Has your company ever considered planning a large event or corporate program, but are too short-staffed and busy to do it properly?
Because of the economic slump, many companies had to downsize to stay afloat – and often times the event and meeting planning work forces took the hit. Now that the economy is recovering, companies are increasing their internal workload and offering employees travel rewards, company trips, and even tickets to sporting events they’re encouraged to bring customers to for some quality, one-on-one face time.
In this new climate, companies just like yours are planning more events internally with a drastically reduced staff.
The Problem and Solution of Not Enough Resources
While handling everything “in house” may seem like a smart use of your company’s resources, you’re actually setting up your team for failure.
No one knows more than you how much time and effort planning an event takes -– and this is falling into the laps of workers who are already stressed and working above their capacities. Under these conditions, your event may not receive the proper attention, which can lead to a less than stellar execution.
For example, you don’t want your planning team to resort to the same things you did the last several years – but it may be what they have to resort to when there’s a time and resources crunch. Your repeat attendees may find themselves bored and uninspired, which is a shame when the event is supposed to be something special! Not to mention the financial investment your company is making.
So what do you do when you need to plan events, meetings, or trips but don’t have the manpower to do it? You find the right expert and partner with them – especially if your company has recently downsized. It allows you to leave duties such as site selection, housing, registration, logistics, and event marketing to experienced planners. This frees up your staff to concentrate on what matters most to your event – the program content.
Choosing Your Outsourced Event Planners
Here’s what you should look for when you are going to hire outsourced event planners:
Knowledge: When you partner with a planning company that has knowledge and specializes in a specific area (like Grapes on the Vine Events for the California Wine country), they have relationships with businesses in that location like hotels, resorts, transportation, caterers, activity vendors, entertainment, etc. This spares your staff the trouble of having to research everything on their own time.
Experience: Look for a company who’s already done events for companies and groups similar to yours. This way it’s even easier for you both to sit back and do your respective jobs. Event management companies that specialize in companies the size of yours won’t be surprised by any change of plans or last-minute requests, because they have most likely seen it all and can handle any glitches that may occur.
Budget: You also want to look for professional event planners that are used to working with all budget sizes. This will ensure that they can manage to work within your budget while still meeting the goals and objectives of the event/meeting. Event management companies will also have lots of contacts within their industry, which will help reduce the cost or provide discounts that can be passed on to the client. These cost savings can even help offset the price of outsourcing all together! Also, many event planners can successfully manage cash flow, payments, and final statements so you aren’t bogged down in trivial details.
The best aspect about partnering with a knowledgeable and experienced company for your event planning is that you are free to continue figuring out other events and projects on your plate while your outsourced team is doing the main leg work. Your company and you can look forward to a well-planned event without all of the extra stress!
Here’s to great wine and unique events!
Myrna