Tips to Help an Event Planner Plan a Corporate Meeting

A corporate event planner knows that planning for a conference or a meeting is not as easy as some may think. The challenge is in the details. It's easy to be complacent about planning meetings because people think it's simply informing the people about the event and gathering them together. But there has to be a focus for the event and participation from the invited people.

An effective agenda for any meeting must include the general topic of discussion, along with who will be speaking or giving presentations. The amount of time allotted for each discussion must also be factored in. The final outline for the agenda must be distributed by the planners to the participants so they can come prepared, with their concerns and questions about the topic of discussion. To create an effective agenda for a productive event, start by sending an email or memo to everyone who is expected to be

involved in the conference. Ask them to confirm or decline their participation and make sure they are aware, that if they confirm, they will be expected to attend. Get back to the confirmed participants and ask them if they have anything to add to the agenda, such as a specific topic they would like to talk about and the time they'll need to do so. Once all agenda requests have been submitted, analyze if they are realistic and related to the general topic. Submit the revised agenda to the participants and be sure to follow the agenda during the event.

Sometimes, a company will decide to hold an off-site conference for a change of environment. Holding the event outside of the office can ignite the creative juices of the participants and evolve into a more engaging event full of fresh ideas. A corporate event planner can arrange conference venues at inspiring places so that the people will stay focused.

But planning even just small meetings requires careful planning, which also begs the question, "Is it within budget?" Determining the budget and deciding if an off-site event can be afforded by the company is vital. However, if it is a viable solution, then the planner will take care of arranging for needed transportation, refreshments to be served, audio equipment and whatever else is needed to make the meeting a success.

It can be hard to plan a meeting because of all the details that have to be ironed out. Superb organizational skills and attention to all details are the qualifications that conference planning professionals bring to the table. If even one detail is missing or incomplete, it can lead to an unsuccessful event, so hiring event management services can be beneficial because it will keep everyone focused on the reason for the event.

Event Planning Courses - What Are the Benefits of Event Planning Courses

Nowadays event planning is very important in order to make a particular event successful. If an event is done without any planning, the organizer can face a lot of problems therefore, it would be better if you make step by step procedure and then follow it so that there is no room for any mistake.

Event planning as a business is also flourishing rapidly. There are a lot of people who are planning events like wedding, conferences, parties etc for different people and are earning a lot. Now there are even various courses available of event planning which will provide you a firm background in this field. Following are other benefits of event planning courses:

• When you are enrolled in these courses you will be able to learn a lot of important aspects of managing events and then later in life you would be able to organize events properly without any difficult as the biggest problem in most people's life is that they fail to make good event planning.


• You will be able to organize any type of event may it be birthday, a concert or a fundraiser.? Every event has its own fundamentals without which it would not become successful and by having courses you will be able to understand those fundamentals and also how to impress your clients.


• The courses would not just teach you how to plan an event, further lesson will be offered on more advanced level which will be very helpful for those people who already have some experience in this field. More career opportunities will be developed like event administration or amenities supervisor. So the spectrum will get vast.


• These courses will polish your skills and you will become better in handling different scenarios and their related concerns. Focusing on these courses will help you learn about so many topics which have a lot of importance in our lives and you will be able to improve yourself like you will become more organized.


• By attempting these courses from reputable institutions you will get certificates and credentials will help you get a good job and earn a very good career.

There have been seen many people who are into this business of event management and are earning in millions. There is great demand of event managers as people want their events to be remarkable and memorable. They can turn a simple event into a lively and exotic one.????

Ideas to Organize Corporate Events

A special day of course needs special arrangement which includes perfect decoration, delicious menu and provision of entertainment. It requires proper planning to make each thing perfect such that the guests in the party can have moments to cherish forever.

If you are planning to throw a corporate party, then you must be thinking about the best possible ways to make a fantastic party. Besides offering fun-filled atmosphere to employees, corporate events are a way to symbolize the position of the company. By organizing events, you can break the monotony of daily working routine and also can strengthen business relationships with business partners.

Are you thinking of various ways to make your event successful? Here's a short list that won't disappoint you for organizing corporate events:

• Party Venue: For organizing a corporate party, you can consider choosing a venue that has separate sitting arrangement, a platform for live performance, a dining area and other areas for entertaining activities. Along with that, you must leave some space to move around as everyone doesn't like to occupy one seat for the whole party.

• Decoration: After making a selection of the venue, the next thing to consider is the decoration. In order to give elegant look to the corporate event, you can consider decorating the venue with flowers, ribbons and candles. Besides these, lighting arrangement is the major thing to concern. For flawless lighting, you can seek assistance from companies which provide high-quality electronic lighting equipment on rent.

• Food: Be sure to have quality catering services that have provision of variety of cuisines including soft and hard drinks. You can try the food before you finalize the caterer for your event.

• Entertainment: To make the corporate party interesting, you can think about entertainment activities such as discotheque, magic shows, orchestra, dance floor etc. The entertaining aura in the party will help your employees to experience a change from the routine life.

Organizing corporate events need lots of planning. In order to have your party arranged in a comfortable manner, you can think about contacting professional event planners of your area as they have experience in organizing parties for business, wedding &special events in the best manner. They can also suggest you variety of ideas to make the event an extra-ordinary one. So, get in touch with reliable and experienced party organizers located near your area and start planning to make the event special for everyone.

Off-Premise Caterer - Delivering Delicious Food

If you are planning an event and want to hire a professional to handle the food service, an off-premise caterer may have the solution you need. Not only will you and your guests be delivered excellent food at the location of your choice, the professionals at the catering company can provide additional services that will make your event a success such as full service drop off and pick up, photography services, and technology services.

Having quality food for your event is very important, but that is not even enough to make your special occasion a success. Even though you and your guests can be supplied with a full menu that will satisfy any taste buds, if you are in need of an off-premise caterer, other aspects of the event are equally as important. You can call on this full service catering company for additional services such as a selection of adult friendly beverages in addition to many non-alcoholic drinks. This catering service may even be able to decorate your event by arranging flowers and plants at your location. Inquire if the catering service can arrange for any equipment rentals you include:

• Transportation services
• Security
• Valet parking
• Corporate gifts
• Entertainment

You can call and schedule a consultation with the catering service and a professional coordinator can find out about your needs, which range from service to equipment. When you allow an off premise caterer to provide you with catering services, you can have all of your arrangements made for you and which can relieve most of the stress of planning your event. All you will need to do is show up at your event location and enjoy yourself.

If you need an off-premise caterer for a party, wedding, or business luncheon, there are professional catering companies that can make your event exactly the way you want it. These companies have the skill and experience of transporting and setting up a wide range of food selections. The catering consultants can help you make menu selections for your special occasion and may even be able to accommodate your special requests.

Call a professional catering company to find out about the services they offer or you can visit their website to get detailed information. This one-stop catering service has the skill, knowledge and expertise to give you exactly what you want. You can get off-premise caterer for good food, good entertainment, and top notch catering services.

Professional Conference Organizer

If you are on the hunt for a professional conference organizer and are not sure where to start looking, consider the internet as a source of valuable information, and a good method to find a company specializing in conference and event management. On the internet you can search for chosen event management companies websites, peruse the information found on these sights and take the time to discover their experience in the event management field and whether they will be able to meet your individual needs and requirements.

For your particular needs you need to find a highly reputable company with event management experience. A suitable company should be able to deliver top event management services from highly skilled and motivated conference planning and conference production staff. With many good event management companies, you should find the talented event management team to be motivated and passionate about their business. You will find that your chosen conference planning and production team will be able to handle all aspects of the conference or event, allowing you to relax and be re-assured that your conference will be a success.

An event management team will be able to handle the design and implementation of your custom conference initiatives, your chosen company will plan and manage your corporate event, ensuring a successful operation time after time. A good event management team will be able to offer you all the necessary skills along with equipment to ensure a productive and successful conference. The equipment you may need are design facilities, audio visual communication, script writing, film and video, logistics and more.

Your chosen event management company should be able to supply you information regarding sutiable venues for your conference, benefiting from their industry knowledge, contacts and experience to ensure your conference is held at an appropriate venue for your conference type. A professional event management company will have the skilled staff to ensure the planning and production of your conference is a success, including an in-house team of film, TV, writers and video producers, set and graphic designers, communication designers, engineers, theatre and lighting designers, photographers, production managers and more.

So, for professional conference planning and production choose a professional, experienced event management company to ensure your conference is a success. Get an expert corporate hospitality company to deliver a productive and beneficial conference.

Corporate Anniversary Events Drive Brand Marketing

Don't ask, "What kind of an event should we have for our corporate anniversary?"

The right question is, "What series of events can we create and/or sponsor to drive our corporate brand marketing objectives over the course of our yearlong anniversary celebration?"

Your organization's anniversary, whether or not it's a multiple of 25 years, is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to increase the strength of your brand. Anniversaries are about your organization's brand.

