as they will define boundaries of responsibility and accountability and will avoid unpleasant finger pointing if anything should go badly wrong at a later stage. Have them write their own job descriptions under the headings of:

* Scope
* Key Responsibilities
* Measures of Success

Not only will this give you a good idea of their understanding, it provides you with a motivational tool to recognize their excellence throughout the project.

Jenny Jones used this approach; put together a highly skilled team to deliver her company seminar and added a new skill to her CV - Event Organization.

Event Logos Still Sub Par—Jonathan Munk

Keywords:

logo design logos maker graphic

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For every seminar, conference, and annual event held across the world, there is usually a wordy, poorly designed logo to accompany it. It seems that no matter how much the design community does to impress upon people the importance of a good logo design, it seems as though event planners must not hear it.

Every day as I browse the logo news I find at least one article about a logo being launched for some type of event. When I see the design, I am almost always disappointed with the lack of creativity and general skill level. I’m sure that a logo is one of the last things on a person’s mind when they are trying to secure a venue, attract attendees, fill speaker openings, and make sure everything goes just right. But at the same time, having a killer logo for any event makes it more attractive to potential attendees. The event will have better attendance, build more trust, and perhaps most importantly, sell more promotional products.

This is especially important for large-scale, repeated events, such as the Olympics. Everyone recognizes the five interlocking ring design. But most host cities design a logo for their city that becomes the main logo used to promote the event.

Today one of three logos being used for the Beijing 2008 Olympics—known as the “Green Olympics” design—was unveiled, and is a big disappointment as well. I’m sure a lot of time and money were spent to come up with this design, but the logo seems very amateurish and lacks visual balance, in my opinion. I would never buy anything with that design on it. Hopefully the Olympic organizing committee will do a better job with the other two logos, which have yet to be revealed—the “People’s Olympics” and “Hi-tech Olympics,” or they may have a plethora of mugs and hats when the final anthem plays.

For anyone thinking about getting a logo designed for their event, read up on LogoWorks in the Wall Street Journal.

Easing Delegates Into The Event

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

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Attending a major conference in a big city like London was a daunting prospect for Geri Hunter. She was always pretty nervous about these events anyway, although she realized the enormous benefit she received from networking and keeping up to date with the latest trends. The recent terrorist bombings didn't add much to her peace of mind either.

Because you won't know exactly what frame of mind your delegates are in as they await the beginning of the event, it is important that the presenters opening words orientate the audience to the reasons for holding the event. They should refer back to the original objective and should cover the following:

• Who are the people running the event?

• Why has it been organized?

• What should delegates expect to get from it?

• How will the event be run?

• Where in the venue will elements of the event be held?

• When will significant activities and breaks happen?

This welcome speech should be well rehearsed and word perfect, delivered in an up-beat tone to set the energy level for the day otherwise you may lose the audience before you have even begun.

Safety and comfort

As the event organizers you are responsible for ensuring that your audience understands the evacuation procedure in the event of fire, flood or any other emergency and for checking that everyone has been accounted for. Find a way of integrating this information into the beginning of the event and include information about smoking areas, toilets and also identify one of the administration staff as a key contact for any queries.

Some venues set the room temperature at the beginning of the day to a low level in full knowledge that it will rise naturally during the first hour. It pays to recognize this and to empathize with the audience, asking them to let you know if the room temperature becomes uncomfortably cold or hot so that you can do something about it. Say “Because we're not sitting still like you will be, it can be difficult for us to judge whether the room is comfortable.”

Timekeeping and flexibility

As the event moves on, you may find that the original timings were somewhat optimistic and you are not going to complete sections before the advertised break times. If this happens, be honest with the audience. They are probably more aware than you are that things are slipping. Whatever you do, keep religiously to the break times. They are important for boosting audience energy and, critically, the venue is already programmed to get hot beverages and food to you at these times. Changing the breaks on the run can cause far greater fall-out than changing the content of the event. Use the break time to take soundings from the audience about which material might be cut out and compensated for in other ways.

Above all be flexible in your event management and be prepared to do some emergency surgery to presentations later in the day.

