Heading into 2024, you’re anticipating your company’s upcoming corporate conference. And since you’re in charge of coordinating this event, there’s a great deal of pressure on you to get every detail right.
Don’t sweat it – EMRG Media can be your guide. Check out these valuable insights for curating wildly successful corporate events in New York City. Whether you’re planning a stand-alone corporate event or company meeting or you’re putting together an industry conference or product launch, these suggestions will help you streamline every step and make you the hero of your corporate event.
1. Define Event Success and Goals First
Don’t jump in to start planning without first outlining the goal or mission of your corporate conference. Instead, get insights from company stakeholders about how they’d define a successful event. Use these event goals to inform every other planning detail, only making decisions that support these overarching goals. Also, choose goals that are:
- Realistic: Select objectives you can actually achieve with the conference.
- Measurable: Choose goals you can actually measure with data and post-event analytics.
- Layered: Create layers of goals from numbers of attendees, products sold, new leads generated, etc.
2. Outline the Budget and Bridge Expense Gaps
With your New York conference goals in mind, start building an outline of costs. Don’t restrict yourself due to budget constraints at this stage. Here, you’ll want to just assign expenses needed to facilitate every brilliant event detail it’s going to take to reach your event goals. So, include budget estimates for a NYC venue, event vendors, guest speakers, entertainment, and marketing. And with that total event budget estimate in mind, you can create event earning opportunities to bridge the financial gap between your actual budget and the ideal budget you’ve just outlined. Turn your corporate conference into a revenue generator with the following:
- Sponsorship opportunities
- Exhibitor or booth opportunities
- VIP ticket experiences
3. Build Personas for Your Corporate Event Audience
When you’re coordinating your company’s upcoming corporate conference, it’s essential that you spend some quality time analyzing and identifying your target audience of guests. Consider building personas that represent your core invite list so you can make subsequent decisions with their preferences and experiences in mind. Try to learn as much as you can about your event guests, including:
- Demographics
- Career experience
- Location
- Entertainment preferences
- Meal preferences
- Pain points your event can address
4. Choose Themes and Messaging That Resonate
Next up, you’ll start to venture into the designs, layouts, and decor for your corporate event. Choose a theme that represents your company’s mission but that also introduces fun and excitement. From there, you can also outline the messaging you’ll use throughout your event.
- Create official conference invitations.
- Design signage, swag, and event designs according to your theme.
- Choose a theme and use language that speaks to your target audience of guests.
5. Develop an Event Marketing Strategy
Take a deep dive into developing a strong event marketing strategy. This roadmap of outreach, both paid and organic, is how you’ll get the word out about your corporate conference. And it has to be enticing, offer value, and be consistent to work effectively. Consider creating a strategy for the following marketing channels to reach more attendees, sponsors, and supporters:
- Press releases
- Social media campaigns
- Hashtag strategy
- Dedicated Event app and website
- Email marketing
6. Select Vendors Who Can Bring Your Vision to Life
The conference vendor selection process is going to be tedious. And you’ll need to take a hands-on approach, including touring potential New York City venues and sampling menu options. Consider breaking your must-hires into groups to avoid overwhelming yourself.
- Presentations: Business leaders, keynote speakers, celebrity guests
- Entertainment: Music, artists, photo booths, activations, games
- Essentials: Venue, catering, photography, audiovisual
- Creative: Event designs, decors, and aesthetics
- Logistics: Event rentals, tents, registration
7. Delegate Event Logistics
Don’t try to execute your corporate conference planning all by yourself. Instead, look to bring in colleagues and collaborators who can help oversee and facilitate each detail. For example:
- Choose a dedicated individual to oversee conference registration.
- Dedicate someone to handle speakers and keynotes.
- Put someone in charge of software and digital engagement.
- Assign a team to manage conference-day logistics.
- Select someone to wrangle, confirm, and communicate with vendors.
- Pick a sales professional to work on landing sponsors, exhibitors, and supporters.
8. Hire EMRG Media for All Your Corporate Events
Make your company’s upcoming corporate conference an overwhelming success when you follow these insights as part of your event planning. And if it still seems overwhelming, you can always count on EMRG Media. Our team of professionals has decades of experience planning and executing incredible large-scale events and conferences. We can take the reins and work with you to meet every conference goal. Contact us today, and let’s start putting together a monumental success of an event for you in 2024!
