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Event Planning – Let Event Planning Companies Take the Worry Out of Arranging Corporate Events

You’ve been tasked with organising another major event: a conference, training, a roadshow or specialised corporate entertainment. What are the main steps to consider when planning it and how can event planning companies save you time and money and take the stress out of running successful events?

Determine the event’s purpose

Without a clear idea of what your event must achieve it’s hard to start planning. Once you’ve decided on this (and prepared a brief to guide you and your suppliers) your decision will determine the subsequent course of events – whether you handle the planning yourself or outsource it to special event planning experts.

Choose between in-house or outsourced event planning?

Depending on the time and budget available you may choose to manage the events planning process yourself (‘in-house’ planning) or outsource to a professional planning company. The latter is popular because it frees your time for other business activities and takes the pressure off overloaded internal departments. What’s more, for the same reasons that you’d outsource accountancy or other professional services, outsourced planning can deliver a better result more efficiently than trying to do this yourself.

Find a suitable venue

Next comes your choice of venue. Maybe you already have a preferred venue. If not, your corporate event planning partner can help – and some event planners even have their own venues. Whether you need a well-equipped conference suite or a mud-spattered quad biking day on a Welsh hillside, event planning companies can find exactly the right venue for you.

Organise the event

With the venue agreed, event planners can save you lots of work on the run-in to the event. Event marketing, delegate management, booking speakers or facilitators and managing event finances all have to be co-ordinated and managed. With the event date and venue set, the clock’s ticking, your event budget is on the line and there’s no room for delays or oversights. Specialist suppliers are used to managing the complexity of event organisation – and have the experienced teams to do so. Compare this with the time and worry of handling this yourself on top of your normal again, independent help makes perfect sense.

Run the event

Events planning leads seamlessly into running the conference, meeting or corporate event. Leading event planning companies can handle all aspects of this, as well as event catering, on-the-day co-ordination and tasks such as delegate reception – it leaves you with more time to spend with delegates, customers or colleagues on the day.

You may ask yourself though, do I have the time or skills needed for the management of a major conference or one-off corporate entertainment? With so much at stake and growing demands on managers’ time, organisations increasingly outsource event management. Below are some of the things to look for when choosing a professional planner.

How to find professional planners

The decision to hire professional event planning is a vital one. The right supplier can save you valuable time, ensure a better event than would otherwise be possible and build your reputation. Buying-in these services needn’t be prohibitively expensive either. As with any specialist service, the cost of hiring event planning services is often low compared to going it alone – and you get priceless peace of mind from knowing your event is in the hands of professionals.…

Event Planning – How to Plan the Event in the Best Possible Way

A thriving event is highly dependent on the proper event planning. Now it is also turned into a business, in which people take up the responsibilities of the hosts, give them the event that they want to see and charge money for providing their services. Event planning is not a very tough job, anyone can do, anyone who is organized, creative, hardworking and have enough time to plan every arrangement.

Nevertheless, some people get satisfied only with their own work and they do not hand their arrangements to anyone else and do it on their own. Therefore, if you are planning an occasion for the first time, then you should make plenty of research on event planning so that you avoid making any mistake and let your event run smoothly.

Before the final date of the event, you should have at least two months for preparation. The more time you will have the better you will organize the event. There are so many preparations that you have to make like deciding the date and the venue, making the guest list, creating the budget, appoint services like catering, food, music, interior, flowers, lighting etc.

Whether it is an indoor event or outdoor, you have to discuss the decided date with the owner of the venue if it is available that day or not, at least one month before so that the place is booked in advance and if there is any need for changes, you make them.

Consider using event-planning tools on the computer that will make your job a lot easier for example budget analyzer, guideline sheets, meeting space calculators, registration forms, checklists etc. Besides that, many event-planning services provide free consultation or suggestions that can proof to be very beneficial for you.

