The principal aim of corporate events is to accomplish specific business goals, such creating and strengthening networks, promoting goods or services, motivating staff, or celebrating accomplishments. This indicates that corporate events are essentially planned by businesses and corporate entities for their audiences, which may include shareholders, clients, and customers.
Despite the widespread understanding that some event professionals have demonstrated over the years, some up-and-coming event professionals are yet to find their rhythm as they fall into certain mistakes that lead to cutting short their expectations and/or corporate event objectives.
Nonetheless, in this article, Eventpaadi will instructively examine seven mistakes that are commonly made and how to avoid them when executing a corporate event.
Here are the 7 mistakes to avoid:
1. Misinterpreting the event goal
All events, no matter how big or small, must have achievable event objectives or goals. They go along the way to determine several aspects of other event management processes. However, objectives for corporate events must be measurable and connected with every process in order to justify the expected results.
In line with this, every stakeholder in this event must be on the same page in order to accurately interpret the event objectives at their specific point of interaction with the audience. For example, the protocol team should be able to conduct themselves and their activities in a way that aligns with the event objectives, given their understanding of them.
To avoid this mistake, it is best to arrange a script presentation or a scripting conference. a gathering where all stakeholders, vendors, and/or service providers are properly briefed on the objectives and desired results of the events.
2. Matching objectives with wrong audiences
Planning a corporate event requires careful consideration of audiences, visitors, markets, and prospects. However, many event professionals run the risk of not reaching the right audiences by matching corporate event objectives with the wrong audiences. Consequently, targeting the wrong people can lead to frustration and wasted resources.
To avoid this costly mistake, a proper analysis of the organization’s audiences, guests, and markets must be carried out. It must be ensured that the audiences are immediate beneficiaries of your services or first-line users of your products. It is better to avoid clients with divided loyalties unless the event objectives are also designed to cater to their needs.
It is also very crucial that you ensure that the preferences of the audience are also a determinant of how the objectives will be achieved. It is not how you want it, rather, it is how the audience wants it.
3. Don’t imitate your Competitors
One major mistake many event organizers make in planning their corporate events is imitating their competitors. Rather, it is better to observe their strategies, for better versions of yours but it is not advisable to copy. Imitation boost the strength of your competitor, and waters down your strengths.
Instead, concentrate on emphasizing the distinctive qualities and values of your brand. Make sure the impression you leave on your audience is unique and genuine. You might not get another chance to make a good first impression, no matter how small your company is.
During the main events, be careful of colors, themes, branding, slogans and other aesthetics that may suggest the presence of your competitors. Make your own brand as visible as possible from the first encounter with your guest.
4. Overlooking Promotion and Marketing for Corporate Events
Many corporate event organizers sometimes neglect the aspect of promoting and marketing their events for the sake of being conservative and managing their budget. This may be counterproductive because, in this era of globalization, no business entity can afford to walk alone.
A well-crafted promotional and marketing strategy highlights the event’s unique qualities and benefits, persuading potential attendees of its importance and raising knowledge of the event while also making it more successful and memorable.
A good corporate event promotional strategy may include but is not limited to, crafting a solid social media campaign, email marketing strategy to prospects and other expected attendees, and the use of a well respected figure in the industry as an influence to make few comments as regard the events.
5. Using the wrong engagement strategy
It is one thing to get the audiences down to your event, it is another thing to get to them to understand why they are at the event. To get the audience to make the right decisions, the right engagement strategies have to be deployed.
Most of the mistakes emanate from not properly understanding the interests, areas and needs of the audience, resulting in information overload, fatigue, and improper communication techniques.
To avoid this, do a proper audience analysis, draw insights from your customer base to know who they are with a sample size, and find which social media platform they belong to so as to know some of their preferences and interests. This will help you to channel the best engagement strategy towards getting the most of the audience.
6. Giving less attention to technical aspect
The importance of sound, multimedia and all other technical aspects cannot be overemphasized in planning corporate events. Defects in any technical aspect may cause an upset in the management of the event. This may send wrong signals of unpreparedness and unseriousness to your esteemed audience and ultimately dampen their experience.
Presentations with high-quality images are more engaging and memorable, and clear audio guarantees that messages are heard clearly, sustaining attention and comprehension.
Corporate event organizers must ensure that this aspect is not compromised for anything else. Event venues must have top-notch sound and multimedia equipment that is tested and trusted.
7. Poor post event feedback and follow up
The success of the next corporate event starts with the accurate management of the feedback and follow-up processes of the last event. Poor event feedback and follow-up have consequences. It could lead to wasted opportunities to develop and strengthen relationships with guests, associates, and sponsors.
Examples of feedback follow-up activities could be thank-you emails, the distribution and collection of polls and survey forms, the harvesting of social media engagement insights and other analysis.
In conclusion, success at executing corporate events is not a fluke; rather, it depends on avoiding these mistakes. Equally, thorough preparation, clear communication, and close attention to detail are required. Upcoming event professionals must prioritize these enumerated factors for guaranteed success at their next corporate events.