Event Etiquette

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

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The workshop was over. The delegates had long gone and Margaret Kerr was recovering with a cup of coffee. The room was strewn with sheets of flip chart paper, the debris of the buffet lunch and countless empty coffee cups covered every horizontal surface in the room. Margaret was drained. The workshop had been a tough one for a trainer; the delegates had all been sharp and smart; they had challenged her knowledge and demanded long explanations of the reasons behind the theories she was asking them to buy into. She looked at the bomb-site that was once an orderly training room and knew she didn't have the energy to do much more than crawl to her car. After all, she reasoned, the conference center cleaning staff would tidy up, wouldn't they.

Once the rooms are clear of delegates and you have bathed in the glory of a successful event, it is time to dismantle everything that you came with. As with the assembly process, it is useful to assign specific responsibilities to members of the event team and to manage the process as smoothly as possible. For larger events, keep a checklist of everything that needs to be done on a flip chart and, as items are completed, score them out. Using a clearly visible list like this gives everyone involved an easy reference and allows them to decide themselves how they can best help others once they have completed their own tasks.

If events are to be a frequent part of your life, you will want a venue to welcome you back with open arms. To make this a certainty, try as much as possible to leave the venue rooms as you found them, litter-free and ready for the cleaning staff to prepare them for the next users.

This may seem like common sense but you will be surprised how easy it is, at the end of a particularly stressful event, to follow the impulse to cut and run. Your reputation is worth more than a few sheets of paper.

Providing venue feedback

As you leave with the last load of equipment, make a point of contacting your conferencing contact at the venue. Show them your feedback from the evaluation forms; if they are worth their salt, they will be eager to read it. Add any feedback of your own, positive and negative but always leave a nice, juicy positive comment to the last and tell them you'll be back.

If you've had any particularly excellent service from the conferencing staff, make a point of following up your feedback with a thank you letter to the venue manager. A little careful attention to detail now will buy you royal treatment on your next visit.

Margaret was about to slide quietly away when her colleague Ben, walked in looking full of energy. “Where do you get the energy, Ben?” she asked. “I pace myself” he stated in a matter of fact way “the day ain't over till it's over”

Event Catering; The Most Primitive Form Of Comfort

Keywords:

online,booking, event management, online booking

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Nancy did not consider herself to be fussy. She was just trying to eat a healthy diet which included herbal teas. The trouble was; when she attended seminars and workshops, a frequent part of her job, she was always offered coffee in the breaks and rarely, if ever, her chosen beverage. Even when she brought along her own herbal tea bags, the venue could never seem to be trusted to supply boiling hot drinkable water to complete the infusion.

The dietary requirements of your delegates can be very complex. You may have to deal with vegans, vegetarians, fruitarians, those on a raw food diet, those with nut allergies, wheat intolerance, dairy intolerance and, who knows, maybe the occasional carnivore. Of course, it is unlikely that you will be producing the food yourselves; however it is important that you have a method of keeping an accurate record of this information to pass on to your caterers.

If your chosen venue does not provide catering directly, they will most probably be able to recommend a few companies with a good reputation.

Selecting a catering company to assist you can be a pleasant job as those who are proud of their track record will insist that you sample the product before you make your order.

For longer workshops and events, you may need to provide at least one meal. Although the food should be nutritious and interesting, try to make sure that it is not too heavy on the calories otherwise you may lose half of your audience to siesta time. Take advice from your caterer, they should be able to suggest a range of menus that will be appropriate. When you pass on the information regarding special dietary needs, make sure that those dishes are carefully labeled as they tend to be tasty and interesting unlike traditional buffet food and might disappear into the wrong stomachs.

Of course if you are running a smaller event, none of this need bother you. Wrong! There is just as much potential for drama with coffee and biscuits. Those with allergies and intolerances will still have hunger pangs, so fruit, nut-free, wheat free snacks and a good range of beverages should be available. Clean, boiling hot water for those who bring their own special brews, coffee, decaf, black tea, herbal teas and fruit teas are the minimum requirements if you want to impress. Fortunately most well equipped venues will have a beverage dispenser serving just about every requirement.

You may get no extra stars for getting the catering right, but get it wrong and your event will be a scar on people's memories.

Ask Nancy and she will regale you with countless tales of poor catering experiences, of tepid, dirty water served in a coffee stained pot, of serving staff who fail to understand her requirements and, worst of all, of being totally ignored because she will not accept the standard cup of coffee. Ask her about the seminars and she is, at best, vague.