Marketing sage, David F. D'Alessandro, entitled his book Brand Warfare, then entitled the first chapter: "Rule One: It's The Brand, Stupid." Marketing starts with your brand. That's where your anniversary planning must begin as well.

Events can drive your brand

So start with an understanding of your brand, and then create or discover events that can help market your brand.

Make this easier by asking two additional questions,

• Whom do we have to reach?


• What do we want to communicate?

In other words, who are my audiences and what is my brand message?

Your multiple audiences could include employees and their families, your sales force, the community or communities in which you are headquartered and have offices, your board of directors, the financial community, the news media, state and federal regulators, suppliers whose businesses are dependent upon yours, and more obviously, customers and clients.

Decide what events are most appropriate for each group. Which groups can be combined? What will be the scale of the events? What funds are available from marketing budgets or elsewhere to drive this strategy?

Person-to-Person is critical

Whenever possible, events should involve face-to-face encounters because events are about building and nurturing relationships. Events can be activities you create yourself as well as activities others create that you sponsor.

I was fortunate to help create some powerful brand building programs for my company around sports sponsorships that increased corporate brand awareness and sales.

As a Major League Baseball sponsor, we provided our top sales people with the opportunity to play fantasy baseball games with former baseball greats such as Rich "Goose" Gossage, Howard Johnson, Jim Rice and Ozzie Smith.

Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming provided on the spot commentary as she and our guests watched a live video feed of Olympic ice skating competition.

I literally sat on the coattails of Dr. Henry Kissinger, Former US Secretary of State, as we rode from the airport in a too-small town car. His first undertaking was to call and let his wife Nancy know he had arrived. At our meeting the next day, Dr. Kissinger provided valuable insight into China at a time our company was seeking to expand sales there.

Include employees

Employees met and had their photos taken with Olympians including two-time gold medal winner Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic gold medal gymnast Shannon Miller, Olympic basketball star Rebecca Lobo and others who spoke to employee assemblies.

Each activity was about building the brand and was part of the company's overall brand marketing plan and initiatives.

Both corporate and nonprofit organizations are similarly engaged in brand building initiatives. For its 125th anniversary, The Salvation Army draped an enormous banner over the entrance to its Greater New York Division headquarters in Manhattan and arranged a special lighting of the Empire State Building in The Army's colors.

We helped the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island celebrate its 60th anniversary with a yearlong series of events under the theme "Preparing Nursing Leaders for 60 years."

Match your target and your brand

Every year, companies sponsor sporting events and cultural events that match their target audiences with their brand marketing.

Sponsoring events offers a terrific opportunity to collaborate with organizations whose brand is compatible with yours. The leading source for sponsorship information, Sponsorship.com, lists over a dozen common reasons organizations sponsor events. The first three are brand related: increase brand loyalty, create awareness & visibility, change/reinforce image.

You will benefit from developing an event strategy to celebrate your organization's anniversary over an extended period of a year or more because events drive brand. If they don't drive your brand, don't do them. Find or create events that will.

And one last story. As police with bomb-sniffing dogs surveyed the ballroom, former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher posed for photos with our sales people. Then, in that secured ballroom, she held our guests spellbound with her stories as sharpshooters kept guard from the spotlight towers.

Corporate Event Planning is Plain Sailing When You Use a Marquee Hire Company

Whether your corporate event is to promote or sell products, raise charitable funds, celebrate an occasion or a holiday; marquee hire companies offer corporate event planning packages that will ensure that your event goes smoothly. Their event planning service will also relieve you of much of the time, work and stress that is generally associated with planning corporate events.

What event planning services do the marquee hire companies offer?

With regards to the corporate event marquee or party tent the marquee hire company will:

• Conduct a site visit, prepare the ground surface, deliver and erect the marquee or party tent.


• Decorate the marquee with corporate logo's, images and other branded items.


• Provide flooring, lighting and heating, stages, podiums, microphones, sound equipment and other specialist event equipment and furnishings.


• Furnish the marquee with seating, tables, table cloths, table decorations etc.


• Provide portable toilets if required for the event.


• Clean-up after the event.


• Dismantle and remove the event tent or marquee.

In addition to the above event planning services, the marquee hire company may be able to assist with invitations, arranging entertainment, guest speakers and much more besides. You will need to discuss your individual corporate event requirements with your event planner to find out what planning services are available.

What else do I need to consider when planning a corporate event?

When planning your event you should take into consideration your target market (the guests) and ensure that you cater for their tastes and their needs. With regard to the venue itself, the marquee and other hospitality tents, entrances and emergency exits need to be clearly marked as do toilets, refreshments and featured stalls, stands etc.

Have a hand-out ready to give guests as they arrive showing a simple lay-out of the event as well as a schedule of events. Also ensure that any hosts for the event are easily visible and identifiable. Hats and brightly coloured corporate blazers will help hosts to stand out from the crowd.

It is important to make a great first impression so ensure that your event entrance is welcoming and that there is an information point (depending on the size of the event) with a well-informed co-ordinator who can help answer guest's queries.

In the meantime you also need to consider how your guests will find your venue and how they will travel there.

• Is the corporate event venue easily accessible by road, rail and public transport?


• Do your guests require transport to the venue from an airport?


• Do your guests require overnight accommodation?

You may decide that you will take care of these details and arrange transport and overnight accommodation for your guests. If this is a high profile VIP corporate event, taking care of these matters will relieve a lot of stress for your guests and cannot fail to impress.

In the meantime if you would like to arrange a themed corporate event, many marquee event planners have a variety of themed party ideas as well as themed furnishings and decorations suitable for your event and marquee. Agree all details regarding event planning and marquee hire with your event planner in advance.

Good luck with your corporate event!

Tips on How to Prepare and Budget Your Way to A Profitable Event

The value of a performing and enough budget in an event can't be overemphasized. But sadly, this is where most event organizers fall short. More often than not, expenses are not really under estimated, but rather, there are numerous costs that have been overlooked while drafting the budget table. Why are these costs overlooked in the first place? It all boils down to very poor planning and management. Budgets are often cut towards the tail end of the event set-up and execution; thereby sacrificing quality and quantity of material and manpower resources.

In a concert event, for illustration, because of budget constraints, the number of security assistance personnel was trimmed down. Thus, during the concert event itself, people became restless at the gates due to gatecrashers and people cutting in line. Due to the lack of security personnel, there was not enough manpower to handle and manage the crowd, which then led to a stampede. Yes, more often than not, event organizers tend to cut down on the essentials, like manpower. In doing so, the more important things are compromised.

Budgeting is one of the components in event planning and management where committing a big and major mistake is not an option. In order to prevent this, here are some costly items in event planning and management that should be given utmost consideration:

Speaker Travel Expenses

The best, credible, and most suitable speakers for your event may not at all times be available in your locality, city, or sometimes, in your country. Airfare, accommodation and other travel expenses are important costs that need to be allocated on your budget plan.

Audio Visual Expenses

This would comprise your sound and speaker/ PA systems, microphones, which includes laptops and/or computers, LCD projectors, LED screens, wifi or internet connection, and other devices or paraphernalia need to give your audience a clear and audible audio visual presentation.

Shipping Charges

Mailing invitations, cost of freight and transportation in transporting equipment from one event location to another, ordering of materials like brochures, premium souvenir / giveaway items - these are some of the shipping charges that you incur.

Handouts

Cost or design, layout, and printing of handouts, brochures, modules, flyers, and other print paraphernalia should be well allocated for in your budget. These print materials are your participants' guide or take home resource materials, thus it should be presentable, readable, and well-printed.

Decors

As the clich矇 goes, first impressions count. The facade of your event venue must reflect credibility and professionalism, or it have to adhere to the overall theme of the event itself. Decorations like streamers, lights, table ornaments, plants, etc., enhance the overall atmosphere and ambience of the event itself, it sets the tone or mood of the event. Give your event a 'wow' factor. Allocate ample budget for your venue setting.

Security

Giving ample security for an event, especially if the event would draw a multitude of participants, and if excitement and agitation is expected from the crowd, like a sports event or a concert. Budget should be allocated for manpower, perimeter enclosures, barricades, and other security equipment like metal detectors and the like.

These are the event essentials that should be on top of your budget list and compromising quality and reliability in these areas could spell disaster for your event. The key to budgeting is planning. In planning, you need reliable and efficient tool to assist you organize your ideas and your tasks. A computer software called Evenesis is an event management tool fantastic for the job. It serves to simplify, automate and deliver your day-to-day event management activities. In the same manner that you take your laptop or tablet computer with you, Evenesis is accessible via your favourite browser 24/7 as long as you are connected to the Internet. Yes, that gives you a dedicated system where you can delegate and manage your event tasks anytime, anywhere. Sign-up now for a free trial.

Marketing For Event Planners - How to Grow Your Business

For event planners, timing is everything. Sometimes hundreds of different variables have to come together to create one seamless beautiful function. It takes a great deal of skill, patience, and excellent communication skills. Planners are like conductors in an orchestra, keeping the pace for everyone else to follow.

