Organising an event: 7 steps to a successful corporate event

Organising an event isn’t witchcraft, but it is a craft. Between the first idea and the moment your guests head home happy, there are dozens of decisions that all have to dovetail. Plan in a structured way and you’ll spare yourself nasty surprises on the day of the event. This guide takes you through the entire process in seven steps – from defining the goal to the follow-up.

This structure works for almost any format: company celebration, staff party, Christmas party, summer party, company anniversary, employee event, conference or kick-off. The scale changes, but the logic stays the same.

Organising a corporate event: the essentials

When you organise a corporate event, first define the goal, format, target audience and number of guests, then plan the budget and timeline – with a buffer of around ten per cent and, for a larger corporate event, a lead time of three to six months. When choosing the venue and date, the practical details count alongside capacity and looks: loading dock, power supply, room acoustics and access times for setup and teardown. Technology belongs in the plan early on, because it determines power requirements, setup time and in some cases even the seating plan; a precise running order with a soundcheck and rehearsals makes for a calm event day. On the day itself, spare equipment and a plan B keep things on track, and a short evaluation afterwards shows what could go better next time.

Step 1: Define the goal and the framework

Before anything is booked, one question comes first: what should the event achieve? A staff celebration that strengthens team cohesion needs a different dramatic arc from a product presentation that is meant to win over clients. Everything else follows from the goal. So clarify these points early on:

• Occasion and format – celebration, conference, trade fair, show or hybrid?
• Target audience and number of guests – internal, clients, press; 30 or 800 people?
• Message – what should guests take away and remember?
• Success criteria – how will you measure afterwards whether it worked?

These four points are the foundation. Skip them and you’re planning blind.

Step 2: Budget and timeline

Two factors determine your room for manoeuvre: money and time. For the budget, it helps to make a rough split across the typical items – venue, catering, technology, staff, decoration and furnishings, programme or performers, marketing and a buffer of around ten per cent for the things that, as experience shows, crop up along the way.

For the timeline, planning backwards pays off: work back from the day of the event and set milestones. As a rough guide, allow a lead time of three to six months for a larger corporate event; for small formats, a few weeks are often enough. The more in demand the venue and service providers are – think Christmas season – the earlier you need to book.

Step 3: Venue and date

The date and the venue depend on each other. When choosing a venue, it’s not only capacity and looks that count, but also the awkward details that later decide how the setup goes:

• How high is the loading dock, and is there a goods lift?
• What power supply is available – is it enough for lighting, sound and catering at the same time?
• What are the room acoustics like – is there reverberation, are there obstructive pillars, is there usable ceiling height for rigging?
• When is there access for setup and teardown, and when does the room have to be cleared again?

Asking these questions early prevents a rude awakening on the day of the event, when the equipment doesn’t fit into the room or the power supply gives out.

Step 4: Technology and equipment

This is where it’s decided how professional an event comes across – and it’s the area we work in every day. Sound that makes every speech intelligible, lighting that steers mood and attention, and media technology that simply works. What exactly is needed depends on the format; we’ve broken down which technology supports which corporate format in our article Equipping corporate events professionally.

It’s important not to treat technology as the last box to tick on the list, but to factor it in early: it determines power requirements, setup time and in some cases even the seating plan. Whether you hire lighting and sound technology or bring in a full-service partner depends on how much you want to coordinate yourself. You’ll find our complete rental inventory in our rental shop (in German).

Step 5: Running order and direction

The running order – or run sheet, in industry jargon – is the script for the event: minute by minute, who does what and when, from the welcome through the speeches to the last item on the programme. It records when the lighting changes, who gets the microphone when, and when the catering opens. The more precise this plan, the calmer the day.

Rehearsals are part of this: a soundcheck, a lighting rehearsal and – for speeches or show acts – a dress rehearsal with everyone involved. Do this conscientiously and you won’t have any surprises in the evening.

Step 6: The day of the event

On the big day, the rule is: direction, not improvisation. A good team is in the hall early and is the last to leave. The decisive difference between an assured event and a chaotic one is being prepared for something to go wrong. Technology has bad days – which is why spare equipment, a second microphone and a rehearsed plan B are standard, not an optional extra.

Step 7: Follow-up

The end of one event is the start of the next. A short team debrief, feedback from guests and a comparison with the success criteria defined in step 1 show what could go better next time. This half-hour of evaluation is often worth more than the next hour spent researching decorations.

The most common mistakes

1. Starting too late – good venues and service providers are booked up early.
2. Thinking about technology too late – power, setup time and acoustics are regularly underestimated.
3. No buffer – neither in the budget nor in the timeline, and both almost always get overrun.
4. No plan B – a failure with no replacement quickly becomes awkward in front of an audience.
5. Losing sight of the goal – a pretty event that doesn’t get its message across is wasted budget.

From plan to stage – with photon

A well-organised event thrives on the concept and the technology fitting together. That’s exactly where we come in: we get involved in the thinking early, plan lighting, sound, stage and media technology so that they are coordinated with one another, and on the day of the event we’re right there on the floor with you. Our page on event planning shows how we go about it. For conferences and congresses, it’s worth taking a look at our conference technology and at the article Making sure every word gets across at conferences.

“An event isn’t won on the day itself, but in the weeks before it.”

Planning an event and want to know your technology is in safe hands? Talk to us.

Related: Event equipment hire – equipment and daily rates at a glance.

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