Follow Up To Get Quality Event Feedback

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

Article Body:

"Well, how did it go?" asked the CEO as he wandered past Siobhan's desk on his weekly tour of the offices. He was referring to the conference Siobhan had organized and run to involve their industry in standardization guidelines. Although her first impression was that the conference was a real success, she knew that she only had a small proportion of the total feedback. "I'm still in the middle of collecting feedback data", admitted Siobhan, "but the initial data looks more positive than we hoped. I'll have the full results at next week's review meeting."

Seminars, roadshows or workshops are held for a very specific reason and they will belong in one of the following categories:

• To generate sales opportunities for your products or services

• To spread information or increase productivity throughout an organization

• To raise general awareness about a topic

• To gain support for a change (political, legal, social or environmental)

It may be tempting, once the event is over, to sit back and wait for a reaction but, because you have invested time, emotion and money into developing and running an event, you ought to be pro-active in testing its effectiveness. Events are like all other products, some do everything they were expected to do whereas others fall short and need to be improved either by modification or enhanced design, if they are to be repeated.

With an event you cannot expect to satisfy everyone 100%, but you can get close by understanding what worked and what did not. As you will see, not everyone is prepared to give their true opinion during or directly after the event and some degree of post-event follow-up will be necessary to draw a balanced picture of audience perception.

Because your delegates have different learning styles, you will not have seen a complete and considered reaction from all of them during your event.

Delegates, whatever their background, can be pigeon-holed into 4 categories:

• Activists

• Pragmatists

• Theorists

and

• Reflectors

The activists and pragmatists are most likely to have responded immediately to the information or activities that you provided as they enjoy interaction. Activists and pragmatists, by nature, have a strong tendency to engage and take on board new ideas. Pragmatists will test the realism of the new idea whereas activists just enjoy the thrill of the new.

Theorists, as you might expect, like to take time to break ideas down and think things through step-by-step. Reflectors prefer to gather information, stand back and consider things from different perspectives. Both of these learning types may need a little more time and space to assimilate what has been said and would probably respond well to a follow-up process.

Siobhan was right to hold back on boasting about her success. Some of the later feedback demonstrated that there were real practical problems that would take time and money to overcome. These had only surfaced once the delegates had returned to base to analyze the in-depth business implications for themselves.

Event Planning Tips The Pros Use

Putting together a big event is no small accomplishment. That's why many organizations call on a professional event planner. Sometimes, however, you may have to organize a big event by yourself.

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Event Planning Tips The Pros Use

Article Body:

Putting together a big event is no small accomplishment. That's why many organizations call on a professional event planner. Sometimes, however, you may have to organize a big event by yourself.

Kara Mickelson, a corporate planner for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., has planned everything from intimate dinners to corporate meetings to citywide events for 20,000 people. Here are some tips that she has found to be helpful:

• Get everyone on the same page. According to Mickelson, the first step is to sit down with everyone involved in the planning and set the objectives for the function. She also suggests that this can be an excellent time to assess what funds or resources will be available for the event. Mickelson believes one of the biggest mistakes planners make is improper budgeting. One way many pros save money is by printing their own meeting materials, including tent cards, signs, badges and more, with a company such as Avery Dennison.

• Think backwards. When should you start planning? "The best way to start is by backing everything out from the event day," Mickelson advises. It's critical not to plan too much until the event date is set.

• Build in extra time. What makes it hard for novice planners is they have no benchmark for how long it will take to research a hotel, negotiate a contract or find a band. "Give yourself more time than you think you need," she recommends.

Some find it helpful to use a tool, such as those available on the Avery Meetings and Events Solution Center Web site (www.avery.com/meetings). It provides templates, tips and tools to make it easier to plan meetings and events.

• Write it down. Mickelson suggests using a notebook to write down all the basics. Do you need invitations, meeting materials, flower arrangements? The details will help you create a timeline for your event. She contends that once it's written down, the time-line will start to reveal itself.

• Play pretend. How do you avoid forgetting an important task? "Do a mental walk-through," advises Mickelson. "Pretend you're actually at the event. Go through the process of driving your car there. Where is parking? At the venue, do you need signs? Badges? Table tents for seating? Visually, if you can walk yourself through the entire event, it becomes clearer."