The problem is you can be the very best at what you do, and yet if no one knows it, all of your talents are pointless. You need to build your business just as any other business would even if your business is you.   Since you are the very essence of your business, anything you do to build that business has to revolve completely around you.

Your skills and your talent have to be at the forefront. A great way to start is to partner yourself with other business that you would use or solicit as an event planner. For instance, let's say your area of expertise is as a wedding planner, a good business builder for you would be to introduce yourself to local bridal shops, florists and bakeries.

Use the old if you scratch my back I'll scratch your approach. Simply make a spoken agreement that you will use them for their services whenever possible if they agree to promote you. Get them to allow you to put flyers or business cards in their shops and make sure they know how to get a hold of you if they come across one of their customers that my need your services.

Just remember regardless of how you do it, the key to you success is that your customers see the value of having you in their corner. You must make it seem like you are an absolute necessity to anyone planning an event. Use these business-building tips for event planners to strengthen your hold on the marketplace.

Make the most of free online tools that can help you promote your business faster than ever before. Start today to learn about social media tools that millions of your potential clients use. Your clients are shopping for services like yours online everyday. Will they find you?

Baptismal Party Planning - Checklist For Success

When throwing a baptismal party, it's important that you have all the details arranged prior to the date of the event, so that the entire day can be a meaningful experience. In order to do so, some pre-planning must take place. 

First, you must choose and order an appropriate outfit for the baby being baptized. Also, decide who you'd like to be the Godparents and ask them if they would accept this honor. Then it's time to work on the party. A few weeks to a month before the party, you can do the following:

• Create a guest list



• Mail invitations and request that everyone RSVP (You may want to ask people to bring their cameras and request copies of some of the pictures after the party.) 


• Decide if you'd like a formal or casual party, and begin picking out decorations and party favors accordingly


• Decide on a menu


• Order a cake

Once the RSVP's start arriving, you can begin to go more in-depth in the party planning. Keep in mind that some people will forget to RSVP and others may have last minute plan changes that won't permit them to attend. A week before the big day, you should:

• Shop for the ingredients for your menu, order all prepared food. Make sure you have enough food for everyone - it's always better to have a little extra than not enough.


• Choose activities for young guests to participate in and determine if you will have an area for the children to play


• Finish with decorations and baptism party favors so that everything is ready to be set up before the date arrives

If you do all of the above ahead of time, you will only have to spend the couple days before the party decorating and putting finishing touches on everything. Then, when the day of the baptism arrives, you can sit back and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Diva Entertains, Copyright 2009

How Mobile Marketing Can Help You Increase Revenues and Event Ticket Sales?

In addition to promoting various products and services via print and online media, organizations are now planning to send and share promotional ads, event website links, and other necessary promotional items on a regular basis to the mobile phones of their customers. This new way of reaching out to masses is proving to be highly beneficial for organizations at all levels. This is because mobile marketing can deliver great results in terms of increasing the event ticket sales and, of course, the net revenues of both MNCs and small businesses. You too can resort to such mobile marketing for enhancing your event attendance rate and ticket sales.

Let's discuss how you can market your event information through Smartphone and such other advanced mobile devices.

Send Short Message Service (SMS) Text Messages to Your Contacts

You will get the chance of sending SMSs to any number of people by just pressing the 'Send' key on your mobile phone. Any information, which you want to share with your present and probable customers, will be delivered instantly on their mobile phones. You will also get an SMS confirmation on the successful deliverance of the message.

Promote Your Events via a Variety of Marketing Campaigns

Mobile marketing campaigns are becoming highly popular among organizations. Businesses can easily use the mobile phones to send hundreds of promotional ads in no time. Many organizations are also using the 'bar code technology' to send interactive SMSs to their target audience. Mobile marketing campaigns help an organization inform people about the discounts or gift cards that it is providing for attending any of its upcoming conference or meeting. In a sense, these campaigns are highly effective in attracting people toward your event, thereby increasing tickets sale.

Immediately Send Any Valid Information or News to People

Mobile campaigns are easy to create and implement. Event organizers can create and send such campaigns through messages to recipients within seconds.

Instant Consumer Reach

Event planners no longer have to wait for days to successfully issue tickets, vouchers, and gift cards to their event registrants. You can send the soft copy of your party ticket or gift cards directly on the registrant's Smartphone easily and in no time. Thus, mobile phones make it possible for you to reach out to all your customers 24 hours, and 365 days a year.

A Convenient way to Attract the Attention of Individuals

People can check out the text messages or ads sent on their handset at their own convenience. Just as the organizers can reach out to their customers 24X7 with this service, the consumers also have the privilege of browsing the details whenever they wish.

Response Rate is High

Mobile marketing campaigns lead to an immediate call to action, since people can check your mobile website in seconds. Moreover, mobile couponing allows a person to instantly view different codes on their mobile screen. People interested to attend a function can redeem the coupon on the spot, without the need to visit your office personally.

Top 9 Event Meeting Services Trends for 2011

Benchmark Hospitality International, which operate 30 hotels, resorts, and conference centers throughout the world, announced their trending list for 2011 based on the observations and feedback of their staff. Here is what they predict:

Trend #1: Business travel is back. Booking pace for most of the Benchmark properties are outperforming 2010 results.

Trend #2: The tried and true are back. Insurance, financial, consulting, technology, health care, and education markets have supported the conference services industry over many decades. The projection for 2011 is that companies within these industries will be stepping up hiring and training, thus making the need for meetings more prevalent.

Trend #3: More heads in beds. 2011 will find the hotel industry with growing occupancy and the ability to maintain rate integrity, which is generally comparable to last year. To win business though, properties are going to have negotiate value-added options with their event meeting services planners.

Trend #4: They want to be entertained. Properties are seeing a return of recreation and entertainment as part of the meeting experience. Benchmark is seeing inquiries for options such as theme parties and comedians for the first time since the AUG fiasco. Here are some ideas on how to make your meeting fun and interactive.

Trend #5: Team-building is in. Demand for team building is back and planners want unique programs delivered within tight budgets.

Trend #6: Cost trumps green. Being green remains important to many event meeting services planners who look for properties to have these initiatives in place. However, when asked to choose between being green or providing maximum cost savings, budgets will still take precedence in 2011.

Trend #7: Social Media and Connectivity are key. Social media usage is beginning to take hold within the meeting industry. The widest use among event attendees includes LinkedIn for networking and contact reasons and YouTube for videotaping sessions and posting them on-line for the colleagues back at the office.

Connectivity is key when an event services company is planning an event, as well as, for the attendees once they are there. The Internet will be used to for site selection, group recommendations from LinkedIn, and email communications. Attendees will be bringing their own laptops and/or smartphones. Meeting planners may rent iPads or rent Tablet PCs if they want a consistent platform.

Trend #8: Planners want choices. Meeting planners want all-inclusive packages, a la carte pricing, and everything in between. They want the property and their suppliers to provide maximum flexibility to suit their clients needs.

Trend #9: Planners are making a comeback. Planner positions have been streamlined or eliminated over the past several years, but with a recovering economy and improved business conditions, 2011 will provide a renewed focus on these positions.

The Basics of Catering

If you have ever planned or have been to a large party or event you most likely have had an experience with catering. When thinking about catering the first thing that comes to mind is simply, food. A caterer will often meet with an event's host or hostess several times in order to decide on a menu. A caterer may cook on or off site of a party and will often provide a staff to help set-up, serve, and clean-up on the day of the event. Many catering companies are now going beyond the boundaries of simply just preparing and serving the food at a party or event. Catering today will now go into themes, lighting, plating designs and table decor. It is a large business that nowadays requires more than just being able to cook a few dishes really well.

The ability to plan, create and staff a special event are a few of the things that are required in the world of catering. Making every piece of the party to be in harmony with the other is key to making a special day into a memorable event. When planning a menu one should consider the time of year, the region, and the venue in addition to the tastes of the attending guests. The food and the menu should not only appeal to the guest's sense of taste, but also sight and smell.

A caterer will also have to provide the plates, glassware, flatware and sometimes linens for an event. Catering has also gone into the next level with some companies providing lightening, room decor and event planning in addition creating a menu of delicious foods that will be pleasing to all of the senses.

Catering can make or break an event so always ask for recommendations and referrals when seeking a caterer. Whether be it a dinner party, a wedding or a business banquet the food and the mood of your affair can be greatly enhanced by the caterer. It is important to choose your caterer early in the planning process of an event. Catering can be a 7 day a week business, especially during busy holiday seasons.

Event Planning Course - What Is On Site Communications In Event Planning?

Whenever any event is planned, we think about many aspects regarding that, for example, management of time, lights, audio or video system and even refreshments. All goes well when the coordination with the other related team members is good. In event planning course, the students are told how to handle the event by on site communications.

In every event, weather it is big or small, you need to have a point of contact for people to meet you at, to deliver the objects and to report the other related persons. As any event requires a good team work, so communication with the team members is very important to make the event successful. Here are some good ways to communicate with others to avoid any mishap in the event.

