The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Event Planning Needs

Considerations

Millions of dollars are spent on corporate events each year. At the same time, millions of dollars are wasted each year due to improper planning. Events, with the proper planning, can be very powerful marketing and employee retention tools. If the event is low on attendance, boring, and does not have the proper messaging, it is a waste of time and money.

The task of planning an event should not be taken lightly. It should be viewed and managed as a project and linked to a campaign management program or plan. Measuring the success of an event can be as simple as identifying a sale, or in the case of an employee event, a savings in healthcare costs or an improved employee churn rate. Experienced, professional event planners know how to create, manage, and deploy an event that has ROI linked to it while saving your company money.

Let your Employees Do What They Are Hired to Do

Traditionally, event planning resides on the marketing side of a business. In some cases (and they are few and far between) there will be an event planner in the human resources department. Many times, this person is tied to an employee retention or satisfaction program. Unfortunately though, most of the time, event planning is given to someone within the organization that does not have event planning experience. A great example is a Sales Manager for a sales meeting, a Project Lead for a project kickoff event, or even an Executive Assistant for an executive outing. These people have regular jobs where their job description does not include “event planning”. It can become very daunting and stressful as planning a good event is time consuming, and in the end, everyone will have something to say about the success or failure of the final solution, you can bet on it.

Researching catering options, venues, entertainment, and every other piece of an event is a time consuming proposition. Put on top of that the time it takes to review and execute a contract and now you are starting to cut into a person’s everyday job. Many times, the “non event planning” employee will settle for a simple solution just to get the task out of the way. This can back fire, creating a boring event with low attendance and without the proper messaging.

The Secrets to a Good Event Are Golden

Knowing the alternative venues, the creative caterer, the cool gift solutions, unique themes and all of the other great event secrets comes with years of research and experience. Taking a good branded event and being able to match event vendors that compliment that brand is an art. A professional event planner should be able to turn your event idea into something your guests will remember for years.

Measuring the Success of Your Event

Professional event planners will work with you to create a metrics of your event goals. A pre- event session to determine goals, and a post-event session to measure goals is recommended for each major event or event program. Being able to prove business value will only help you get the budget you need for future events.

Where is The Money?

Professional event planning organizations have discounts based on negotiated, volume discount contracts. These discounts can equate to savings for your company. In addition, many event planning companies have the licenses they need to buy event products at wholesale prices. Once again, these savings can be passed on to their clients. In many cases, companies that have event planners on staff will work with professional planning organizations to take advantage of these cost savings.

A Good Event Planner Can Be Used as a Good Event Agent to Save Money

Here is the concept. An “event agent” is a “travel agent” for all sizes of corporate events. It is someone that knows what to do, where to do it, and who to do it with. There is really no difference. The travel agent guides you through your trip and gives you cost options to get where you are going. An event agent can guide you through your event. This concept is used by many organizations, because it is a cost savings. If set up properly, anyone within your organization can call the event planning coordinator, and the call goes directly to your “event agent” service provider. No one knows the planning and management is going on outside of your company’s walls.

Consider the value an event agent can provide by managing all of your facilities assets such as rooms, audio visual equipment and other meeting items. In addition, a good event agent will manage your registrations, negotiate catering contracts, and document procedures, assets and policies.

This solution is ideal for small to medium businesses that do not have a full time event planner on staff. And even if there is a budget for a full time planner, applying it to an “event agent” service can save your company money by taking advantage of the cost savings mentioned above.

Conclusion

Researching the cost of an external company for your corporate event planning is worth the time. There are many firms that will work on retainer, or even by the project. The savings will not only come from the discounted event vendor rates, and time savings for your existing employees, but also the return on the investment that a successful event can provide.