Budget is also another aspect of event planning that you need to make accurately. Use budget analyzer software if you do not know how to make financial statements. All you have to do is add every expense and make sure that you did not miss out anything. Keep money in spare that become usable for unexpected expenses.

Besides these things, you have to make the right selection of the services that you are appointing. It is not necessary that you go after the expensive services they might have flaws. Hire those ones that you came to know from a trustworthy source so that there is no doubt about their work.

When you are done with all the above tasks then you can be sure that your event is organized well.…

Outdoor Entertaining and Outdoor Party Ideas

With the summer almost a wrap I thought I would share with you some outdoor party ideas you can do at home. What is great about entertaining outdoors is that it can be casual or formal, you set the tone. Plus in the west, we have summer-like weather most of the year making the outdoor entertaining season last a bit longer than other parts of the country.

First, some tips when considering outdoor entertaining, especially when hosting a party at home:

Look for any type of tripping hazard or potential ankle-turning backyard issue that needs fixing. Also, for events on your lawn, it is best to stop watering a few days in advance to create a hardened service.

If you plan on having a number of people over and it’s an evening affair, make sure that during the party, turn off as much of the house power as possible to avoid a power outage.

Also, be sure to give your neighbors a heads up that you are having a party at your house. Maybe even invite them to help ward off any late night calls to the police for noise or crowds.

Here are a few outdoor party ideas you can easily do to make your party stand out and not break the bank:

Instead of round tables, seat your guests at either one long table or square tables. This idea will create better conversation pockets and give your party a different look.

Arrange your guest seating ahead of time and mix it up a bit. If it is an outgoing group, break up the couples and make sure to seat people next to one another who have something in common. Place a conversation starter sentence on the back of their place card and tell everyone to use it to learn more about the person sitting next to them. Who knows, new friendships might blossom with your outdoor entertaining seating arrangement.

Use low centerpieces with different shaped containers. Square, round, triangle shaped or maybe a small flower piece in front of everyone’s seat.

Make lighting easy and your guests look great by placing candles all over, on the tables, in lanterns around the pool (if you have one) or hanging from trees. Also, you can now purchase those great LED votive candles that look real and you don’t have to worry about wind or a potential fire hazard.

If you have a pool, then use it as part of your decor by either floating a flower arrangement in it (be sure to use fishing line to tie it off at two ends to keep it centered) or shining a gobo light with something written like Happy Birthday.

Add a personal touch and instead of a goody bag, give your guests a small bag of muffins as a morning after gift.

Enjoy the last days of summer with your outdoor entertaining and until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, stylish, fun and economical for all!…

The Glamorous Concept of Wedding Planning in Films

Many kinds of Bollywood mainstream movies, Hollywood chic flicks and romantic comedies carry the concept of installing a grand wedding near the end of the film, or some sort of event planning that throughout the comic plot leads to a grand event near the end. This concept only adds to the fun bits of a movie, kind of glamorizing whatever story line they are working with, because the whole idea of a wedding is always related to pretty details, fancy dresses, and beautiful looking production design. There are many examples of such kinds of movies. A prominent one in Hollywood is called “The Wedding Planner”. It follows the life of a successful wedding planner who puts fancy weddings together for other people and has a long term goal of one day enjoying her own fairytale wedding. Another example is “The Monsoon Wedding” which is a film by Mira Nair that explores many concepts of family life, tragedy, and drama all happening in a wedding house and end with a grand wedding.

A recent Bollywood release called “Band, Baaja, Baraat” is also a romantic comedy about two lovers who have a wedding planning business and near the climax of the film turn against each other and run competing companies. This was yet another example of a typical love story taking place with a festive, eventful, wedding planning background. Two older Hollywood films “Father of the Bride” and “Father of the Bride 2” (the sequel) are also emotional stories about the pain a father goes through when his daughter is being wedded away. It comically explores the father’s attempt to become a partial wedding planner trying to subconsciously pull his daughter away from the idea of marrying her fiance.

