Much has been written about the differences in planning corporate and social events. Let‘s take look at corporate event management first. A corporate event manager interacts with industry executives, managers, CEO's etc - in essence, executives who manage large corporations and have years, if not decades of experience managing people and cross-functional teams.This presents a challenge as well as a tremendous opportunity to learn skills and gain experience from highly accomplished executives. The next key difference is that corporate events, in particular, conferences, trade shows and meetings are most likely recurring events – either annual, biennial or once every two or four years.
Once an event planner establishes oneself as a successful event manager for the event, chances are high that he/she will be the first choice when the time comes around to schedule the event again. Remember, that corporate events are a means to an end – the end is really to meet some business objective. The more confidence a corporate event customer has in an event planner's abilities to deliver results, the more they will tend to stay out of the way and empower the event planner to manage the event.
Here are some other elements of corporate event planning that are comparably different as well. Corporate budgets tend to be larger, flexible and more readily available. This is simply due to the fact that events are perceived as an investment by companies, and are intended to have a direct benefit in terms of productivity, brand image and attracting customers and suppliers. Of course, all event planners are just as accountable for managing the budget as with a social event, but the dynamics are very different. Also, remember that event expenses in most cases have a tax benefit – put simply, the expense for an event can be considered as one of the costs of running a business.
The catering menu for a corporate event is arguably a less stressful task, simply due to the variety of companies specializing in corporate catering. Establishing these types of relationships is also fairly easy and switching suppliers is always an option that is available at your discretion. Food and beverage are an essential element of a corporate event. Most corporate customers are satisfied with corporate events that can be serviced with a buffet-type menu as long as some basic requirements are met. There is plenty of leverage in using the same menu with minor variations at different events. Most corporate event managers have a list of standard menu items that they are well familiar with and their customers usually leave it to the discretion of the event manager.
In our next blog, we contrast this wit social event planners, and wedding planners in particular.