Make a Statement in Your Corporate Events

If you have a career in a corporate setting, then you must be aware how important it is to have your company's events to be organised and well received by your guests and patrons. More often event organisers fail to accomplish simple things. Although the event in general is successful, how the guests remember the last few moments of the events still matters. Simply put, leaving an impression before the guests leave is as important as how you opened the event. This is where corporate event giveaways come in, like giving personalised sweets.

Events that carry the name of your company must conform to the company's values and principles. It is way different that just throwing a party hoping everybody will enjoy. The company's stature depends on these kinds of events. Making an impact in these events will likely mean making a prospective client or associates in the future, thus, an increase in projected revenues. The event must be remembered by the guests, and a good way to do so is to give them souvenirs during the conclusion. The giveaways must also carry the identity of the company. Personalised sweets can play this role well.

Choosing the venue of the event must also be considered wisely. If the company is cutting short on budget, make it up with other aspects like the food, and providing entertainment will is also a way to establish your company's connection with the guests. In the duration of the event, there must be a constant but subtle way of engraving your company's identity to the interest of the guests; for example, you can have your service crew serve personalised sweets.

Getting an interesting host for the event must also be taken into major consideration. Boredom is the last thing you want to join the event. You can also organise mini games that will run throughout the event in a constant interval. You can give prizes for these games, like some personalised sweets with your company's logo or colours in them.

There are many things that could server as a perfect souvenir for your company's event. Personalised sweets and other foods or some wines though are among the top suggestions. They are easily accessible and everybody will like them.

Event Planning Guidelines For Your Conference

Event planning involves a whole lot of planning and administrative work. It's a very demanding job which needs proper forecast, scheduling and arrangement to have a successful conference. Even before laying the first written draft of your planning, you need to ask certain questions to yourself:

• What are you or your client trying to achieve out of this conference?


• Who are your target audience as in delegates and sponsors?

Once you have your answers, it's time for you to start planning your conference.

Decide a Perfect Date

It is suggested to have number of dates in your mind, so that if you have to cancel one date on account of unavailability of your chosen venue or anything else, you can switch to another. Avoid selecting a bank holiday because your potential attendees may not like to visit the conference on special dates. Make sure that you do not hold your conference on same date as other conferences held by your competitor or related industry. It is advisable to plan your conference just before or after another conference in your city, the topic of which is related to yours. Conference attendees most of the times attend conferences on related topics to increase knowledge or connections.

Decide on Budget

May be the most crucial part of planning is the budget, depending on which you will count your return on investment. The ideal way is to offer a financial limit in definite areas of earnings, including sponsorship, ticket sales, as well as expenses like printing, location, food, supplies and security.

Decide on a Venue

The location and the venue sometimes play a key role in increasing attendance. A location where attendees can easily reach is the most preferable option. For example, you can select a location near the airport, central station or the city center.

Book the venue for your conference depending on the number of attendees you are expecting. Good hotels come with very professional conference rooms which are ideal, as they provide workforce as well as a good infrastructure. Do not forget to scrutinize your venue well in advance in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later.

Speaker and Program

Good topics and speakers are the main attraction of any type of conference. Thus, schedule good speakers at an early stage to ensure the success of your event. Make sure to include as many big names as you can. Speakers are crowd-pullers and acceptance from one good speaker helps you get approval from other famous speakers.

Next, you need to set a jam-packed agenda even before you start promoting your conference. This is because speakers and the program schedule will be your main way of drawing attention.

Promote your Conference

The aim of promoting your conference is mainly to gain more volume of new attendees and invite the existing ones. You can use online event management solutions to make things easy for you. Besides offline promotion using relevant newspapers and magazines, you can get more attention by using online ways. Publish your event page with your corporate look, send automated invitations to last year attendees, post conference calendar on your website, involve social network websites like Facebook and post your conference in local event listings, conference calendars and relevant blogs and directories. Use powerful communications and calendaring features to intensify marketing and promotional activities. Use email communications, discount rules and gift cards to promote and sell your event online.

Online Registration for Your Conference

Easy to use solution with professional approach is what attendees wish when they go for registering for your conference. Use online event registration and payment solution to streamline your ticketing and payment processing. Completely customizable registration forms with auto fill facility protect and save attendee data. The built-in questionnaire adds value to the registration process. You get to know all the required information and their preference which you can use to ensure attendee satisfaction. This online registration form can be hosted in your event website where you can allow one person to register and pay for a group of people by event or by booking option. Your event website is not only an online registration form but also an online advertisement of the agenda, speaker, directions and some hotel recommendations where your attendees can stay during the conference.

