Corporate events are held for a variety of reasons including: Trade shows, employee appreciation, team building, charity, community outreach, advertising etc. No matter the reason, you want the event to be a success!

Every decision you make during the planning process will affect how the event turns out and that can be daunting. We know how stressful event planning can be so we’ve compiled a list of our favorite do’s and don’ts of corporate event planning.

• DO- Cater your event to a target audience. Who do you want attending? What kind of things will spark their interest? Choosing a theme according to your target audience can help ensure the event is a huge success.
• DON’T- Wait until the last minute to begin planning. When it comes to getting vendors and venues that you want, time will be in your favor.
• DO- Use care choosing venues and vendors. Take the time to meet with them and walk through the venue. Never book anything sight unseen, it can lead to major disappointments.
• DON’T- Try and do everything on your own. Ask for help from coworkers. You could even assemble a committee to help make the process go a lot smoother.
• DO- Hire professionals. When it comes to the caterer, DJ, bartender etc., leave it to the professionals.
• DON’T- Max out your budget. There seems to always be last minute unexpected expenses when it comes to events like these so leave room for them to come up.
• DO- Change guest speakers every year. This ISN’T last year’s event and you don’t want people to be bored. So give them something new and fresh each year and have a different key speaker.
• DON’T- Hold the event in your office. This can feel like work for a lot of people, especially your employees. Keep it fun and outside of the office.
• DO- Talk it up! Besides advertising, you can talk your event up as if it can’t be missed. Let people know how great the food and entertainment is. You can even offer some door prizes to get people through the door.
• DON’T- Buy ‘gifts’ or party favors that people won’t use like custom pens and totes. Most cheap items like that end up lost or in the trash and tend to be a huge waste of your budget. Koozies and technology items are huge right now.
• DO- Invite people in advance. If you want people to show up, give them plenty of notice to plan accordingly. Send the invite out well in advance, especially if the event is out of state.
• DON’T- schedule your event around the holidays. People are already overbooked and super busy. Booking during the holiday season is likely to cost you more money and your attendance will probably be lower than you expected.

Take the stress out of event planning by following our list do’s and don’ts. When you do your event is sure to be a huge success!