Efficient runner

An old fashioned and traditional way to communicate is a good and efficient runner, who can pass the message in time at the event. You should have a runner even if you have a modern system of communication because at times when machine does not work, you need to do work by yourself. But before appointing someone for this task make sure that person is well aware of the task and is efficient.

Willkie Talkies

During event planning course students are told about many ways of communications and this is one of them. It helps the people to talk to the other persons and saves time. You can coordinate with the key people, crew and even technicians for any updates. When you go for this way, make sure to use good quality products because in the places where many people are gathered and different machinery is being used, there could be disturbance in the communicating object and you can't afford to use a noisy object in such event.

Cell phones and texts

Cell phones are a great way to convey your massage in any event. This is an efficient way to pass the order or to report to the key people. In event planning course students are told to avoid unnecessary discussions and jokes on the phone during the event, be specific and to the point for good turnout. A text message by cell phone is very good and effective way specially when there is a serious conference and you to not want to spoil the decorum of the event, and text message are kept in the phone as a record unless it is deleted.

You can get a good turn out by good coordination and communication. You can get more information and better learning when you go for event planning course.

The Best Corporate Team Building Activity - Deadly Effective, Simple, Yet Most Underrated Method

Forget about the fancy corporate message that nobody but the top managers can understand...

It's so simple yet deadly effective...

If you want to build the No. 1 team in your organization, especially in a corporate setting, this might be the most important article you are about to read.

I know you might have overlooked one of the most EFFECTIVE methods.

... you do not need a fancy corporate trainer.
... you do not need Franklin Covey manual.

Do you know what it is?

It's POTLUCK!

Do this every week: Every week, set a day when your team gets together and have a potluck. If you cannot afford to do this, try holding the lunch every other week.

Pretty soon, you will see other teams in your organization wishing they belonged to your team. It's the food that brings people together... Everyone could smell and breathe your good food aroma when they walk by your cubicles.

I know you think it's "silly" and beneath some of your dignified, trained approach to conformity. Really? You don't think your employees yawn when they're attending a "workshop"?

Ask yourself this - What's the point of Team Building anyway? It's to bring teammates together and your job as a leader to get people excited assigning different tasks.

Tip: My experience shows Mexican Burrito potluck and Sandwich themes have outranked in popularity.

IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS to do even something bigger, but want to hold it as ONE TIME event for your organization, don't just hold a team potluck, but do department wide or the corporate wide potluck.

Then watch hundreds and thousands of people smile and see how they express their love for food and for the event.

Heck, do yourself a favor and let your local news station know you're inviting their reporter for this fun event to demonstrate how lucky these employees are working for your organization. Let the reporter know she and the crew are invited to join (FREE food!).

Send them an email saying with the title - "XYZ Company Holds A Company Wide, All Employees Involved, 1500 Dish Potluck For Corporate Team Building Event" or something in this fashion.

EVEN BETTER: Tie in a good cause or charity into the event to make it newsworthy and worthwhile spreading.

Do you know why this works? Because it's different - it's not "the usual corporate training" your team is used to having to attend. It breaks the usual pattern of what people expect at team building event and the initiative catches them off guard.

They will talk about this event. How different and fun to have the widely spontaneous "let's do company-wide potluck!" initiative. Talk about something different and that's what's going to give a relief to the often too conformed, overworked employees.

Now go implement. Be different from all other teams or companies. Do something different to show you care about your project and want to make a difference.

Corporate Events: What Event Management Solutions Have to Offer

While planning your next corporate event, consider an expert this time. As it is a fact that every event you organize within your corporate, with an investment behind, has an expected outcome. To ensure that the outcome is achieved, you need to entrust someone who already knows the tricks of the trade: how to reduce workload, decrease cost, and increase participation and attendee satisfaction.

Online Event Management Solutions

From planning, through execution to measuring results, experts in the field know that event management can be easy, reasonably-priced, and totally hassle-free. Life-saver named online event management solutions manage any type of corporate event successfully. Smart and experienced event planners are increasingly changing their services to Cloud-based solutions. With the on-demand services, they do not have to buy hardware or pay hosting or setup fees. Many visionary enterprises have already included the service on subscription basis. Hence, they have been able to reduce time, cost, and resource investment, with smoothly run events meeting expectations successfully.

The Cloud-based event management solutions are available on demand. Companies with immediate requirements can get started quickly and have the option of seamlessly leveraging additional capabilities as their needs mature.

The major services the solution offers include the following:

Online Registration and Payment

Let your attendees register directly from your webpage. You can publish your online registration page with a customized look and feel that goes well with your company's website. You can easily publish your registration link in social media sites. Provide event information and the ease of registration at your potential attendees' convenience; at anytime, from anywhere. You can accept payments from any major credit card in a secured environment.

Event Marketing Tools

Online marketing tools help you promote and manage discounts, promotions, gift cards, early-bird pricing, and more. Built-in email communication tools let you invite leads, contacts, and campaign members by sending targeted email invitations, reminders, and RSVPs. It also provides a one-click access to your online registration page from email invitations.

Event Analytics

Pre-built event analytics and dashboards help you measure ROI' view on-screen, or download into Excel' PDF, or flat file format. You can generate pre-built or custom reports and use post-event surveys to get feedback and track participation history. You save time and cost by automating repetitive tasks and eliminating data entry.

Integrate with Best-of-class ERP, HRMS, & CRM Systems

The online event management solutions let you easily integrate with popular applications, such as Salesforce.com. The built-in connector in the platform transfers all attendee data to your backend enterprise system. Each connector eliminates the need to re-enter data by enabling automatic sync-up of your event data and activity. You can enjoy the ease of bi-directional synchronization to lower costs and increase ROI on your events.

There are more features and tools that come within the event solutions platform to make the whole process fast, easy, and effective. With pre-built templates for online registration, plug-ins for online payments, and workflows for corporate training management, these Cloud-based solutions enable flexibility and functionality to gain maximum value from your investment.

Event Planning And Design

If you have hidden talents like being social, systematic and creative and you want to pursue a career that utilizes all of these talents then event planning is the most suitable option for you. If you love doing this work then you will enjoy life a lot because this particular field has become so rewarding nowadays for people like that.

There are number of event organizers who have become so popular and are earning in millions. Therefore, there is no doubt if this type of profession has value in future or not. Dedication is the key to success in event planning business. It is not an easy job to organize the whole programs that not only cause mental stress but also physical stress. Nevertheless, if you develop your interest in it and work by heart then you will reach a point where everyone will recognize you by your work.

To enter in this field you do not have to acquire a particular college degree so anyone can do it. Some institutions are offering courses in event managing; you can acquire that and polish your skills. They will teach you marketing and management techniques and guide you on how to make bongs with other important services needed in this business. You have to be in touch with all the latest news and trends so that you organize modern events or at least according to the tastes of the people.

It does not matter what resources you have to run this business. If you have computer, telephone and connection to internet then you can successfully run this business. Then with the passage of time, when you will gain experience and make larger profits, then you can expand your business and outsource it.

Like all other businesses, there are many risks involved in this type of business. Many people like your investors and clients have spent a lot of money and are dependent on you. If you are systemic only then you can handle this job or else you cannot. So begin from volunteering in little events around your neighborhood so that you can experience and knowledge.

Nowadays people prefer hiring event planners to arrange their meetings or other occasions because they do not have enough time or resources to plan it quickly. Event designing starts from deciding the venue to food menu for the guests. The clients just provide them the money and they have to adjust every expenses plus their profit in that same budget whether it is small or big.

Managing a Successful Charity Golf Tournament

There is no debating the fact that golf is playing a much more significant role in the business world today. Whether its for entertaining clients, networking, team building, or providing the perfect environment for closing that deal, more and more business is getting done on the golf course.

Another important role golf plays is to raise funds for a charitable cause. In fact, according to the National Association of Golf Tournament Directors, approximately 35,000 charity golf events are held annually in the U.S.; raising over $250 million for various charitable causes and non-profit organizations. That is a lot of golf tournaments! And chances are, you have or will either be asked to produce one of these golf events or sit on a tournament committee that will oversee the event and be charged with the task of raising the sponsor dollars necessary for meeting the financial goals of the event.

Staging a successful charity golf tournament presents many companies and individuals with numerous planning and organizational challenges. The time required to plan, organize and produce this type of event can become overwhelming. For example, a one-day charity golf event often requires over 100 man hours just to produce! And that is just for the activities that take place the day of the event. When you add the time for planning, meetings, etc. the total invested to stage that tournament can exceed 1,000 hours.

As you prepare to tackle the challenges of producing a flawless charity golf event, consider the following tips for success. (Please note: unlike all the magazines and videos out there, these tips are not intended to improve your golf swing or your short game, but will help improve your peace of mind, the result of effectively managing a successful golf event).

