Events help you to connect with your customers. You might want to launch a new product, deliver some business advice, or gather people together to network and celebrate a milestone – whatever the aim, you’ll need some great ideas for your event planners to get their teeth into.
Small businesses can worry about putting on events – organisers know that costs mount up quickly. From venue hire to food and giveaways, it can be an expensive exercise. But there are ways of keeping your costs down and still putting on an event that achieves your goals.
Breakfast networking
Many people prefer to network in the morning – it focuses the mind and leaves the rest of the day free to get on with business. Your business can create a network of clients, suppliers and related businesses by running a breakfast business briefing on a regular basis.
Make the content interesting and useful to the people you want to invite, and make the event informal with plenty of opportunity for your guests to network. And, as every business event planner knows, breakfast is a cheap thing to provide – run the briefing at your office and buy in pastries, fruit, decent coffee and a choice of teas. Your costs will stay down and your guests will get real value from the event.
Webinars
If you have a varied or geographically diverse audience for your message, a webinar can help to get everyone together to learn, share or debate. Easy to set up and invite people to, this type of event allows you to reach a targeted audience that’s really interested in your message.
Businesses use this format when they need to get people together who work across multiple sites, and you can also use them to reach new audiences – giving training, for example, or teaching a whole course of new skills. In terms of event planning, management of webinar set-up, marketing and feedback collection is straightforward and cost-effective.
Panel sessions
Other businesses are always keen to learn from experts, so why not put a simple panel session together that will pull in the audience you’re looking for? If you host the events, managing the selection of other panellists from related companies, you’ll get priority billing, and you may even be able to share some of the costs.
For this event, all you need is a decent sized room, some refreshments and something for the audience to take away – a simple booklet or fact sheet might do. Your audience get real value for money by hearing from experts on a particular topic and you get the exposure and connections you’re looking for.
Party
A launch party, a birthday party – any type of celebration can be marked by a party. And you don’t have to go overboard with the costs in order to get a great result – all you need is a good idea and an interesting space. Big events planning companies can easily charge a fortune to help you plan a business party, but you can definitely do things well on a smaller budget. How? Make sure you’ve thought about your target audience for your product and tailor the event – including the venue – to that audience.
The time of day will affect the costs – a drinks reception launch at the end of the working day is cheaper than a big lunch party, for example. You might want entertainment at your event, and you can lower costs by paying students rather than hiring expensive bands – there are plenty of ways to put on a great party without breaking the bank.
If business events are – or are likely to be – important to your company, why not make the most of your budget by talking to virtual assistant event planners? You’ll save money by working with someone who has the skills and experience to know what works, to bargain with suppliers and to make sure your event goes to plan.
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