When you think of corporate events, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Probably some professionals all suit-d up, sitting in the conference hall, and discussing matters. Right? People have this misconception that corporate events are boring, but if you feel so, let us tell you something. Corporate events are boring or not generally depends on the event planners and organizers. The last few years have witnessed several unique corporate events, which can be anything but boring. 

So, if you feel corporate events have always been boring, you have been attending the wrong corporate events. 

Also, if you are worried about whether your audience will like your corporate event or not, don’t worry. In this blog, we will share with you a guide that will help you plan and host immersive corporate events, and that too from start to finish. 

But before diving into the strategy, it is very important to know the different kinds of corporate events you can host in your organization. 

• Conferences:

As we mentioned earlier, conferences are one of the most common types of corporate events. They are generally large-scale events where the professionals belonging to one particular sector or organization gather to discuss some agenda. Conferences take effort and require months of planning. These events involve sponsors, agendas, keynote speakers, discourses, discussions, debates, etc. 

• Product Launches: 

The next type of corporate event is a product launch, where a brand introduces its products and services to the market. The objective behind hosting these events is to boost excitement among the audience and drive sales and marketing towards the brand and product. 

• Trade Shows: 

The intent behind hosting these events is to boost sales, showcase products and services to the market, and connect with the audience. 

• Meetings: 

Meetings are a very common and indispensable part of an organization, especially in the corporate sector. Be it a regular team meeting or the AGMs, meetings play a crucial role in any organization, and it is why all corporate organizations host meetings every now and then. One of the most significant features of meetings is they can be hosted at any scale. 

• Workshops: 

Talking of the next corporate event, workshops are also an indispensable part of any organization. From the employee training workshops to security training workshops, the intent behind hosting a workshop is to deliver practical knowledge to the participants. 

Now that you know the popular kinds of corporate events, let us move ahead with the strategy you should follow to host a successful corporate event, which could be anything but boring. So, let us get straight into the steps. 

• Define Your Success: 

The first thing you need to do in order to host a successful corporate event defines what you want to achieve with your event. It means you should define what success means to you in reference to this event. To decide your goals, you can use the SMART technique. It means your goals should be: 

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

• Set a Budget: 

Now that you know your goals, it is time to move ahead with the next step and decide your budget for the event. Having a budget will help you decide if you have enough money to achieve the objectives and host the event of your choice. While you define your budget, make sure you segregate it into two categories; viz, primary expenses and revenue sources. Experts suggest always keeping a buffer amount (15-20%) for unexpected expenses. 

• Know Your Audience: 

Next, and probably one of the most important steps to hosting immersive events is to know what your audience wants from your event. Know the current trends, and study your target audience in detail; learn about their interests, disinterests, etc. Also, to make things clear, you can also conduct a survey among your target audience; it will help you understand everything in detail. In addition to interest and trends, you should also consider a few factors, which include, 

Geography: Learn where the majority of your audience comes from; analyze if the subject you are choosing would be relevant to them or not. For example, if you are planning to host a conference revolving around water scarcity and you are targeting an audience that belongs to the coastal regions, would it even make sense? 

Career: Not many would pay attention to it, but you should also consider the professional experience of your attendees. 

• Don’t Overlook Audience Engagement Factor: 

One of the most prevalent myths that the organizers have regarding online events is that getting your audience to the customizable virtual event platform is more than enough. But they generally forget that the audience engagement rate plays a critical role in deciding the success of the event. Hence, you should focus on keeping your audience hooked and engaged during the event. Here are a few tips you can use to boost engagement in the event: 

• Decide a fun theme for your event; even if it is a corporate event, you can always add a twist to it by deciding a theme. 
• Know that your content is the King of your event. Also, if the content fails to reach people, so will the rest of the event. Hence, make sure the content is engaging enough. Also, try to make it valuable, informative, relevant, and interesting. 
• Make sure you provide the attendees with enough opportunities to build a network and connect with fellow attendees. 

• Choose a Suitable Economical Virtual Event Platform: 

The next thing you need to do in order to host a compelling and successful event is to choose a suitable virtual venue for your event. Pick a name that makes the attendees feel at home. Not only this, but as an organizer, you’d also want to select a platform that lets you host events worth attending. Hence, there are a few factors that one needs to consider while choosing a platform. One such factor is scalability; you would want to make sure that the platform is capable enough of hosting all kinds and scales of events.

Not only this, make sure the event platform is customizable. It means, it should allow you to customize the platform according to your event needs and requirements. Apart from that, make sure that the platform lets you integrate with different marketing platforms. This feature will help you make the entire event more immersive and add to its value. 

• Promote the Event: 

Now that you have planned everything about your event, ensure you consider enough marketing and promotional strategies. As an organizer, you need to make sure that you take proper steps to promote your event so that it reaches a vast audience. You should also know that no matter what, the final number of attendees at your event totally depends on how you have promoted your event. We are sure you would want maximum participation in the event. Hence, always take proper steps to promote your event. 

• Analyze Your Event’s Results:

Now that the event is over, the next thing you need to do is analyze your event’s results and debrief your entire team with the results and analytics of the event. Your event platform will help you with the event data. You should utilize it while keeping a few factors in mind. For example, see if the number of attendees matched with the number of registrations, how many attendees made connections during the event, etc. 

Hosting a virtual corporate event can be a tedious task, but with a detailed guide and strategy, you can simplify the entire process. We hope the guide we have provided you helps you in hosting unforgettable events.