Corporate event planning is notoriously labor-intensive, with planners often reinventing the wheel for each new event. From the tedium of manual registration and spreadsheet wrangling to the headache of juggling different tools for websites, email marketing, agenda builders, and more… It’s a recipe for frustration and overwhelm.
Yet, putting on a seamless, branded event experience is essential for driving sales, cultivating relationships, and elevating your company’s profile.
The good news? There’s a better way that doesn’t involve burning the midnight oil.
Corporate event management software streamlines everything into one efficient platform—simplifying processes, connecting scattered workflows, and automating monotonous tasks. With EventUp Planner, corporate event planners can cut down on busywork while leveling up their events.
Say goodbye to repetitive, time-consuming tasks— this blog explores 5 ways you can streamline planning corporate events. Let’s dive in!
What is Corporate Event Planning?
Corporate event planning is the process of strategizing, organizing, and executing events hosted by companies and organizations. These events can vary greatly in size and complexity, taking place in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.
Here’s a brief overview of common examples of corporate events:
Conferences and seminars
Academic or professional conferences and seminars allow companies to share industry knowledge, thought leadership, and best practices. These events foster networking, education, and building a brand’s reputation.
Product launches
Product launch events generate buzz and media attention around new product or service offerings. They drive awareness, sales, and establish the company as an innovator.
Roadshows
Roadshows bring products, services, and brand experiences directly to audiences across multiple cities or regions through a series of smaller localized events.
Trade shows and exhibitions
These large-scale industry gatherings allow companies to showcase products or services, connect with prospects, meet with partners/vendors, and assess competitors.
Corporate trainings
Internal training events help upskill employees, communicate policy changes, reinforce best practices, drive engagement, and facilitate team building.
Webinars
These online seminars or presentations allow companies to share expertise, product information, and thought leadership with audiences globally.
Why is Corporate Event Planning Important?
Corporate events require significant time, effort, and financial investment. But when planned and executed well, they’re powerful business tools that can drive a wide range of impacts.
Effective corporate event planning helps achieve meaningful outcomes and results. Well-organized events can:
- Generate leads and sales opportunities
- Increase brand awareness and perception
- Foster customer loyalty and nurture relationships
From increasing revenue to improving workplace culture, thoughtfully planned corporate events allow companies to accomplish strategic objectives and accelerate growth.
What are the Challenges of the Corporate Event Planning Process?
Planning corporate events is complex—they’re filled with numerous potential challenges that require event planners to be organized and adaptable.
First, aligning the event objective with organizational goals while staying on budget is an ever-present balancing act. Plus, juggling the diverse needs of event stakeholders—from leadership to vendors, sponsors, and more—demands skilled coordination.
2. Creating and adhering to a realistic event budget
3. Staffing the event properly and managing volunteers
4. Negotiating with vendors and adhering to their policies
5. Successfully promoting the event and driving registrations
6. Delivering engaging attendee experiences that keep people coming back
Engaging attendees and delivering memorable experiences gets more complicated as virtual and hybrid events continue to soar in popularity. Tech troubles can arise around platform selection, audio/visual quality, and attendee engagement.
Finally, anticipating and tackling curveballs like changing requirements, budget cuts, scheduling conflicts, tech malfunctions, understaffed teams, and more is par for the course.
5 Ways to Streamline Corporate Event Planning
Corporate event planners have a lot on their plates—from negotiating with venues and vendors to designing memorable experiences that “wow” attendees.
Thankfully, corporate event management software like EventUp Planner is making it easier than ever for planners to get things done while keeping everyone happy.
1. Create standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) document established processes and best practices for carrying out complex operations.
Having clear SOPs for your event planning duties offers numerous benefits, such as:
- Ensuring consistency and quality across events
- Serving as a training tool for new hires
- Preventing vital details from slipping through the cracks
SOPs can also streamline time-consuming processes like: negotiating venue and vendor contracts; coordinating travel and lodging details; building out event websites and registration paths; and more.
With everything documented, there’s no need to start from scratch for each new event.
2. Assemble an event team and delegate responsibilities
As the saying goes, “it takes a village” to pull off successful events.
Don’t try to do everything yourself. Instead, assemble a cross-functional event team and divide responsibilities based on skills and capacity.
Plus, event management software like EventUp Planner makes it easy to centralize important files, share updates, assign tasks, and ensure everyone stays accountable. Read more: Engaging Your Event Team: 5 Tips for Boosting Morale
3. Create templates for everything
Why reinvent the wheel for each element of every single event? Having pre-built templates for common materials saves you tons of time and effort.
Top items that you should consider templatizing include a master event planning timeline, core email communications (save-the-dates, registration confirmations, reminders, post-event surveys), brand guidelines, event websites, and run-of-show schedules.
Simply load the template, make your event-specific adjustments, and you’re ready to go! No need to start from scratch each time.
4. Use cloning to its full potential
Like templates, cloning allows you to duplicate entire event components with the click of a button—then tweak as needed for the new event.
For example, EventUp Planner makes it simple to clone previous event websites, email marketing campaigns, registration forms, and more instead of rebuilding them from the ground up. This handy capability prevents redundant work and maintains consistency across your event portfolio.
5. Automate to innovate
Manual processes waste valuable time and mental energy that you could devote to higher-impact tasks.
Smart event automation systematically handles repetitive duties so you can focus your efforts on strategic priorities and personal touches that truly move the needle. Common operations ripe for automation include marketing campaigns, registration workflows, attendee communications, post-event surveys, and more.
Plus, with all of your data consolidated in one system, it’s easier to make informed, data-driven decisions about where to invest time and resources.
How to Choose the Right Corporate Event Management Software
Choosing the right corporate event management software helps you work smarter, not harder. To make an informed decision, we recommend conducting a comprehensive needs assessment with all relevant stakeholders.
Get started by asking yourself questions like:
- What types of events do I plan (conferences, trade shows, meetings, etc.)? Make sure the software can handle the specific event formats you work with.
- What is the typical size and complexity of my events? The software should be able to scale to accommodate your event sizes.
- Do I need virtual/hybrid event capabilities? If so, look for robust virtual event management tools.
If you’re looking for corporate event software that checks all these boxes and more, look no further than EventUp Planner.
Transform Your Events with the Best Event Management Software
You’ve got enough on your plate. Make your job easier, not harder with corporate event software.
EventUp Planner allows you to plan and manage all of your events in one flexible platform, from the small to the large and complex.
Ready to learn how to streamline your workflows and do more with less? Book a call with our team today!