Tips to Become a Corporate Event Planner

It’s important to understand what corporate event planning is before we offer any relevant tips.

In simple terms, corporate event planning is the process of organising events for a brand or business to achieve business goals. This includes events such as conferences, seminars, exhibitions, workshops and other corporate occasions. These are events that play a vital role in bringing people together to share knowledge and foster connections that in the end drive business growth.

What Do Corporate Event Planners Do?

A corporate event planner can work for a specific company, with an event agency or as a freelancer. But no matter their means of employment their tasks remain the same. Whether hosting a product launch for 300 people or an employee training for 15, their number one task is to ensure that the events run smoothly and meet the expectations of their clients.

Of course, duties and responsibilities will vary from company to company but generally an events planners main tasks include:

• Understanding the requirements of clients and planning the event agenda

• Creating and adhering to an event budget and timeframe

• Ensuring adherence to health and safety regulations

• Researching suppliers and contractors and negotiating favourable deals

• Providing clients or management with regular updates

• Marketing the event to prospective attendees

• Coordinating activities on the day of an event and implement back-up plans when necessary

• Performing post-event evaluation and documenting findings

• Managing post-event activities, such as the cleaning of venues and the payment of suppliers

• Attending community functions to network and identify potential opportunities

As you can see it’s important for an event planner to have excellent communication skills, as they need to actively listen and understand the needs of clients, suppliers and contractors. Communication on the day of an event between relevant parties is also crucial to ensure that the event and planned activities run smoothly.

How to Become a Corporate Event Planner

In order to become a corporate event planner, it’s important to learn to approach each event with an understanding of the key basic elements of event management: research, design, planning, coordination and evaluation. Although there are no fixed education requirements, some event planners hold a foundation degree, a higher national diploma or a degree in fields such as:

• Meeting and event management

• Business administration

• Public relations

• Communications

• Hospitality management

• Marketing

These fields would prove helpful in honing the right mindset, especially if you want to design exciting events. 

Excellent organisational skills are also necessary to juggle a multitude of tasks all while under pressure. The ability to remain calm under stressful circumstances is crucial for an event planner. An event planner needs to remain calm to be able to solve problems and think on their feet when something unexpected may occur.

A successful candidate within the corporate event planning industry typically needs to show some experience within their desired role, and their ability to host successful events. If you are a neophyte, starting out as an assistant or intern makes sense. This allows you to help manage paperwork, coordinate with vendors, and be responsible for other logistics. Serving as a corporate event planner’s assistant or intern can also give you great exposure to more advanced aspects of the job.

Volunteering for your community to help organise and run events can also lend itself to building a portfolio and, depending on the event, even invites valuable networking opportunities.

Most importantly it is crucial to always be learning, even after finding a role as a corporate event planner. Attending trade shows, and finding networking opportunities, assures that you don’t miss out on trends and possible big business opportunities. It’s important to be continuously learning in this field, to adapt to everything that comes your way.

The Financial Aspect: How Much Do Corporate Event Planners Make?

There are various salaries you could make as an event planner. There are several factors that could impact your event planner salary. Some of these factors relate to personal experience, whilst others are down to external reasons. The average annual salary for event planners according to specific job titles are:

• Event coordinator: £22,605

• Event manager: £28,987

• Event specialist: £27,579

• Special events manager: £31,043

• Director of events: £54,552

The average salary for a Corporate Events Manager is £39,921 per year in the United Kingdom while the average salary for an Event Planner is €49,930 in Barcelona, Spain. There is also potential for additional earnings (commissions, bonuses, etc.).

Tips for Success in the Corporate Event Planning World

Event managers must pay attention to the tiniest details since the event’s outcome directly impacts the company’s goals and brand image. Corporate event management is about making the most of every event by bringing people together in memorable ways on behalf of a corporation. And to make sure you can do this it’s important to attend conferences and trade shows. There’s nothing like experiencing an event to develop an understanding of what works well and what doesn’t. Attending events also helps you keep up to date on the latest technologies used within the corporate event planning world.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to pursue opportunities with agencies or venture into freelance work, you must possess dedication, a positive attitude, preparation, knowledge, and continuous learning to make it in the corporate event planning world. Pay close attention in developing these skills:

• Communication

• Organisation

• Working under pressure

• Problem solving

• Teamwork

• Professionalism

As in any corporate environment, there is a formality and professionalism that are expected. The field of corporate event planning offers a promising future for those who have the talent and determination to build the right skills and grow a network of satisfied clients. 

Corporate event planning can be a daunting, stressful profession but it is also extremely rewarding, exciting and, most of all, fun!

About Eventscase

The Eventscase platform helps event organisers manage corporate events, conferences, and trade shows, whether large, small, in-person, hybrid, or virtual. No technical skill is required at all. Anyone can create beautiful event websites, registrations, badges, perform check-ins, event apps, 1:1 meetings and more. Everything under the brand and domain of your company can be implemented with an Eventscase whitelabelled platform.

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