Planning a corporate event can be difficult, you will have to take into account a wide range of personalities, as well as the atmosphere of your company. Questions such as will you be allowing for a plus one for your employees or will you be serving a full meal or just nibbles? Are all important points to consider before you start to plan your event.
At One Warwick Park we are practiced at helping our clients create wonderful events whether for birthday parties or corporate events. Our gorgeous function rooms and incredible dining experience offered by our staff will be sure to impress!
What is your purpose?
Most corporate events have a purpose, generally this is either to promote the company to other professionals within your field, to promote a new product or service, or to foster team spirit within your own business.
The tone and the purpose of the event will depend on your business, if the atmosphere of your company is quite formal and professional, then a suit and tie affair will probably be most appropriate. If your business is more informal, such as advertising or a magazine publishing business, then a jeans and t-shirt BBQ may not be out of place.
Internal Events
Having a party as a reward for your employees allows your staff to let their hair down and enjoy themselves. As they all work for the same company most employees will already have friends and relationships with the other people invited and will be able to hold a conversation fairly easily.
Having a party for your employees can help build friendships and build team spirit. It is a lot easier to work well with people you like and enjoy spending time with, but often working environments are too formal for you to get to know your co-workers. Corporate events allow you to meet in a more informal setting and just enjoy each other’s company.
Christmas parties or New Year’s events are fairly popular, having a timeline of three or so events throughout the year can be a fantastic way to bolster spirits during hard times.
External Events
If you are inviting a range of professionals from different companies for a networking event, you may need to organise activities such as a dance floor to break the ice. Networking is essentially building relationships with other people in the same business, but approaching people you don’t know in person can be a lot harder than sending a LinkedIn request. Having an event focussed on networking with clients and investors will likely be a far more formal affair than an internal event.
Giving employees an opportunity to network, or even throwing a corporate event to promote a product is vital to helping your business grow. Think of it as an expanded version of a lunch or dinner at a restaurant with a prospective client, the tone should be fairly similar.
Budget
When organising a corporate event, one of the first things you should think about is your available budget. Making sure your party planning keeps within the budget available can be difficult, but making sure you have a defined budget before you start searching for a venue will ensure you know which price range to look for and can narrow down your search.
Depending on the location of your venue, costs will vary. If you choose to look at venues in London for instance, the general rate for the venues will be far more expensive than a venue booked outside of the city.
What to look for in a venue
The venue you select is an incredibly important factor in how your event will turn out. Many venues such as hotels or professional party venues will have maximum and minimum numbers of guests that they allow for when you are booking. The size of the venue you will need will vary depending on how large the event will be, as well as the budget you have allocated.
Selecting a venue with experienced staff and local contacts can make planning the logistics of your event much simpler. With staff and decorators that have set up for numerous events before, taking work out of your hands so you can focus on ensuring that your business’ style and ethos comes through in your event.
Transport
While many of your employees will be able to drive, if you will be serving alcoholic beverages at the dinner, such as wine or cocktails (and what is a corporate party without a couple of drinks) then it may be a good idea to investigate local public transport near your venue. Discussing having a taxi service on standby to get your employees home or a car share can be a great way to ensure all your guests can let their hair down.
Guest List
Inviting all the employees from your business can be either simple or complicated depending on the size of your company. If it is included in the budget, offering a plus one for your employees to bring their spouse or significant other could be an option. If it is an external corporate event, then we wouldn’t advise inviting employee’s children as well.
If you have a smaller number of employees in your business and are throwing an internal company event, then perhaps inviting children as well could be feasible.
Set the Date
Making sure you have a date in the diary for you and your employees is very important to ensure they are not booked by the time the party rolls around. The world is filled with busy people, so making sure they have enough time in order to arrange their attendance is a courtesy.
Setting a date also ensures your events team has a deadline to work towards to make sure all the organisation is done before the start of the event. Last minute plans and changes to how the party will go can be really stressful, both for you and the party planner. Making sure you have looked through all of your planning decisions and have approved them well ahead of time will be a weight off everybody’s mind.
Activities
Having employee awards voted for by the whole company can inject some fun into the proceedings. Employee awards with a popular vote on phones for prizes such as ‘Employee of the year’, ‘Miss congeniality’ or funny titles such as ‘King of Pen Stealing’. Prizes can be as little as a bag of marshmallows or a glittery cowboy hat or larger like a customised pen.
If you are interested in One Warwick park Hotel as a venue for a corporate party, please contact us here. We would be delighted to discuss your plans and what our gorgeous hotel can do for you.
