Hosting a work event can be very beneficial to everyone. Social events for your staff will encourage loyalty and teamwork while networking events will allow you to rub shoulders with potential clients and allow you to get to know new ones.
But where do you start? How do you host a business event? Is it as easy as offering a round of pastries on a Friday morning? It can be, but if you have something special coming up, or you want to put in a little more effort, we have lots of tips to help you make the best business event. Read our guide to keep your staff, clients, and customers, as happy as possible.
Teambuilding
Hosting a social event can be very advantageous. Your employees get a chance to interact with people who are on the other side of the office, doing an entirely different job, raising their comradery and hopefully, encouraging teamwork and a friendlier work environment. Plus, social events encourage company loyalty in your staff, as they start to actually enjoy working for you.
There is no harm in sneaking in some team building exercises amongst the socializing. It means you get the most out of this event. But teambuilding doesn’t have to be boring, or groan-inducing. You can sneak it in there with some carefully chosen activities.
For example, you can look into Escape Rooms. They have soared in popularity over the past few years, aligning with laser tag or bowling as a good day out. And much like laser tag, your team will have to work together to win – or even leave. It would be less aerobic than laser tag, which is also a good option, but instead will take your team deciphering clues to get out of their situation.
If you’d rather keep things in the office, you can host a trivia quiz, with prizes available for the winning team. This can be as simple as looking up any trivia questions you fancy on the internet, or you can make it more lighthearted with questions about the team. “Who has three dogs at home?” “Who landed the biggest client last year?” etc.
Networking
If you are looking to schmooze with potential clients or investors, hosting an event will allow them to come to get to know you and your company. You can talk your way to new opportunities and establish better relationships with your current clients.
Ask yourself what you want from the event before you start planning anything else. Are you aiming for company executives, managers, clients, partners, community members, or a combination? Once you have that nailed down you can tailor the event to impress and engage with what you are aiming at.
The best business events are planned a year in advance, but you can break that down month by month to make things easier. Keep a list of what needs done month to month to make sure they’re all checked off.
The best foot forward is important in every step in event planning, so you might want to send out invitations. This selection of event invitations looks professional and welcoming, allowing you to give a great first impression.
Product launch
If the purpose of your event is to launch your latest product, no it isn’t. The purpose is to get as many eyes on your business as possible. That will take a lot of forethought and marketing.
Again, take time to plan, as you will need a long campaign to build hype before the launch. You will need not only time to host the event, but time roll out a marketing campaign, and then of course the task of rolling out your new product.
Start with the marketing of your new product, drip-feeding information to your customers and businesspeople, teasing them with more information, then send out your invites to the event. Email newsletters, social media posts, affiliate marketing, video and graphics, banners, etc. only giving the barest minimum away to begin with, will get your customers interested. Throw in a healthy mix of influencers and journalists amongst the guests to ensure that your product gets mentioned.
We are living in a digital age, so your product launch doesn’t have to be so exclusive if you don’t want it to be. Play Steve Jobs and get up to talk about your product with cameras streaming the information to your fans on every social media.
Once you’re done, and ready to hit launch, be ready for all your hype to pay off. Make sure your team can handle website crashes and a lot of unhappy customer feedback as people try to get their hands on your product. It’s a good problem to have, but customer satisfaction is still a major part of the industry and a successful business.