Although the concept of wedding films has almost been over played in both Hollywood and Bollywood cinemas, it does not seem to be wearied out. I find a distinct reason behind this. There is a lot you can do with a storyline revolving around weddings, wedding planning, or even in general event planning. Not only does this kind of story line always promise a grandeur larger than life end to a movie where the event finally plays out, but also provides so many different types of conflicts that could be used by the film such as competing careers, sibling rivalries, parent and children relationships, other varieties of family dramas, and your basic chic flick variety of bridesmaids wars and love stories between the bridesmaid and the best man.…

Top 5 Tech Party Planning Tips for Smart Event Organizers

To all event organizers manually controlling and managing various event related elements for so long, the time has come to give it all these traditional processes a second thought. A number of tech-driven software and tools are now available in the market to automate the otherwise lengthy, time-consuming event related administrative tasks. Here’s a list of the top 5 tech party planning tips that you should glance through.

Online Registration Software

The current trends portray a shift to online registrations as opposed to traditional registrations that requires additional manpower and budgetary allocations. They can automate this task by using an online software. You can create multiple forms either or not in downloadable format plus add your company logo on the forms to retain its corporate identity. Online party registration form is accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world thus ensuring you get maximum participants on D-day.

Payment Management Application

PCI-compliant payment solution means organizers do not need to fret about delayed receipt of the registration fees. You may request attendees to send in their fees by using their credit cards or via other leading payment gateways like PayPal. You can track payment status per holiday party easily. Besides, online payment solution enables you to initiate refunds and charge-backs instantaneously.

Emailing Invitations

Instead of writing letters by hand why not take the help of an emailing service to deliver numerous emails within specified timelines. It is quite easy to formulate the content and design of an emailer online and edit them as well. You can send the mail to as many people you want and in the process save time that would otherwise go in writing hardcopy invitations. You don’t need to use paper to invite or remind friends to be present on time. This online service also ensures high response rate since emails get delivered faster and can be viewed anytime via any web enabled device.

Offering Special Discounts Online

You dream of a fully packed house on the event day; you can easily start offering special discounts to online social population out there. You can broaden your reach to lure social media users, website visitors, and blog readers to come and join your 2012 holiday party in large numbers.

Creation of Waitlists

You can create multiple waitlists per event to ensure a sell-out party/event. People on the waitlists will receive automatic notifications on the cancellation of a registration or any ticket booking. It is very convenient to setup waitlists online and all the more easier for interested people to keep a track of the number of empty seats!…

Boost Your Company Morale With an Events Organizer

If you are searching for a way to organize an event, especially a corporate event, it is necessary to have an expert around who has experience in the field. These types of services are essentially offered by expert event organizers.

A company should face a lot of unusual circumstances that help them to achieve their goals and uphold a high level of competition. If the company want to achieve its goals, then the company should think about one of its greatest assets ’employees’. The employees of a firm often signify the backbone or supporting crutch of a business and when they are strong the company can be a strong force.

The latter is also true since when workers are unhappy or do not have much belief the company frequently experiences in sales or productivity. This is why one of the objectives of any company, should contain taking care of the individuals they have selected to symbolize their company. This is most effectively achieved only when a company makes a decision to invest in an event rewarding and recognizing their employees.

In the past these types of events has been restricted to a small get together or a paid lunch with the staff members who are available at that time but this doesn’t not make any impact. Events that go the extra mile and well planned out allow employees to escape the working surroundings and attain a genuine enjoyment of the company’s efforts. When taking an event to this next level, it is essential to utilize an events planner. An events organizer represents an person who is well-known with event planning and can present an imminent into what a company needs to succeed in their events objectives.

A lot of companies try to stay away from the expense related to an events organizer by converting one of their workers into the events planner but this often results in costing them more money. This is because an inexperienced events planner will not have the buying power and best connections to give organization and savings for the company’s events. A expert events planner has extensive event planning experience and has long term relations in the right industries.

