Business events are some of the most effective tools that can help expand your company, increase overall sales or even improve teamwork among your employees. Planning and executing a high-quality event while on a budget may seem difficult, but there are a few ways to pull off a professional and memorable experience while remaining cost-efficient. Here are a few tips to help you plan a notable, cost-effective business event.
Determine Budget
With any sort of venture that requires investing money, pre-determining your budget is a great way to ensure that you don’t end up paying more than you planned. Hosting a business event can have costs adding up quickly. In order to avoid unnecessary expenses, it’s a good idea to set a maximum budget to be used for the event.
Select a Venue
When hosting a business event, the very first aspect that you will need to decide on is where you want to hold the event. Choosing a venue can also be responsible for one of the larger expenses, depending on the location. There are certain venues that specialize in corporate events, which can make the overall planning easier. There are also other venues that provide services such as in-house catering. Compared to paying for separate catering and services yourself, booking with such a location that focuses on business events can help cut down on costs such as food and amenities.
Use a Theme
While these tips may help you host a cost-effective business event, you still want to make sure that your attendees enjoy themselves. One method to provide a corporate event unlike any other is to use a professional event production service. This ensures a memorable experience for those in attendance. Hiring a company to help you create a theme for your corporate gathering, such as casino night or a masquerade ball, can create an indelible experience that your guests are sure to remember. While it might cost a little extra compared to doing it yourself, making your event as enjoyable as possible is a better investment for your business.
Food and Catering
If you select a venue that offers in-house catering, then the food expenses will already be covered, but sometimes, it might actually be more cost-effective to supply the catering yourself. Not all locations that provide food and drink are going to be less expensive than if you were to arrange the food yourself. With business events, the food doesn’t have to be over-the-top or gourmet and some small tricks can actually help you save money. For example, instead of an open bar, you can provide a line of cocktails to be served. And instead of full-blown entrées, you can serve finger foods, or hors d’oeuvre buffet.
Go Paperless, Use Technology
Most business events will use quite a bit of money on printing everything from brochures to pamphlets and more. Switching to technological alternatives will help you save on paper and ink. For instance, using an event app that the attendees can install on their phones will allow you to not only streamline your event but reduce overall costs as well.
Use Volunteers
Any organized event is going to require a lot of helping hands, and one way to save is to invest your time in a volunteer program. Volunteers will provide you the extra help and manpower you need. Just be sure to properly guide and supervise the volunteers to make sure that your event goes smoothly.