What is her foremost bit of advice? She suggests to plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

Creative Team Building Ideas for an enjoyable event!

Learn about creative ideas for team building activities which are bound to make your participants asking for more! Incorporate your corporate objectives in your team building activities and at the same time ensure that the participants benefit from them.

Keywords:

team building ideas, corporate event ideas, team building event organiser, team building exercise, team building activities, corporate event activities, chillisauce

Article Body:

One of the greatest challenges in organising team building events is the need to instil creativity in the activities implemented. It is a fact that coming up with fresh ideas yourself is painful and time consuming. What’s more, team building activities have to be aligned with the corporate objectives of holding the event in the first place.

Nevertheless, if you already have some idea of what you want to achieve, you can then check out the following creative team building ideas and even expound from them. This makes your task easier, and also provides you with some basis to work with.

Joining Instructions (An ice-breaking activity)

Get people into groups of between three to ten people. In team clusters, instruct all teams to work together to join several parts of their body parts together. For instance, four hands, two wrists, six knees and one thumb. The first team to complete the exercise will shout “joined” to the activity facilitators. It is up to the event organiser to come up with increasingly challenging commands for the teams and also to tabulate scores for a winner.

The Personality Tree (Team bonding and personality determination)

In groups of between three and five, distribute pens or markers with paper to each team member. Next, get them to draw a tree depicting the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, thorns and fruits. Each area of the tree symbolizes the following personality areas:

Root: beliefs or influence
Thorns: challenges
Leaves: sources of information
Branches: connections and relationships
Fruit: achievements
Buds: ambition and ideas
Truck: stability
Flowers: strengths and specialities

In a team, discuss all these areas with one another, taking care not to be judgemental but instead provide constructive inputs. As a team building event organiser, you are free to customise the exercise with other elements such as birds and bees, or other items such as dead branches and leaves.

Collecting Autographs (Team building, association and creativity)

Draw a grid of boxes on a piece of paper and develop copies of it to be distributed to each of the team members. Give everyone a pen of different colour, and get them to draw a matchstick image of themselves on the first box with their signatures at the bottom. Then, within a time span of 5 minutes, let everyone go around the room collecting autographs and matchstick drawings from others. It’s best that each person get to know one another better before moving on. Stop the exercise at the end of 5 minutes and single out the person with the highest number of signatures. Get him or her to describe each person that the signature resembles on his or her sheet. You will be surprised at the answers!

These activities are just a glimpse of other activities that would make your team building exercise a success. Check out Chillisauce (http://www.chillisauce.co.uk) for more information.

Do People Know Exactly What Event Management and Event Marketing Is

Event management starts well before the day of the event and requires much follow up work afterwards like requiring planning, marketing, invitee registration, confirmations and reminders must be very well thought out, and carried out, prior to your event. If all this is well done step by step, your event management company will be successful.

Keywords:

event,management,marketing,organizing,social,personal,national

Article Body:

The answer is No….As nowadays any Tom, Dick or Harry has an event management company without knowing the A B C of event management. Event Management is principles and practices associated with planning, managing and staging special events. There are a lot of important components like stage and logistic management, marketing, promotion, event evaluation and event reporting which lead to a successful event.

Now event management and event marketing are two sides of the same coin. Event management can’t go without event marketing, so any company or individual doing event management should think about marketing these events first.

Any event management or marketing company or individual has to ensure success for which they are working. The event management company will work closely with the person for whom they are doing event management for as an extension of his team, providing the focus needed to manage each complex element of the event management process, leaving him free to concentrate on his core responsibilities.

We can categorize events as national events, social events and personal events.

Social events: consists of award functions, fashion shows, musical shows etc.

Personal events: are marriage functions, birthday parties or any personal celebrations.

National events: like Republic Day and Independence Day, they are considered to be very important events.

Conducting an event is not an overnight job. These events required proper planning and depth. An expert event manager or organizer has to start the work of organizing event few months earlier. Firstly an expert planner will think of sponsors to conduct the shows. To be very clear, national and personal events do not need marketing, but for social events like award functions, fashion shows etc. proper sponsors, advertisement and of course marketing are required.

Initial step to organize any event is to divide it into different parts.

1- In first part there will be a team of skilled marketing people, who could find good sponsors for the show. Advertisement is also a basic need for the success of an event.