The professional services of an events organizer will allow your company to set an correct plan immediately from the beginning which leads to limited financial shocks in the future. They will also plan your event delicately to make certain that your key objectives are achieved.…

Top Locations For Large Office Parties

If the saying bigger is better holds any merit, these NYC venues must be the best. Throwing an office party for 200+ guests? Don’t want to have it in a standard hotel ballroom? If limited by a tight budget or faced with accommodating more than 2000 people, the venues below may not be the best way to go. But if you’re looking for a swanky spot to throw the next corporate bash, then check these out:

1. 230 Fifth. With an expansive rooftop garden and fully enclosed Penthouse space, 230 Fifth can accommodate events for up to 1200 guests. Breathtaking views of Manhattan form the backdrop for everything from a cocktail party to dinner to a formal reception. If unique is a key factor, this is one spot that shouldn’t be overlooked.

2. Pranna. Sleek, stylish, and definitely sophisticated, Pranna offers a beautiful event space for parties up to 1000. Each of the three levels offers a slightly different scene and feel, but they all work to create an air of awe. The menu is Asian-inspired fusion but there are plenty of options for everyone, so take a leap and look no further for an office party location that’s anything but run-of-the-mill.

3. Tao. Beautiful space that can fit anywhere from 300 to 1000 guests depending on the style of event. Food that leaves guests with something to talk about long after it’s been eaten. Fully-equipped DJ booth, flexible layout, audio-visual capabilities, and a service-oriented staff that helps pull it all together. Now you can’t ask for much more from a place than that, can you?

4. Puck Building. Considering the Puck Building has over 10,000 square feet and 20 foot ceilings, it’s safe to say this venue was made to throw dramatic parties. A favorite spot among the Fortune 500, the antique building can easily fit more than 1000 guests, accommodate audio-visual needs, and be set up for anything from a wine-tasting to a sit-down meal. It may not be the most cutting-edge venue, but it’s not an award-winning NY landmark for nothing.

5. Chelsea Piers (Bowling). With all the trendy, heel-wearing, dressed-to-impress hoopla in NYC, there has to be someone out there just looking to throw a fun event that makes people laugh, bond, and show off just a little (through a skill that doesn’t involve matching handbags to shoes). No list would be complete without at least considering a corporate event at Chelsea Piers. The Bowling facility has a private VIP event space decked out with a bar, plasma TV screens, and full catering menu. And if that’s too small a space, there’s always the option of just renting the whole thing out for a huge bowling bash. It’s an activity that’s sure to break the ice and loosen up the crowd.…

5 Tips for Successful Special Events Planning

Special events are those that may well not happen again, like a 75th birthday, the opening of a business, or the launching of a new product. These are also events that have a specific goal in mind like a contest or an awards banquet.

To ensure that events like these will be a success, you will need to make sure of several things:

First of all, strategize as much as and as early as possible. Be sure that the purpose of the event will be able to fulfill its goals while campaigning for the support of the people around you that will ensure its success, be it family, co-workers, politicians, or the business community.

Second, give yourself enough time to plan. While a small event like a formal tea for an author may take a short a time as three months to execute perfectly, larger affairs such as a ball may take up to a year to plan. Simply said, the more time you have, the easier it will be for you.

Third, don’t be ashamed to ask. While you may have the knowledge and the expertise needed to plan an event, there is always something that you can learn from someone else. A particularly sticky problem may need advice from an outside source, so don’t hesitate.

Fourth, your checklist is your event planning life-line. A checklist simply reminds you of all the tasks that need to be done and the time in which you need to do it. All the steps that you need to execute this event would be listed in chronological order.

Fifth, stick to your budget. While it’s a real bore to have to list down everything spent, it would be worse to overspend and not get reimbursed. Include all expenses and income on the budget, from the basic sum you received to out-of-pocket expenses, real and projected revenue, and real and projected expenses.…

What Is An Event Planner?