Use online payment management solution so that you can offer your registrant the ease of secure payment transaction that support real-time authorization and processing for all major credit cards, PayPal, Purchase Orders and checks.

Finally, when 'The Day' comes, you get ready with a check-in list and bar coded name badges that you have created using the registrant data. If you use online event management software for your conference, along with numerous benefits, you can use the dashboard for generating reports on post-event results. You can also send targeted emails to conduct post-event surveys to know honest opinion of your attendees so that you can plan more successful conference next time. Use these tips for planning your conference, and you will see how you increase ROI and lessen your workload.

Company Picnic Ideas and Planning Tips

The company picnic is a beloved tradition at many firms.

It's an opportunity for employees to mingle and "let down their hair."

A well organized company picnic with planned activities can help integrate employees with each other. This is particularly important if the company has undergone recent reorganization. As such it functions as a "team bonding" mechanism.

A company picnic can be held for an entire firm of thousands or for a single department of 30.

In my role of party entertainer (and prior to that corporate employee), I have attended countless such events. Here are some observations, tips, and ideas I picked up along the way.

General Considerations

Like any other type of event, you need to decide what you want your picnic to be like and how much you want to spend.

As with any event, it is important to keep the needs and tastes of your attendees paramount.

Allow yourself sufficient time to book your venue if the picnic is offsite. Demand for some venues is at a premium during peak periods. It is not uncommon to make reservations several months or more in advance of a given date.

You'll need to plan food and beverages, and activities and entertainment and, in some cases, transportation to the picnic site.

Allow enough time so you can give your employees sufficient advance notice to include the picnic into their plans. This is especially important if you'll be inviting family members or if it is held on a weekend.

Company picnics and company picnic ideas can range from the very simple to a pull-out-all-stops extravaganza. My observation is that people have a good time at both.

Do you want to have a theme? A theme is fun! Plus it makes it easier to organize food and activities.

WHEN do you want to hold you company's picnic?

Here, in the Philadelphia area, companies hold their picnics beginning in June through early October.

Considerations such as your company's workflow, availability of a desired venue, etc., will help you determine the date. Employees are less apt to be away on vacation in June or September, but they will really enjoy the chance to kick back in July or August.

There are pros and cons to weekday picnics versus weekend picnics.

Company picnics held during a workday will ensure a greater attendance for employees when they would normally be in the office. And, they don't cut into precious personal time.

But spouses and children are generally more available for a weekend date.

WHOM do you want to invite?

Staff only? Members of the employee's immediate family? What about significant others, friends? Decide where to draw the line.

Family picnics are a great way for employees to meet co-workers' families. It humanizes co-workers by allowing them to relax their at-work personas.

On the other hand, single or divorced employees can feel like the odd wheel at a very family oriented event. That can be overcome by planning activities suitable for people of all ages.

Activities that require participants to form groups can help integrate the attendees. And it keeps your guests occupied.

WHERE do you want to have your company picnic?

While many picnics take place under a tent in the company's parking lot, offsite venues can make people feel more relaxed. If you're on a strict budget, one option is a nearby state park. Many have large pavilions ideally suited for such events.

I've also been to company picnics given at the home of the firm's CEO or owner. This kind of setting adds a homey touch to the festivities. In some instances, facilities were set up so that the guests attend to their needs without entering the host's private home.

An excellent option to consider is a venue that is set up especially for hosting the company picnic. Generally these picnic parks come complete with in-house catering and lots of games and activities for kids both big and small. Some day camps rent out their facilities on weekends when they are otherwise not in use.

Amusement parks and river cruises are other options.

Tip: Have a Plan B in the case of rain.

Some Plan B options include:
o A tent with walls or access to an on-site building
o Event insurance
o A rain date

Keep in mind that if you opt for a rain date, your vendors and entertainers may require additional payment to reserve the second date. That is because they have to turn down other clients during the busy summer season to keep that time open for you.

Food and Beverages

If you choose to have the food catered, you don't have to worry about preparation or cleanup. Many venues such as picnic parks have in-house catering. And many caterers specialize in handling company picnics.

The best part of picnic fare is that it is simple and satisfying. Hot dogs and hamburgers are extremely popular at picnics. But they are not compulsory and caterers will cater to your every whim.