The Tee Shot - Getting Your Event "In Play"

* Clearly define roles and responsibilities of all parties - including the Tournament Committee, Committee Chair, the charity or beneficiary, the golf course, and the project leader - and ensure that proper and effective communication is in place, including a regular meeting schedule

* Make sure your Committee Chair is energized about his/her role and that he/she will effectively lead the Committee through its primary task of raising money through the sale of sponsorships for the event. If your Committee Chair is not committed, its likely your Committee members won't be either

* Set a realistic, achievable goal for the event that everyone buys into. If the event raised $25,000 last year, can it raise $30,000 this year?

* Establish realistic sponsor levels and benefits that will be perceived as having value. Think about how your sponsor can activate their sponsorship at the event beyond just logo presence. Can they sample their products at the event? Put an item in your gift bag for the golfers? Will they be recognized in all tournament materials? Will a sponsor representative be permitted to speak or be recognized at your reception?

The Approach Shot - Differentiation

There are lots of charity golf events taking place on an annual basis, which means numerous requests are being made to the business community for time and financial contributions. How will you differentiate your event and, if it is an annual event, keep it "fresh" and top of mind with your current sponsors and potential new sponsors? How will you win the competition for that sponsorship dollar? Consider the following:

* Your venue. People like to play on golf courses they normally would not have the opportunity to visit. Like private country clubs. The more exclusive and prestigious the course, the more likely you have given a potential sponsor, usually an avid golfer, motivation to want to participate. Also, chances are that one of your tournament committee members might have a country club membership or know someone who does.

* Your event communications. How are you communicating to your target audience today and promoting your event? Are your invitations and your collateral compelling? Is there a call to action? Are you sending your event information out far enough in advance so your current sponsors can allocate budget dollars sooner rather than later? Are you effectively utilizing the web, with a dedicated site for your event, and perhaps creatively using tools like Facebook and Twitter to promote your event in your local market? Are you offering online registration and follow-up information?

* Your gift bag. Are the items you offer in your gift bag going to be perceived as delivering value to your golfers? Are they high-quality items? Or did you go with lesser-quality items to save a few dollars on the expense line? Don't underestimate the power of a high-quality gift bag that your players will talk about long after the event is over. It can be a wonderful selling tool for next year's event.

* Incremental revenue-producing opportunities. Think about ways to generate additional revenue at your event, delivered in a fun and entertaining manner, that could result in a bigger check presented to your charity at the end of the event. Consider selling mulligans to your foursomes at $25 each. Or how about staging a live or silent auction? You have a captive audience at your reception at the event, waiting to see who won the various golfing contests as well as the tournament. An auction, staged in an entertaining, energetic way with unique items, memorabilia and experiences, could generate an extra $5,000 - $25,000 for your charity golf event.

The 19th Hole - Reviewing Your Round

We've all dissected our round of golf afterwards in the clubhouse at the "19th hole" with our playing partners and our favorite beverage. Are you the person at the table who is lamenting your sliced tee shots and poor putting? Or the one who is celebrating the two-dollar Nassau you won thanks to excellent course management?

Once your event is over, your 19th hole assessment should include the following:

* Were you, your management, the Committee and charity/beneficiary please with the results? Was the financial goal met? If not, why not?

* How did things go at the golf course - the registration process, the on-course signage, the flow of the round, and the food and beverage? Did you meet your players' needs and requests? Did you have a sufficient number of volunteers to help manage all the details?

* Were your expectations met? Were the results worth the hundreds of hours you and your team put into planning and executing the event?

As you think about last year's event or begin anticipating (or dreading) planning an event this year, there is an alternative. You may want to consider the option of outsourcing. More and more today, many businesses, charities and foundations are moving toward the concept of outsourcing their golf events. Contracting with experts who will manage all or some of the details will ensure that your event will be professionally planned, organized and produced while meeting your goals and objectives.

Phil Mickelson doesn't win all those tournaments alone, just based on his skill and determination. His caddie plays an important role by knowing the layout of each course, and making club recommendations based on experience and Phil's game. You might want to think about having the right experience and support by your side before you take "the first tee" and begin producing your next charity golf event.

The Role of Complex Event Processing and Application Performance Management in Fraud Detection

Many industries are concerned with fraud detection--insurance, trade and finance, retail. For each of these industries there is one technology that takes much of the guesswork out of fraud detection--complex event processing (CEP). CEP provides the backbone for application performance management.

Background Enabling Fraud Detection

According to an article available at msdn.microsoft.com, complex event processing (CEP) engines are driving the ability to develop event driven IT environments. Application performance management works with event-driven service oriented architecture (SOA) as well as legacy applications. This is possible because a CEP engine is not limited to working with data from a single source type. It can be used to correlate information from diverse sources, such as information technology (IT) and business key performance indicators (KPIs). This last point is especially important in that the CEP can be used to correlate IT metrics and business KPIs and thus, quantitatively explain the impact IT issues have on business metrics.

Of the many functions connected to providing application performance management, all of them are enhanced by integration of complex event processing within the APM solution-end-user experience monitoring, user-defined transaction profiling, application component discovery and modeling, application component deep-dive monitoring and application performance management database.

It is this same capability to develop a consistent view of events and standardize taxonomy that makes CEP the perfect choice for designing systems that are capable of detecting fraud.

• Business process models need the power of CEP to establish enterprise-level standards for data.


• Complex event processing enables background testing of models and problem trouble-shooting in a safe environment.


• CEP makes it easier to set transaction pattern expectations, to design and model business processes because it leverages information contextually.


• CEP enhances the ability to build in scalability without creating security vulnerability.


• CEP enables event harvesting, making every transaction visible at not only the IT level, but at the business level where decisions are made.

Detecting fraud depends upon the ability of to establish parameters. Event "normal" vs. event "abnormal" can only be identified once "normal" has been established. Yet, even once this standard has been achieved, the sheer volume of information requires the ability to evaluate that data.

The properly designed complex event processing engine must have both of these capabilities-ability to crunch huge volumes of data and ability to identify patterns and correlate those patterns to normal vs. abnormal. For example, a financial institution that is monitoring transactions from end-to-end can establish that any transaction that comes from outside a set geographical area, within a time range and over a specific dollar amount triggers a potential fraud alert. The failure to process a certain volume of transactions could also be set as an alert trigger. Other data that can indicate fraud can be integrated into the APM solution. Outside feeds from public records databases and credit bureaus can be used to trigger fraud alerts as well.

The types of alerts that can be established when an application performance monitoring solution is using a complex event processing engine are infinite. Create a fraud-detection rule and the CEP engine automates alerts instantly. This enables the correct action to be taken early. The mean time to know (MTTK) that a problem has occurred is cut significantly, reducing risk and cost substantially..

Advantages of APM over Stand-alone Fraud Detection Software

While there are solutions that offer only fraud detection, finding an APM solution that allows you to leverage the full power of application performance management and complex event processing across your business is the more efficient. Fraud detection is only one of the benefits APM offers. Business transaction performance reporting, business transaction management and end-use experience reporting are just three of the additional functions you can expect if you choose the right APM solution.

While some APM solutions are designed to embrace separate technologies rather than replacing them, if you don't already have a separate fraud detection solution, a carefully chosen APM solution will provide many more benefits than a fraud detection solution would on its own. It pays to shop carefully and to ask questions. The presence of a complex event processing engine and application performance management capabilities isn't a guarantee that the product will provide the level of fraud detection protection your company needs.

Top 3 Benefits of Arranging a Corporate Lunch

Corporate events and business meetings are scheduled pertaining to the availability of the entire business team. These business meets can be very well organized through business invitations to the board members by organizing corporate lunches. At a specific time of the day, the guests are cheered by delicious dishes with business proceedings taking concrete shape. Corporate lunches are not only a means of refreshment but also healthier in many positive aspects that help build workforce as one unit.

A well organized corporate catering lunch leaves impression beyond one's expectation while setting up business targets.

Apart from being a source of refreshment via plentiful options of food, corporate lunches are categorized in the following three ways as a medium to get people closer to each other for helping build a bridge of communication. Following are the types of business catering lunch and their benefits:

Welcoming and Greeting Occasions:

Corporate Catering Lunch can be organized in an order to invite new business partners to share common interests in a more casual and friendly manner to expand business size and possess mutual benefits. Thus, they help in introducing one's business to the new business aspirants. Well organized Corporate Catering Lunches focus one's business establishment to the prospective business partners and also express one's interest in building business and caring for others equally.

Follow-Up Occasions:

Having shared common business interests in the first and initial stages of business meetings, relationships can be further extended through regular contacts and personal meetings. Thus, business lunches are a great way, helping one keep new business friends, clients, bankers, share holders and other business staff in regular contacts updating with day-to-day proceedings and introducing new opportunities.

Sign-Up Contracts: Cheering Occasions:

Board meetings with the concerned business partners can be arranged through Corporate Catering Lunch while signing up the final business contracts and deals. This helps in reducing anxiety, confusion and worries that is most common during these business sessions.