2- Secondly, a group of people works on the venue where the show is to be conducted. The venue, day date and time are equally important factors, as such the place where event is to be conducted should be suitable for the public and even the day and time when the event is going to take place.

3- In the third part the important thing is practice of the show. The other expert group of people works upon the costumes, type of sub events like singing, dancing etc. of the participants. They conduct rehearsal again and again for the success of the show.

4- Fourth part is the selling of tickets in the public and of course the planning of proper security services. It is very necessary to be able control the whole crowd.

Lastly, when all these important functions get clicked together, a successful grand event is organized. In short, to make any event successful the most important thing is planning, and the other step is to follow up accordingly to the plans i.e. e hard work and keen efforts.

Event Delegates Are Lifetime Friends

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

Article Body:

Customer relationships are meat and drink to Gary Chapman, he runs a consultancy company that trains and informs corporate organizations about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). His company runs public seminars around the country on a weekly basis, dealing with thousands of delegates every year; here is his advice to you if you are planning a similar event.

The registration process may be your first opportunity to connect personally with a customer and demonstrate to them what your values and standards are. Like all relationships, we generally judge what someone is like in the first 60 seconds and this is no different. You should consider each delegate as a potential lifetime friend who you are meeting for the first time and you should give them absolutely no cause to question your professionalism.

If this is the first time you have run an event and your admin staff have not yet cut their teeth either on delegates or on the product (the event), take plenty of time to script everything from the first telephone answer to the most awkward set of requests and questions you can think up. Give your people a chance to role-play those first 60 seconds until it becomes absolutely second nature.
Answer before the first ring

Consider what standards your admin team ought to be meeting. One organization demands that all of its telephones are answered “on or before the first ring” to demonstrate its urgency and alertness. “Hey! That's not physically possible”, I hear you say. Well, some telephone systems ring first at the receiving end before the caller hears the first ring in their ear, meaning that if you pick up after the first ring, the caller won't hear a ring. Although that can be a bit scary, you may want to set your standard around 3 rings and stick to it.

There are all sorts of other standards that are worth discussing with the admin team to ensure that your customers get a good standard of service:

• call-back within a promised timescale

• paperwork posted within 8 working hours

• emails sent within 4 working hours

• database up to date at the end of each working day

• payment reminders sent out 21 days, 28 days and 35 days after registration

Having set standards, make sure there is an easy way of checking that they are being adhered to. It is better that the admin team has their own monitoring system that you can check from time-to-time than to have big brother/sister keeping a permanent watchful eye on standards.

Gary Chapman also encourages his Admin Team to treat one another in the same way, using the same standards that they would use with an external customer. This way you actually remove stress and conflict as there is no potential to make a wrong decision. “What's the point of double standards?” asks Gary “Any reasoning person, given the choice, would choose the easier option. That's how standards slip. We don't give ourselves the choice!”

Corporate Event Managers - Why You Need One

Corporate event managers enable you to showcase your products and services and add tremendous value to corporate events.

Keywords:

corporate events, corporate event

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Corporate events are a showcase for your products and services. You will expect thousands of current as well as prospective customers and clients to show up. For a corporate event to be a success, you need a well planned, well organized, and a well-executed event. For this, you need the services of a professional Corporate Event Managers. Whether the corporate event is a business or a social one, a large or a small one, a formal or an informal one; regardless of the objective, it requires to be planned well with the help of professional and experienced corporate event managers.

With your company hosting the corporate event, you would have decided whether to plan the event yourself or to hire the services of professional Corporate Event Managers. Of course, you may feel that most of you have planned some event or the other; a meeting with your business associates, a get-together with friends and family, and so organizing a corporate event would be the same. A corporate event is not similar to organizing get-togethers and meetings. The role of corporate is not small and any mistake on this front could cost you dearly.

There are many advantages in hiring Corporate Event Managers. They bring in a number of assets, skills, services, and economical advantages that only with the experience and expertise of professional Corporate Event Managers.