Keep the menu flexible enough to accommodate those with special needs and preferences. These days you'll find many meat eaters and vegans, not to mention devotees of Atkins, South Beach, and other diets. Muslims and Jews may not wish to eat pork.

So having at least one non-pork and non-meat option is an excellent idea. If your picnic has a theme, your menu can reflect that.

Decide whether you want to permit alcoholic beverages. If so, make sure there is a way to ensure that anyone who drinks a bit too much makes it home safely.

Have age appropriate activities and games

Some venues such as picnic parks make it a point to supply many activities. Nonetheless, you may want to supplement them. Entertainers such as DJs, caricature artists, Tarot card readers, magicians, face painters, clowns are some popular additions.

Door prizes are a cherished company picnic idea at many firms. Door prizes work both as employee appreciation and an incentive for the employees to linger.

Examples of some prizes I've seen include certificate good for a dinner for two at a local restaurant, gift certificate at a local department store, a day off with pay, even a free vacation complete with round trip airline tickets.

These are some company picnic ideas and planning tips to get you started.

But the most important tip is the one I save for last. After you've worked so hard to organize and plan your event, be sure to go and enjoy the festivities yourself!

Automate Your Event Management Process

Have you ever thought of some better way other than manually handling the complex process of events registration? Well, so long the method of event management included lots of pen and paper work in terms of completing the event registration process, maintaining everyday reports on ticket sales, attendee registration status, and conducting surveys on post event performance.

But now another form of very powerful event management process has come in - online, automated event management solution. This web-based solution offers you a lucrative way of hosting events and activities. This flexible solution offers great help in terms of easy registration, credit card payment, creation of online private communities, and member management.

Using an automated online event management service will benefit both you and your customers. The freely accessible online sign up process will enable easy entry to your concerts or seminars. Your visitors can view the registration page and add details to it from any location worldwide. You will simply wonder as to how things are so easily getting created and done in minutes! The web-based registration system comes with the online event managing portal. It lets you create one or more registration pages in a few seconds' time. Event organizers can customize the registration pages to add updates on a timely basis. You can add the company logo on your events registration page for ready promotion and recognition by the industry.

We all know how painful it is to wait for hours to get a movie or a play ticket. In such a situation, the online event management system comes as a big savior by allowing easy booking procedure over the internet. The Cloud-based event management solution features a PCI-compliant payment system. You can use major credit cards and checks to pay before the registration closes. In case you are unable to attend an event for some personal reason, the online system promises to pay back your ticket price. However, you will be refunded as per the event organizer's refund policy.

Any organization can use the Cloud-based event management solution's private community portal to create an online community of members. This community is highly secured and gives the opportunity to share any kind of information with your fellow members, at anytime, 24x7. This single integrated platform allows you to create and schedule your meetings and trade shows, publish and streamline them, and let your members engage in live discussions.

The web-based event management portal lets you manage meetings, parties, and road shows wonderfully and in a truly professional manner. It also offers you a great platform to foster stronger relationships with your members.

Use Pre-Event Marketing Strategies for a Successful Event

Marketing and promotion of an event is extremely fundamental to its success. Hence, event organizers, worldwide work on various pre-event and post-event marketing strategies to promote events to a large-scale audience. However, pre-event marketing tactics are extremely crucial in order to increase event attendance and simultaneously converting the majority of your potential leads into confirmed attendees.

However, for successful affairs, organizers must focus on activities that can help them to get the word out. There are numerous pre-event marketing strategies and all of them can be used in different ways. As an program organizer, you need to figure out, which one is going to work out best for your event. We have come up with some exciting ideas to help you to create innovative marketing campaigns for your events.

Announce your event in the local newspaper - Although newspaper ads are losing popularity in this digital era, experts believe that there is still a margin of effectiveness in this strategy. Newspapers have a volume reach out to the local audience.. There are a variety of sections where you can advertise your event, like community news, city events, etc. What you can do is send out a news release a week before highlighting the special aspects of the event and get the local newspaper to publish it.

Create an Event Blog - An event blog is a great way to approach your potential attendees in the shortest possible time. Readers will be more interested in getting access to important information about your affairss from the blog. It is likely to keep them engaged. A great way is to write interesting articles about the event and some original aspects that will take place on the day. You can research about the event and your target audience. It will help you to highlight the best bits that may be of interest to your target audience. By doing this, you can build a connection with your event attendees and thus inspire them to be present at the occasion.