Corporate Catering Lunches are beneficial in many aspects to the corporate sector and the businessmen. The brisk and professional catering minimizes interruption in work flow and involvement of the host in the arrangement of the event. Easy access to phone or internet makes food arrangement simpler.

Even, very large corporate catering providers in selective regions of London can be hired for highly affordable price and, in this highly competitive business, there is always a plenty of room to choose the best to serve depending on your catering needs.

Corporate lunches between the sessions of business meetings can heal the tiredness of your mind as well as leave maximum social space for casual talks among the delegates attending the board meetings.

Find Out How to Become an Event Planner

Do people tell you that you throw the best parties? You can possibly turn this skill into a lucrative profession as an event planner. You can branch out in the type of event you feel you are best at, whether it be weddings, corporate events, or other type parties. If this is a career that interests you, you may be wondering how to become an even planner. Below are a few steps you can take.

Gain a little bit of education by attending some classes. If you plan on operating your own business, then some classes in accounting, marketing, and sales may be necessary. Many community colleges and online schools also offer classes specifically in event planning that will help you with negotiation and organizing all of the different aspects of an event. This includes everything from catering to entertainment.

Start marketing yourself. Hand out business cards and ask business to display flyers. You can develop a website that details the services you provide. Once you have a few events under your belt, you can display pictures on your website to give customers a sense of the type of work you do. You can also register for a booth at some bridal expos and other corporate type expos.

The hardest thing on becoming an event planner is getting that first successful event completed. Once you are over that hurdle, you will likely find that you are more confident and your business will pick up with word of mouth referrals. With determination and attention to detail, you can succeed in this industry.

Event Planner - The Benefits of Hiring One

An event planner who helps brides and grooms plan their special day is called a wedding consultant, wedding planner, wedding coordinator or a bridal consultant. This planner specializes in planning weddings professionally.

Using a wedding consultant to plan your wedding day had always been viewed as a luxury that only the rich and famous enjoyed. This is not so much the case anymore and the number of people using wedding planners continues to rise every day.

Planning a wedding can be like a full time job if a bride decides to go it alone. This type of event involves a lot of time with so much to learn and do and often not enough time to do it all. This event planner has to be highly organized and always knows what to do if things go wrong. He/she knows exactly who to contact when the need arises.

A professional wedding planner has to be extremely creative by nature. He or she also needs to have a very good sense of style and know what trends are current and which ones are outdated. The event planner also needs to have a personality that connects well with clients in order to understand them and to have a clear picture of their personal and specific needs for their special day.

A good event planner has lots of connections with the best vendors and works at getting his/her client the best value for their money. There is usually a budget to maintain and endless details tailored to the bride and groom. A wedding planner can also save the bride and groom a lot of money as well as time. This is because they usually know which vendors are reasonably prized and the quality of work involved. The event planner is usually in a better position to negotiate and get discounts from vendors they have worked with before.

Event planners will help their clients avoid disasters at their functions because they oversee all of the operations of the day to the last detail. Should there be an emergency at the event, the planner is usually better prepared to deal with the crisis rather than having the client try to figure out what to do.

The costs involved in hiring such a professional may be surprisingly affordable given the amount of details they have to work with. Planners also tailor their cost according to the client's budget and help them to stay within their budget.

Without a wedding planner on hand, many brides and grooms run themselves ragged as the wedding day approaches. Some couples have even complained of not enjoying their wedding day because of the stress. An event planner comes in handy at this point because the couple has nothing to worry about since all the details are taken care of. The end result of having an event planner or a wedding consultant, in this case, is well worth it. The clients end up with a stress free day and they are able to enjoy every moment of their special occasion.

Party Rental - How to Make Your Party Come Alive Cheap

It is a common perception that parties cost a lot if you want to make them successful. This is not the case. You can arrange the most mesmerizing party without spending heavy sums of cash. One way to save money is to arrange a venue on your own. A lot of money is charged by party rental companies for arranging the venue. Thus, if you have your own location, the price goes down by a very big margin. Now let's come to the requirements in terms of seating arrangement and people. Your party should be arranged according to the frequency and category of guests. For instance, if you are celebrating your appraisal and you have thrown a party by calling your friends for a drink, you do not need a lot of crockery or cutlery. All you need is glasses, ice bowls and bar counter. Apart from that, if you are only calling your close friends, you do not need a lot of seats and tables. Thus, a large percentage of the costs will be cut down.

What happens if you do not extract these requirements and contact a party rental company directly? A party rental company has to earn profit. Thus, it will offer complete deals to you instead of individual items. These deals would include a lot of things which would not be required. In other words, your cost will increase. Most customers contact an event rental company without making a list of what they need. This is not the right strategy.

It is not impossible to arrange a party economically. Another effective way to get an economical solution is to contact a friend who is event planner. He can give you a proper solution without charging anything. After that, you can contact an event rental company and place an order according to exact requirements.

Crockery is one the party rental constituents which costs a lot. For instance, the charges for glass crockery would be more than plastic or steel. In addition to that, it has greater chances of breaking as well. You cannot use glass crockery when you have small children. Similarly, steel crockery does not work well if you have organized a formal party.

If you are arranging a party, you should take interest in the arrangements instead of only getting worried about the prices and cost. With the help of low price and great value party rentals you can save a lot and still have a great party.

Convention Event Planning Services

This is your first time to attend a corporate or business convention. You are quite amazed at how everything goes so smoothly and efficiently. You just cannot imagine how many people come and go about the place, and yet everything appears to be in order without anything out of place. You notice that there are no people running back and forth to make sure that the guests in this part of the hall are okay while trying to oversee if the group at the other end is having a good time.

One good thing about business and corporate conventions is that these companies and business groups have the resources to plan conventions with hired help. And who are these hired helpers? For sure, they are not people who are also from the same company that is holding that convention. Don't you dare imagine these corporate people trying to plan and prepare for a convention in advance while at the same time trying to run their huge companies and firms!

Convention and event planning services are offered by several companies for those people who are too busy or too wracked up to plan and prepare for a huge event. These services employ a relatively huge amount of manpower so as to guarantee an orderly yet remarkable event, such as a convention or meeting.

Companies offering convention event planning services take care of all the important details entailed by their clients for their events. The responsibility for many things and details are left in their hands: venue, decorations, invitations, publicity, food and drinks, reception, giveaways, souvenirs, music, and a whole lot more. And even during the day of the event itself, these convention event planning service people are in place so as to oversee that everything is working smoothly and as planned.

Wedding Planners Event Coordinator

Any event, wedding inclusive can be a day one would like to remember, but this can only be if it has been well planned and coordinated. Those who have wedded have said that their wedding day is the greatest day of their lives. Despite this, some of the minor things that may have been ignored can cause much havoc and dissatisfaction, some of which can be long-lived. One may not want to imagine what would happen if during the d-day, the photographer or the driver does not turn up. Another tragedy can be if another group had already booked the venue that had been planned for.

An event coordinator does the work of organizing and coordinating public or private events, appearances and events. This entails organizing participants, securing appropriate venues, notifying those who may attend and organizing them, acquiring the relevant tools, equipment and materials and finally to organize and delegate duties to those assisting him or her during the day of the event. On the other hand, the wedding planner also referred to as the wedding consultant is the mediator, the money manager and the facilitator.

There are several character traits that a planner should posses. Obviously, he or she should be patient and calm even when things seem to be going asunder. He also very importantly should be a good negotiator as he would be the one who does all the orders and the purchasing on behalf of the bride and the bridegroom such as buying the gown and the other attire, get the catering team, hire the venue, musicians, public address system, photographers and so on. This is because only the best is required but at the cheapest rate. He must also be somebody who can network meaning that he or she handles differently people and issues at the same time. A good wedding planner should also be one who has a sense for proper fashion, which includes the color, the flowers, the music and the clothing. It would be so embarrassing if there were no color coordination in the clothing or the flowers and the decorations. This means that they must take their time in studying on the topic from the magazines or the internet.

The event planners must be prepared to work for long hours especially just before and during the event which may include much traveling and moving up and down to make sure that the purpose of the meeting is achieved. Therefore, the first thing that the planners need to know is the nature and the purpose of the meeting. That would then motivate delegates or the audience. All the work ranging from bookings, reception, stationery issuing, vehicle parking, accommodation, decorations among others should be done focusing on that aim.

One of the companies that specialize on the Sasha Souza of the United States that offers services such as, destination weddings and the green They have a large team that can handle different events at the same time.

What Venues Work Best for Staff and Corporate Events

In a lot of cases offices organize corporate events inside their own office premises. While it is easy and familiar for everyone, the draw back to this arrangement is obvious: people can get distracted with their daily duties or find it hard to extricate themselves from the ongoing phone calls or dealing with some of their unfinished tasks.

When organizing corporate events, it is often best to go away from your work premises so that management and staff can achieve their goals for the event such as boosting the morale, finding a new direction for the company, reassessment of goals and even team building.