Corporate Event Managers- Adding Value to Corporate Events

Whatever the objective of your corporate event, they require some value additions that are dependent on Corporate Event Managers:
• Corporate Event Managers are adept in visualizing what type of event will suit your objective. They have extensive experience in presenting creative suggestions and various alternatives, as well as having a vision of what the event should look like. A professional event manager also has the ability to execute, successfully, the vision of the client, and alternatively present a vision that will meet the desires of the client.
• Implementation of the vision involves coordination of goods and services. Corporate Event Managers have the experience and knowledge of all the goods and services that will be required to implement the vision, including location, registration, food and beverage, food service, entertainment, interactive games, audio/visual support, speakers, decoration, complementary gifts, security, insurance, ushers, transportation, parking arrangements, - the list is endless.
• Corporate Event Managers are very adept in planning and coordination of the efforts of a large number of people who are involved in organizing your corporate event.

Corporate event managers make sure that you fully enjoy the event without bothering about the implementation side of the corporate events!

Choosing Your Next Corporate Event Planner

Choosing your next corporate event planner is easy if you are familiar with the type of event you’re trying to produce, are clear about your objectives and vision, have finalized your requirements and look for specific qualifications (including creativity, communication skills, etc).

Keywords:

corporate events, corporate event planner

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It all depends on what you want. If you want a great event, you will need to select a great Corporate Event Planner. It is that simple. You need an event planner who will not only plan one, but will also produce a perfect memorable corporate event for you. Now, the problem is how to choose a good corporate event planner. You can go about the selection process in two ways. First, you know what type of event you want. You know the theme, the food and beverage, entertainment, the venue, the lights, the sound and the overall atmosphere. You only need to know the where and the how of it, and whether it is within your budgetary constraints. Second, you have no clue what you’re doing. In this instance, you’ll need a Corporate Event Planner who can suggest themes and present them in such a way to have created a vision for you.

The Corporate Event Planner you are looking for should be comfortable with both the scenarios. He/she should have the ability to listen closely to your needs and those of your clients. They should also be able to effectively communicate your ideas while motivating the entire team towards working for the same goals. In essence, the corporate event planner has to be a visionary leader.

Corporate Event Planner – What to Look For

Now that you know what they do, you may wonder what qualifications you should look for. First, get yourself organized to know what type of event you are trying to produce. Be very clear about what you want and how to convey it. List all the components of your vision and have a very clear concept of the same. Once you have finalized your requirements, start looking for a Corporate Event Planner – an individual or a company – with enough experience to fulfill your needs. What you need to choose is a complete Corporate Event Planner; and not a florist, or a caterer, or a DJ. Your complete Corporate Event Planner should have the ability and experience to bring all these component services together as a unit and produce a flawless event that will be remembered for meticulous planning and perfect execution.

You can start looking for your Corporate Event Planner by visiting corporate events or by searching the Internet. Make a list of those that seem appropriate to your requirements, and start calling them. Explain your vision and wish list, and arrange for interviews with those who stand out. Ask them to bring their proposal and ask for references from past and current clients. Pick one who is creative, communicates well, has extraordinary vision, and the experience to pull it off.

A great Corporate Event Planner can produce not only a great and successful event, but also one that would be enjoyed by all.

Common mistakes to avoid during a corporate event

Discover secrets of event organisers that you can learn for a successful event. Tap onto the mind of event organisers to acquire knowledge that you can only obtain through experinece in organising events.

Keywords:

corporate event planner, event planning mistakes, corporate event organiser, chillisauce, team buiilding exercise, corporate events, event facilitator, corporate event experts

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One of the greatest factors influencing the success of a corporate event planner is the experience acquired from previous engagements. There are just some things that can only be learnt through experience, with no amount of preparation adequate. This is precisely why some organisations have a preference to engage corporate event management companies such as Chillisauce, so as to ensure a successful and hassle-free event.

Nevertheless, as a corporate event organiser, we are open to sharing experiences with our clients with the aim of enhancing customer relationships. Thus, the following insights are some of our inputs on critical mistakes that should be avoided by anyone organising a corporate event.

More time for planning

Even if your corporate event may just be for two days, extensive preparations prior to the event will be required. Activities will need to be planned out, participants need to be confirmed and facilities as well as equipment need to be prepared in advance. Thus, it’s always advisable to have more time to plan for an event so as not to be caught unawares in any situation.

Activities should not be rushed through

Amidst budget and time constraints, many events have been organised to rush through a tight schedule without any time for recreation and rest. Therefore, the event turns out to become a stressful time rather than an enjoyable weekend. This defeats the purpose of running the corporate event in the first place, which also translates to a waste of money.

