If you have plans to host an event, whether hosting a product launch, a training program, or a regional sales meeting, it is critical to know how to plan a successful event. You can divide the process into steps that require planning, researching, creating, organizing, and assessing.
With the help of the perfect corporate travel solutions, you can manage your business travel operations.
Here are some tips and practices to design an event that becomes a rip-roaring success!
Best tips and practices for planning events with corporate travel solutions
Define the purpose and event goals
If you want to plan a memorable event, you should know what you want to get from it. Talk to your management about what you want to achieve and why it is necessary. Your corporate travel solutions can assist you with the event calendar.
Then, decide why you want to host the event and what you hope to accomplish. Ensure your event aligns with your organization’s goals.
Ultimately, focus on the metrics you want to use to measure success. Once you decide on the theme of your event, you’ll be better prepared to figure out how to spend your event budget.
Decide on your attendees
If you want your event to be successful, it is necessary to define your target audience. It is always better to invite many people than too few. If you have fewer people at your event, you will have empty seats and uneaten snacks. That’s not good, not to mention a waste of money.
Next, determine the theme. Whether to showcase your brand, train employees, motivate, build relationships, or inspire your audience. Your corporate travel solutions will be able to help you with attendee management by telling you who will be in town and who will be traveling.
Every person who comes to your event is like a brand ambassador or word-of-mouth speaker for your business. So, you want to be the host that ensures a memorable experience for all.
Fix a practical budget
Planning and executing an event can be overwhelming. So, your business should plan and set how much you’ll need. Think about how many people will be there, how long it’ll last, and the destination venue. Then, break down the costs into categories like travel, hotels, food, marketing, materials, and technology.
Ask vendors for quotes and pick the ones that fit your budget. It can be hard to figure out what to expect since event organizers don’t always have control over all the expenses. But don’t worry – you can manage your event budget with corporate travel solutions like ITILITE.
The ideal platform will offer pre- and post-event expense reconciliation. That way, you don’t have to keep searching through different expense trails. Your corporate travel solutions will help you with travel plans and consistent budget control.
Invitations
With the help of a corporate travel solution that offers event management capabilities, you can access a one-stop shop that organizes everything.
Hosts can use an event platform to create an event, enter the date, time, and location, and then send invites to multiple attendees. This feature allows them to track the RSVP status of their attendees, as well as their travel plans and itineraries. After the event creation, the hosts can view which attendees have responded “Yes” and “No” and which have yet to respond. Additionally, you can use the event platform to send reminders to attendees, allowing for faster updates.
Step-by-step schedule
Always have a decent timeline when you plan and execute an event. Consider aspects like the date, the time of year, the holidays, and who will attend. Break things down into baby steps and think about what needs to get done before the event, like pre-event arrangements like marketing and communication.
Identify the location
When choosing a venue for your business travel event, it’s essential to consider your goals. Should you want to make a lasting impression, choose a location that will charm your audience.
Other things that will affect your decision include your budget, the crowd capacity of the venue, the location, the availability, and the logistics.
Understanding these event needs will help you narrow your options, send out RFPs, and schedule site visits. You’ll also want to make sure the destination is accessible in terms of transportation and travel for attendees.
Use your corporate travel solutions to help pick locations with good airports, professional transportation, and fast routes. Accessibility is also important to make sure everyone can get to the event. Finally, consider the infrastructure at the venue for supporting services.
Accommodation and transport
With help from your corporate travel solutions, research and book accommodations for event attendees based on their needs and preferences. Part of business travel operations for events are factors such as audience size, budget, location, etc. Evaluate logistic needs and make early reservations to ensure availability. You should guide attendees in booking flights if necessary.
Engage and follow post-event
The post-event engagement stage is a great way to get feedback to improve your business travel operations for the next event. Take a survey to see how satisfied your attendees are and offer them incentives to get more involved.
Plan a networking event after the event to build a community and have conversations with people who came back. You can offer discounts or deals to get people talking about your product in the days after the event when people are most likely to be interested. Another great idea is to host a contest on social media to get people to talk and share or post about their experiences.
Wrapping up: Create an event management checklist
Organizing a corporate event can be a lot of work, but you can simplify that with a checklist. Ensure you have event goals that match your organization’s goals and stay within your budget. Get the help of your corporate travel solutions to source the best places to hold the event and consider other factors like food, drinks, transportation, and where people will stay.
Organize your business travel operations with a multi-channel approach to your event marketing materials and collect post-event data with surveys, follow-ups, and social media posts. You can make things much easier and faster with a corporate event planning tool, such as ITILITE Events Travel.
For an event organizer, it can be hard to figure out how to keep track of all the costs associated with your event. ITILITE makes it easy to keep track of your pre and post-event expenses with custom team travel reporting.