Email Marketing- Email marketing is a proven method that assists in a significant rise in attendee numbers. By doing this, you can not only stay in touch with your prospective parties but at the same time deliver updates about your event on a regular basis. It is likely to help you develop a cordial relationship with your program attendees. You can increase the frequency of email marketing when you deem necessary.

Experts believe that the pre event marketing activities is directly responsible towards a great turn out. An effective marketing strategy enables you to get the word out, but you need to know how to work on these tactics to make your event a great success.

Your DJ Service Can Drum Up More Gigs With Promotional Products

The love of music and your knack for picking out songs that keep large groups of people happy has evolved in to a DJ business. You may be happy working at this a few times a month, but something deep inside tells you it would be more fun to do it several times a week.

Scratching your head about it won't get you many results. Simple business cards can get lost in the shuffle along with everyone else's card, but when you hand out promotional products your service will stand out among the others much more.

Promotional gifts, when chosen wisely, can help take your DJ business to the places you have been wanting to go.

If you are on a budget there are many promotional items that can be purchased for a relatively low cost and still help you to gain more exposure- promotional pens are cheap enough to hand out by the dozens at each gig and can do wonders for brand awareness.

Keyrings emblazoned with your name and contact information can remind it's recipient of your buttery beats each time they use their keys. Fridge magnets can be made in any shape and color you desire to best represent your style. Even simple sports bottles have a low per-unit cost and will be a welcome promotional gift during the warm summer months.

You may fancy yourself as a very tech-savvy individual, why not use that talent in your promotional product? Promotional USB flash sticks are useful and can contain a wealth of information about you and your services.

You may rely on event-planning services as leads to your gigs. Don't just hand them a business card like everyone else does- a promotional USB flash drive can be printed with your contact information on the outside and be manufactured pre-loaded with the media files of your choice, such as music, video presentations and PowerPoint presentations that include references and song lists.

Event planners are handed business cards all the time, a promotional USB flash stick is not very likely to be stuck in a rolodex and forgotten about.

These are just a small example of what kinds of promotional items are available to you for the purpose of raising the awareness and exposure of your service. There are hundreds of choices available. Promotional items and the selection can be overwhelming.

The best first step to make in choosing a promotional gift is to contact a reliable online gift supplier of promotional products. A quality purveyor of promotional gifts can help you to narrow down the selection and pick out a promotional giveaway item that is tailored to you and your service, both physically and aesthetically.

Better to make that call before your competition does.

Why Is Mobile App Marketing Becoming So Popular Among the Event and Class Organizers?

Mobile app marketing has practically changed the way organizations connect and share their event or class-related information with the target audience. The conventional marketing strategies of advertising on newspapers and business magazines or distributing pamphlets have been taken over by more advanced set of promotional tools, such as the internet and various mobile devices. At present, a good number of organizations are using the Smartphone to promote and publicize their activities on a wider scale.

How Does This System Work?

This mobile phone application allows event or class planners easily send text messages (SMSs) as well as their website links on their potential customer's Smartphone. It lets you inform your target audience about the features of your conference and training programs and the advantages of attending them. Besides, the app also lets any interested individual sign up for the seminar or fundraiser by easily accessing the event registration portal and online ticketing site on his or her handset.

Allow me to share with you the advantages of using a mobile phone application to market your events and classes.

Go Viral

Mobile marketing increases the chances of sharing the news and information about your occasion with maximum number of people. There are over 95.8 million Smartphone users in the US at present, which means the chances for your organizational activities to be recognized are also as much.

Easy Accessibility of Your Event News

You can allow your target audience to easily access all your seminar or fundraiser news and information via their Smartphone.

Immediate Sharing of Information

Unlike advertising on print media, sharing information on handsets of millions of people hardly takes any time. Hence, the chance of receiving immediate response via Smartphone is also extremely high.

Adds Versatility

Marketing your products and solutions over mobile phones can help you take your business to the next level. It opens up a new channel to reach out to those of your target audience who use mobile phones more and is less computer-savvy.

Add a Wow Factor to Your Classes and Events!

Mobile apps are trendy and hence, popular among the new generation. Resorting to this type of marketing strategy will help you quickly share your new product or events information with millions of Smartphone users, not only in US, but also across the whole world. It takes only a few seconds for an advertisement or any of your website links to get successfully delivered on your potential customers or event attendees' handset.