Control the booze

Although most employees may expect alcohol as part of the package, it may be wise to put a cap on alcohol consumption during corporate events. Many organisations had learnt it the hard way when intoxicated employees started behaving inappropriately during an event, disrupting other employees in the process. Furthermore, any team building exercise involving physical activities after alcohol consumption may place the company at risk of employees hurting themselves.

Set aside budget for a good event facilitator

The engagement of a good event facilitator for a beneficial and enjoyable event has always been overlooked. Indeed, a good facilitator will possess the skills required to ensure that all participants take part in the various activities. His or her good communication skills and team building content knowledge will ensure that the purpose of the event is achieved.

Business Event Networking: Make a Connection in a "New York M.I.N.I.T."

To become a power networker, you can't waste time. Learn some interpersonal skills that can create great connectivity for business success through event networking... in a New York M.I.N.I.T.

Keywords:

business, networking, new professionals, business schools

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Copyright 2006 The Edventures Group

The New York M.I.N.I.T is an energetic framework for busy professionals that taps into the root of networking...relationship building! When you are asked to go to a networking event, keep the New York M.I.N.I.T framework in mind. I promise you'll leave the event with not, 20 useless cards for your rolodex...but one or two cards that WILL RESULT IN BUSINESS or a top shelf referral!

The framework requires you to be genuine and authentic as you set out to network. Remember, the personal connection, even without scoring another business card, can have a lasting benefit for networking beyond the LARGE room you make SMALL talk in!. Keep focused on the moment, and the energy gained from targeting the right people will help you not to glaze over in a frenzy of business card collection!

When you approach the first move in event networking at a conference or meeting...remember the image of an octopus on rollerskates...you don't want to appear that way, do you? Think of the octopus on rollerskates trying to cross the event ballroom or conference room floor...lots of activity and plenty of motion expended...but nothing is happening that is productive...the octopus isn't making progress. Go farther with this picture.Think of each arm with a business card tucked into it...the octopus wants to mix and mingle, to get those cards out...but is thwarted by his own frenetic energy.

Now, you can do better.

Pause...and breathe...Take 5 business cards and tuck them into your pocket before the event...or better yet, buy a very cool looking holder that will make a nice impression when YOU finally CHOOSE to give your card over! Your card is as precious as gold. You are not sharing it with just anyone. Head for your meeting to control your moment and think of M....MAke a connection!

MAKE a Connection in the New York M.I.N.I.T.framework:

* Before you go...do a quick Google of the group, mission, and people who matter. Be ready to use that in a connecting first moment.

*Enter the room alone and do a once around without connecting.

First, find another loner, then break the ice and warm up your connectivity. Use your knowledge of the group from your Google that you've done on the event prior to arriving.. Form a first question..."Is ______(head of the organization) here yet? I would like the chance to meet him/her?" Use the question BEFORE you say your name and introduce yourself...and smile, genuinely!

The answer you get will determine how long you'll spend in conversation since you want to find those who know the power people in the room. Even if they don't introduce you to the power people directly, you can say..." HI, Ms._________( Powerperson), I've just had a great chat with_____, who spoke highly of your work in _________________) ". You may not know the original person, but their name may have helped you network from a quick conversation to the top dawg!

To help yourself in a big room, learn the names of the loner people and burn them into your brain! Look them in the eye and associate...red tie, Ralph...Siver haired, Stella....Read the name tag...ANYTHING to aid your recalll. Why? As you walk through the room again...you will want to see with whom these people are chatting and networking with, and perhaps you want to join the group..."Excuse me, Stella, thanks for pointing, (Mr. Power Guy!) out to me, I had a great conversation with him. By the way, I'm_____, if you recall." . This will take you far into a new group that is chatting, and help you to see if the conversation is rich enough to remain in!

* Speaking of name tags...wear yours in a prominent way at the throat or buy a special lanyard that you can loop around in a visible way...nothing worse than having people eyeball your navel in an attempt to read your name from a low hanging badge.

* At these networking events, stay in connecting mode in one on one chats until you feel that the conversations are beneficial or not...but don't give up being relational and interested, even if you are bored! If you feel that this small talk is going nowhere...look to draw another nearby loner in with eye contact and a friendly gesture. After you make the intros to get the two partners chatting, make your polite excuses and step away to find another pair to network with in the large room! Your small talk will bring you BIG results if you make the studied attempt to make the most of your connection opportunities at events. You can do it in a New York MINIT!