If you are unfamiliar with organising, hosting or even attending corporate events, trade shows, exhibitions, awards dinners and the like then your initial thought when you hear the term “event planner” is probably something along the lines of a party planner. To a certain extent, you’d be right, but there is far more to it than just arranging a bash.

Event planning is a serious profession and requires a certain skill set. The wide range of events that an event planner has to deal with through the course of his or her career ensures that they cannot simply be labelled a “party planner”.

The final result of an event planner’s work is often a great party or event, but they have to focus on the goal of the event and ensure that that goal is achieved. This is what sets them apart from someone who just organises a party. There has to be an aim and it has to be achieved through careful planning and attention to detail or the event itself is a waste of time.

Corporate events will have different goals (networking) to awards dinners (staff morale), which in turn will have a different goal to an exhibition (lead generation). A truly outstanding event planner will know the difference and work accordingly.

Some companies will have an internal event planning team or will leave it to their marketing department, while others will hire in a professional event planning company, of which there are many, all with their own particular specialiaties.

Event planners work long hours in order to make sure every little detail is taken care of for a variety of different events, including seminars, conferences, trade shows, executive retreats, incentive programs, golf events, conventions, and more.

Successful event planners will:

Have excellent verbal and written communication

Have outstanding organisational and time management abilities

Be able to manage a project from start to finish

Be able to multitask

Be able to work alone and in a team as required

Be computer literate, with good database management skills

Focus on the details and work to very tight deadlines

Remain calm under pressure

Be able to negotiate – with venues, caterers and all the services required

Be able to manage budgets

Have good people skills, able to manage staff

Have strong marketing and PR skills

Be able to manage relationships with all levels of staff and management

In addition to the above skills and abilities, a truly great event planner will have extensive experience and knowledge when it comes to:

Venues

Catering

Entertainment

Transportation

Accommodation

Conference Services

In addition, they will also have a database of other service providers like lighting, sound, electricians and a host of others!

Whatever event you’re planning, you should enlist the skills of a good event planner to ensure it goes smoothly. Because they will focus on all the organisational requirements, right down to every little detail, and will always bear in mind the goal of the event, it leaves you free to make sure that those you invite are well looked after and leave your event with exactly the right impression of you and your business.…

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Event Planner Services

It is common for a company to have a variety of events throughout the course of year. These are scheduled to recognize important occasions, to help honor sponsors, to reveal brands, or to acknowledge the hard work that the company’s associates place in their jobs every year.

Irrespective of the aim of your events, it’s vital that they run as smooth as possible to assist the honored guests feel appreciated and not burdened by the altering plans of poor event organization. It is the importance placed on the detail of the execution of these events that inspire many organizations to turn to the professional services of an experienced event planner. Professional planners place a lot of importance to the finer details of the execution and this makes many firms to hire them to organize the corporate events conducted by them.

Once you make use of these planner to run your corporate event you’ll find out that there are a number of benefits that are associated with cashing in on their planner services. The primary profit you’ll find out with a professional event planner is that you are using a person who person that has the expertise and the information needed to predict all the wants your event will need to be run successfully.

The second advantage you’ll discover with a professional planner is that you’re using a person who is closely acquainted with the event planning market, therefore permitting you to have an correct idea of the budget required for your event. A 3rd benefit that is associated with the use of an event planner is found with having an individual who has well-known resources in the planning industry helping you get the best value from your event at prices that you’d be unable to capture without an expert event organizer.

After all all of those positives will be flipped to negatives when you do not look for the professional services of an event organizer and instead look in-house towards the inexperience of an associate. An individual with no event organizer expertise can be uninformed of the dangers that often disclose themselves during the event planner process, resulting in negative aspects of your event.

Additionally, an inexperienced event organizer can not be aware of the numerous aspects included in the event planner process so opening the door for dangerous budget estimations and a high expense event. Finally, an inexperienced event organizer does not have any connections within the event planner industry that leaves them open to being fully charged for event services and unaware of any cash saving opportunities.…