If the company has decided to host a staff Christmas party or event at a professional venue there will be added costs. Most companies plan for this in their budget forecasts at the beginning of the year so when the time comes the event can be organized with good planning and implementation knowing that the budget has been previously allocated.

An important aspect when organizing a corporate event is choosing the right the venue for the occasion as there are many different types of venues available.

They vary greatly in size with off-site venues for private events, conference rooms in hotels, fun venues outdoors and upmarket locations like restaurants or hotels.

For serious and business related corporate events, the most suitable venue could be a dedicated conference room in a professional events centre or for team building events an appropriate venue would need to have a fun atmosphere as there will definitely be a number of group activities. So there are a number of advantages to be gained by using a professional venue that suits the occasion and offers the right environment for different needs.

Initially, a well established corporate events venue can help generate the ideal space where a number of activities can be easily accomplished based on the needs and preferences of the company or business organizing the event.

Secondly, a good professional venue can provide superior quality services such as food and beverages, amenities and additional individual services that might be required.

Finally, most event venues offer competitive rates as well as great deals especially at Christmas time - and if you are well organized and book ahead you can benefit from these.

Good planning is important when it comes to corporate events and finding the ideal venue that will cater to all the activities you have planned and still come within budget is important for the success of the event.

The advantages will be memorable and your staff will appreciate the care and attention you have given to acknowledge them and their work throughout the year.

Cooking Up An Event Management Solution

I'm getting technology lessons from a chef. How embarrassing is that?

Crissy Gershey works at Parties That Cook, a San Francisco-based company that does "hands on" cooking events in cities throughout the U.S. She used to be a chef at some pretty well-known restaurants in the Bay Area, and then did catering work. Now she's a director of marketing and is teaching me a few things about event management technology.

To coordinate the dozens of public cooking functions the company conducts throughout the year, Parties That Cook uses event management technology from Eventbrite. By coincidence, I've been using Eventbrite over the past month to help manage the software training webinars and seminars that we do. Guess who does a better job at this? It's Crissy, the marketing chef.

She knows how to take advantage of free services. Sure, like me she found setting up her events on Eventbrite to be pretty easy. But like all technology, if you want to do more, it becomes more complex. Crissy called Eventbrite's customer service frequently for help in the setup process. She leaned on them for assistance when setting up payment processing and formatting of the pages. She had them walk her through how to take the code they offered so she could embed widgets like a registration page and calendar on her own website. I could've gotten the same assistance that Crissy got. And it's all free. But I'm a guy. We don't ask for help. So I wound up spending way more time in the setup process than I needed to.

Crissy immediately understood how to use Eventbrite's social networking features to help her promote her events. As with everything that's social networking, I'm still trying to figure out what it all means. That's because I'm in my 40s and live in Philly. But she's much younger... and from the Bay Area. So she's been connecting her company's events to its Facebook and LinkedIn pages. She's been using Eventbrite to tweet about upcoming cooking classes. She encourages registrants to share the event with their LinkedIn connections, Twitter followers and Facebook friends and to e-mail event details directly from the site to their friends. She recognized that her events, because they are listed on Eventbrite's site, are quickly picked up by Google's search engine, so she's created Google Alerts to track. She carefully crafts her event descriptions so they get found by other Eventbrite visitors when searching the site. Sometimes she sends out invitations to potential customers through the site, too (she's allowed up to 2,000 per day).

But I'm not a complete idiot. I signed up with Eventbrite for some basic things that would save me time and money. I'm happy with the progress. Before, attendees would register on my site. I would get their registration via e-mail. Someone in my office would manually send out a confirmation e-mail. We would keep a list. We would send reminders. We would manually process the payments. It was pretty tedious. Now when someone registers for an event they get an automatic e-mail. I just get a notification. Eventbrite keeps the lists. It manages the payments. It maintains a "wait list" if an event sells out. I can print out name badges and an attendee list on the day of the event. We can send out bulk reminders through the site. For a company running events, this is a big thing.

Crissy lists her company's cooking classes on a bunch of sites to attract potential attendees. This is very time consuming. But this is a smart chef, because she figured out how to use Eventbrite's tracking capability to see which sites were generating the most visitors for her events. So she focuses on just those sites.

She's also a big believer in using promotion codes and wait lists. That way if attendance is lagging at a location she can offer special deals. Users can punch in a code when registering and get a discounted price. For popular events, she lets users sign up for a wait list. This way if someone drops out, Eventbrite automatically notifies the next person in line that there's a slot opened and gives that person a specific period of time to register before reaching out to the next person on the wait list.

Eventbrite is not cheap. It's free. But it's expensive. What does that mean? If you're putting on free events, then listing them is free. That's perfect for me because my company does a lot of free training webinars and seminars for the products we sell. But I recently scheduled a few for-pay events and got sticker shock.

If you want to use Eventbrite to accept credit card payments you'll pay 2.5% of the ticket value plus $0.99 per ticket. When we set up a seminar where we charged $199 per attendee I was kind of surprised to see $5.96 charged additionally for each ticket sold. There is a maximum fee of $9.95 per ticket, though. You can eat these charges yourself or set it up so that the charges get added on to each ticket. Then there is a 3% charge for processing from the credit card company. Crissy chose to pass these costs through to her customers...and it hasn't been a problem. Me--I just eat the cost. I'm afraid of the backlash.

There are also some indirect costs. Crissy handled most of the setup on her own. I hire others to compensate for my inadequacies. To brand my registration page I paid a marketing designer. To embed the Eventbrite widgets on my site, I'm hiring my webmaster. To set up payment processing I've turned to my bookkeeper. Of course I'm paying my internal marketing manager to keep the event site updated and current, too.

One thing that took me by surprise when setting up the service is how Eventbrite's branding is all over the place. This doesn't seem to get Crissy too bent out of shape. I realize Eventbrite is a free service and it is doing its best to attract as many visitors as possible who will hopefully put on paid events so Eventbrite, too, can get paid. If you just put a simple link on your site for attendees to register they'll get bounced to the Eventbrite registration form, which has its logo and branding. Even though Eventbrite gives you the code so that your web developer can embed the registration form on your site, there's still Eventbrite branding on the form. There's no way to really hide that you're using their service, so be prepared for that.

So far, so good. I'm liking Eventbrite and so is Crissy. Of course, she's using their capabilities much better than I am. But I bet she can't cook a better steak than me. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course she can.

Few Tips on Conference Event Management

Organizing a conference or a seminar perfectly is no doubt a challenging objective to be achieved. In order to have a successful conference or seminar certain effective tools and a profound knowledge on the affair is a must. This will help one to have the booming conference event management schedule.

It can be any conference and event management requirements there are certain aspects, which must be remembered at any cost. Planning should be made based on the facts that whether the event requires a paid admission or if it is a conference then for the conference registration online procedures need to be maintained or not. A well-devised strategy for the marketing campaign is also a must for the event. This marketing function happens to be one of the most important parts of the event and lots of time and effort is required to back up the entire affair. Successful marketing opportunities help a business thrive and assist in the search for newer participants.

The marketing element related to the conference event management is very significant in understanding of the true objective of the business. There can be various purposes behind organizing the event and they include branding your company, spread a word about the event. Therefore, the event should always be backed up with best set of marketing strategies in order to achieve its goals and at the same time making it absolutely a fun affair for all the participants.

Here are few tips guarding one's conference event management plan or other events resembling various forms and types.

A Successful Event Marketing Plan

A marketing plan for an event should be such that major objectives such as, budget, resources both internal and external must serve well to make the event fruitful. Thus, the plan should be chalked out absolutely in a way that it should be specific but flexible at the same time.

Branding the Conference and the Event

Branding the event is one of the important factors in the conference event management services. This is a tool to reach out a wide audience for attracting their attention. The brand must always carry all the means to promotion. They are, emails, websites and other on-site materials.

Utilizing the Web

If you have a website for your company then a space must be designated for publishing the news on the various upcoming events. This will enable you to spread a word on the event and provide other relevant information on the event to the band of attendees. This helps you to have a great economy. Bulk of Information can be sent to the participants at the fraction of cost involved in delivering them via other means.

Discount Rates in Offer

Offering a discounted rate to the attendees is also a nice option to draw more participants.

Venue

The venue one has selected for the event is another important aspect for getting more participants. Always choose a venue based on the fact that the attendees generally belong to urban or sub urban areas.

Proper Promotion Guarding Your Conference Event Management

Advertising medias act as the most important element enhancing the coverage of the event. Exchanging the links of your websites with other websites belonging to the trade show or conference directories will boost up your next conference for sure.

Corporate Events: Make a Better Workplace!

Corporate events are the nicest way to make cordial relationships with the employees of a company. It is very much beneficial for the working of a company and its related business activity. These types of events can come in so many different shapes and sizes, level of adventure such as bungee jumping, sailing a boat etc. Mostly, the best form of corporate event is planning a day out with the employees. It proves pivotal and beneficial when the departments and teams sizes are relatively very large and want to formulate an environment to develop the kind of culture that you are looking for your organization.