Evaluate Your Event To Accumulate Profit

Keywords:

online booking, event managment,booking mananger, booking, registration

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If you are running workshops, seminars or conferences like Oslo , Norway based Ulrika Fredrikson you won't be doing it as a charitable act. Let's face it, even if you were a charity, you'd have to cover your costs somehow. Ulrika runs a combination of sponsored and paid-for events which improves the ticket price for delegates but increases the pressure on her to fill seats to satisfy the advertising benefit for her sponsors.

Whether your event cost $10 or $10,000 to stage, you should, for business reasons, calculate your return on investment. This is not as straightforward as making sure that the gate money covers your costs, although that is, in itself, important. To be rigorous you will be drawing information about all of the positive and negative effects the event has had on your bank account, your reputation and your graying hair both now and in the future and you will be making it available to whomever needs to know in a form that is easy to digest.
Compiling event information

To properly compile all of your event information you might want to put some time aside to revisit all of the details about the design, development, running and follow-up activities associated with the event.

Financial Information

Put together the financial information and split it down into:

• planned expenditure

• unplanned expenditure

• direct income

• indirect but related income

Planned expenditure is everything that you predicted you would spend on the project from the first including purchases, rentals, staff hours and expenses. Unplanned expenditure is anything else over and above what you originally thought was required. You are splitting this out, not because it is in some way wrong to incur unplanned expenditure but because it is part of the learning and self-training process. When you next run an event you will have a better idea of the contingency costs you ought to be planning.

Direct income comes from ticket sales and any other sales like promotional items, books or products associated with the event. Indirect income covers any additional products or services that have been purchased since the event and the sale of which can be attributed to running the event. This is where the water starts to get a little muddy, as it is highly likely that some of your delegates will have been approached by your company many times in the past and it may become difficult to attribute a sales success to this event alone. By far the best thing to do here is to count the sale, or a proportion of it, say, a quarter and highlight it as being influenced by a combination of marketing tactics including the event.

Ulrika has been in the conferencing business for around ten years and she knows that almost 50% of follow-through sales for her own company and for her sponsors can take twelve months or more to reveal themselves. Her advice is to acknowledge this but not count it as part of this event's income.

Elements for success in team building event planning

Get a step-by-step guide to effective team building event planning. Learn the best ways to plan your event way before the actual date. Find out which areas that you should watch out for and how you can be fully prepared for a successful event.

Keywords:

team building success, team building objectives, team building event planning, corporate event planning, event preparation, chillisauce, corporate events, team building events

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The responsibility of organising team building events is a huge task for anyone. Everything has to be planned and implemented with sheer precision. In addition to that, team building objectives would need to be incorporated into most activities. This is why the goal of the event must first be identified prior to the planning process.

Once that’s done, it would be best to run a research on the various team building activities that will achieve the intended objectives of the organisation. Browsing through websites such as http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events will give you with an idea on the type of activities you can run.

Your next step is to pick a venue that has the necessary facilities to run your team building activities. It may be a good idea to go through the list of locations approved by your corporation before you start making enquiries. This way, you won’t waste any of your time considering venues that will not be accepted. You can also cross check with your colleagues for referrals, as they will possess first-hand experience on the service levels and facilities of the places that you are thinking about.

As a teambuilding event planner, one of your core responsibilities is to create a balance between meeting organisational objectives and boosting of employee morale. One of the ways to do this is to encourage interaction amongst participants, through the activities and games that will be implemented. Holistic participation would be your ultimate goal, which is why these games should be made appropriate for everyone.

Utilising activity evaluation models such as Kirkpatrick’s Learning Model will help you decide if an activity is enjoyable, educational, and applicable while improving performance. Depending on the event objective, there will be many activity options for you to choose from, such as ice-breaker exercises, leadership and management activities and observation and awareness exercises.

Finally, it’s good to make a last-minute list of the tasks that you need to sort out a few days before the event date. For instance, you may need to confirm the number of team building participants with the venue or resort and make a list of the equipment needed for the event. Ultimately, precision in all of these details would be essential for your success as an event organiser.