Many businesses decide to host an event of some kind — it could be a dinner for clients or perhaps a picnic for team members and their families. Whatever the reason for your big event might be, it pays to plan ahead and make sure it achieves its objectives. Regardless of anything else, if the event has been paid for by the business it needs to make some sort of contribution to the business when it’s held.
Define the Objective
Start by defining the objective or objectives. For example, if you decide to have an evening event as a means of thanking your existing clients for their business you would have an objective something like: “To express appreciation to current clients and encourage their continuing patronage”.
This becomes the starting point for your planning. Whatever happens on the night it should be directed at fulfilling these objectives. How do you express appreciation to current clients? How do you encourage their continuing patronage? This flows over to such elements as the entertainment you choose and the speeches you incorporate into the event.
Set Up the Plan
In a way your arrangements for the evening will resemble a marketing plan. You’ll choose your target audience (clients, prospects, team members), allocate resources (food, music, decorations), and develop strategies to achieve the goals you’ve set (the seating arrangements, for example).
Just remember that successful events are not going to happen all by themselves. They require planning and careful management so everything runs smoothly. You don’t want your most important client to be seated next to a team member they’ll argue with all night. You don’t want a vegetarian to be served up a huge platter of roast beef. Plan ahead so you get what you want rather being careless and allowing precisely what you don’t want to take place.
Set a Budget
When it comes to budgeting for your big event you’d be wise to allow for some professional assistance in areas like catering and entertainment. We’re long past the time when an “amateur hour” would be seen as charming. These days it just looks primitive, and that certainly applies to the food and drinks service.
Give the right impression by having professionals look after these areas. This will also allow you and your team to concentrate on the more important parts of the evening — relationships with the people you’ve invited as guests.
Give Thought to the Theme and the ‘Little Things’
Speaking of the guests, your invitations should be given as much consideration as the rest of the event. You want to be sure that people enjoy the night and that means they’ll probably want to network for their own business purposes at least some of the time. Help them do this by trying to incorporate some business value for everyone you invite.
Like all good marketing efforts your event needs a theme. It doesn’t have to be something out of Hollywood but it does need to be consistent in things like food, music, other entertainment and any printed materials from invitations to menus. It doesn’t even need a slogan or catchphrase as long as the event has a style of its own.
There are lots of important “little things” to think about – speeches, for example. Nobody really enjoys long speeches, and that’s never truer than when you’re trying to enjoy an evening with colleagues or prospects. Even if the event has lofty purposes keep the intrusions to a minimum. Speeches should be short and punchy, not long-winded outpourings.
Another one of those “little things” is the timing of the event. If it’s held on a weeknight be sure it’s over by a reasonably early time — 10pm or so. People still have to get home and get a good night’s sleep before the next day. Do your best to have the location of the event convenient for the majority of the attendees with ample parking.
A Parting Gift Perhaps?
Finally, you want your guests to remember the night so why not give them a small gift as a reminder? It doesn’t have to be anything very expensive, but something that’s useful (and had your business name on it) is likely to be kept and appreciated.
Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.
Chris’ combination of academic credentials, career experience and temperament ideally suit his calling as a business development advisor. Clients say he has a mind for business and a heart for service.