Importance of Corporate Event:
Indeed, no one can deny the role of corporate events in the lifetime of a business entity. It simply indicates that everyone has to come out of their comfortable zone and put in lots of efforts to make a space that can be shared by all. It is always treated as a positive role for an organization where employees help each other and approach themselves to find concrete solutions for their issues and for the betterment of the whole entity.

Team-building events will allow employees to get in together to find solutions for any problem by building a positive bond. For example, if there is a game of treasure hunt and participants have to make a team and work collectively to find the hidden treasure. In such activity, participants have to combine their understanding, intelligence and team efforts to get the work done right.

Event Planning Template - New Budget Spreadsheet For Meetings

If you do not know excel or do not want to spend major amounts of time designing something to fit your budget, what do you do?

The other day I met with a friend to discuss a new Excel Budget Spreadsheet for Meetings.

She was impressed with the spreadsheet and made the following comments. Five years ago she was working for a company and had the responsibility of setting up and running some large meetings. Her major problem was spending so much time late at night trying to design and set up the excel spreadsheets that it caused family problems an she ended up leaving her employer.

She wished this Budget Spreadsheet for Meetings had been available at that time. It would have saved her countless hours.

With the spreadsheet all she had to do was enter the meeting information and the formulas would do the rest.

The spreadsheet is set up with the main Budget Sheet listing all the items needed for the meeting.

Income categories list: Registration Fees, Company Funding, Sponsor Funding, Exhibitor Fees, Advertising and Other Income.

Variable Expense categories include major categories such as: Food Expenses, Beverage Expenses, Exhibition Expenses plus three more.

Fixed Expense categories include twelve areas like: Staff Expenses, Speaker Expenses, Audio-Visual, Printing, plus eight more.

Charts: The final sheets on the spreadsheet are Charts. These charts are automatically generated and show percentages when categories for Income, Fixed and Variable Expenses are completed.

Each category has it's own sheet to enter all items. All the meeting planner needs to do is enter the item and related income or expense numbers onto the specific sheet that covers that item. From that point all numbers are automatically totaled into separate categories and then totaled on the page. The total from the page then is populated onto the main Budget Sheet.

What's nice is that everything is simple. You enter the names and amounts and then the Budget Spreadsheet takes over and does the rest for you. Instantly you know totals to date in income and expenses plus actual profit or loss to date.

You can not make any mistakes because all the formulas are protected and examples are on each sheet showing you how to use the forms. Easy, Easy, Easy.

So, if you do not know excel or do not want to spend major amounts of time designing something to fit your budget, simply get the new Budget Spreadsheet for Meetings and enjoy.

Golf Tournament Planning 101 - Choosing Your Venue and Contests That Generate Revenue

Choosing your golf course should be high on your list of priorities early in your planning. You will need to consider your golfers' budgets. But price isn't the only determining factor in your selection. Is the course challenging, yet fair? Is it known for being in excellent condition? Do they host several tournaments and have the resources to help make your event successful? Is the staff friendly, yet professional? Do they have facilities for your banquet? You will most likely approach several of your local facilities. When you contact the courses, ask if they have an in-house event planner. It's always helpful to have one person who will be your course contact. When a question arises, you'll want to have a decision-maker available. During your initial contact, ask for a cell phone number and an email address.

The golf course personnel will need to know your preferred date(s), the number of golfers you anticipate, your format (shotgun start or tee times), your program for the day (breakfast, lunch, refreshments during registration, dinner). You don't need to have all the details of the day planned for this initial meeting, but the more information you can give, the better understanding the staff will have of your goals and needs. Remember that most course event planners have had several years of experience with tournaments and can be a wealth of ideas & information that will help your event flow smoothly and without incident. You will want to have an estimated budget for what you expect the course to provide and be clear about your needs...don't forget beverages, lunch, prizes. Some courses will be willing to provide all-inclusive package prices while others will provide ala carte pricing. Don't forget to ask about fees for calculating scores, renting banquet facilities or service charges and tax. Ask if the course requires a deposit. This will need to be addressed in your planning. Are you required to sign a contract or will the course pout their pricing on paper?

Ask the course representative what services they offer that may set them apart from other courses. Do they offer discounts on pro shop purchases, coupons for return visits, rounds of golf for prizes? Are they willing to make a donation to your charity or sponsor a prize? Can they offer any assistance in your marketing? This can have a HUGE impact on your tournament! Do they have a website, online tournament planning or registration, social networking accounts (Facebook & twitter) or email lists for tournament players? Remember, most event planners have a vested interest in your success!

Many planners can also help you with signage and contest ideas. It's a good idea to discuss this several months before the event as some custom logo and special order items may be needed for the contests. Today, there are many ways that special on-course contests can involve the golfers in creative ways and add much needed $$$ to your donations.

Some of the easier contests for volunteers to assist with are:

Closest to the Pin, Longest Drive & Most Accurate Tee Shot & Skins

Beat the Pro

Pot of Gold

Putting Contest

Shootout

Hole-in-One Contests

Mulligans

Raffles, Door Prizes & 50/50 Drawings

Silent & Live Auctions

Blind Bogey

In addition, there are several unique ideas that a good planner can help you arrange. But remember... the course will need advance notice of most of these contests which may require extra volunteers tables, tables at the putting green or driving range, signage, measuring devices, volunteer carts, etc.

Ask if your course can provide sponsor signs. Some courses will print your sponsor ads and provide low cost tee signs. This can be an affordable option to having signs professionally printed.

Consider your golf course your partner. With an organized staff dedicated to serving your tournament's needs, your golf course can be a huge part of your success!

7 Tips for Successful Event Planning

Event planning is not an easy task. It requires step-to-step process to be executed perfectly. At times it also becomes stressful. To make it less stressful, seven tips are given below that can help immensely.

1. Planning of event should start as soon as possible. Sooner you start planning, better the results will be. Think carefully before putting any idea in execution. This will help in putting action plan in order. Working out time and money to complete particular event will help. Think about human resources, committee, how much your profit will be, and whether it is viable or not.


2. If you are planning big event then you will need more human resources. In such condition, pull out a team together which can help you complete big event successfully. Once you have action plan and team ready to execute it, half of your work is done.


3. Budget is a very important element in event planning. Cost related to marketing, photocopying, equipments, human resources, and other hire charges should be taken into consideration while deciding on budget.


4. Listing everything will help in order to make your plans work easily. Make lists of everything and anything that you are trying to do in event.


5. Marketing your event is essential if event is targeted to be profit making. Things like targeted audience, flyers and posters, places for marketing, and online marketing are essential tactics for marketing of any event.


6. Venue of the event is crucial. Selection of venue depends on things like date & time, area, disabled access, budget and deposit, tables, seats, and catering facilities.


7. Last but not the list, whether should be considered in event planning because all your plans will go in vain in case of bad weather if you have not taken that into the consideration.

What to Look for in a Wholesale Florist

Today, companies are unable to find quality wholesale florists due to the changing economy. Corporations are merging with others, there are many technology changes and products suffer from these complex issues.

Below are some tips in finding the right wholesale florist in your area.

Florists provide their customers with knowledgeable, consistent sales staff. "Four out of five wholesale florists have salespeople who have been with the company for more than five years," according to the Wholesale Florist & Florist Suppliers Association (WF&FSA).

Retailers value the individualized attention, expert knowledge and efficiency that this provides. Wholesalers know their retail customers' favorite products and supplies. And they save their customers' time by offering wide-ranging inventory and are able to obtain specialty items easily.

So when it comes to reliability and added value, retail florists know where to go-to their local wholesale florist. For years, wholesale florists have provided exceptional supplies, service, and expert knowledge to retail florists, event planners and wedding planners. Their customers keep coming back because of the reliability, quality, and convenience that florists provide and the feeling their wholesaler knows them and knows what they want.

In a survey of 358 retail florists conducted by the Florist & Florist Supplier Association, retail florists ranked florists as the best source of high quality cut flowers, as the most reliable supplier, and as the best value for their money. More than 90 percent of those surveyed praised florists for their courteous and professional salespeople and the long-term relationships that have emerged between retailers and wholesalers as a result.

In selecting a florist, there are four things to remember:

1. Open communication-retailers need to talk about their ideas and be open to
suggestions. Keeping an open mind will help the communication go smoothly.
2. Have a budget in mind-the florist can then help clients stay within monetary limits. Much
time can be wasted without a preliminary budget in mind.
3. Choose someone who is detail and service oriented-they should provide both in-store shopping for perishables and hard goods, and they should have delivery capabilities.
4. Quality and best selection of products-make sure the quality exceeds your expectations, and that there is a wide variety of choices.

In conclusion, keep in mind these key points when selecting a florist to build a relationship with. Many companies claim they are service-oriented or can handle large orders. It is recommended to interview several wholesale florists in your area before deciding. It may take some time to do this upfront, but well worth it in the end. The ultimate goal is to have a long-lasting, reliable relationship with your wholesale florist.