Video · Event Strategy · Company Conferences · Event Planning · ROI & Measurement
Mastering the Complexity of Corporate Events
Organising an international offsite isn't just about booking flights and hotels. It's about managing the complexity and ensuring every detail aligns with your business goals.
Key Takeaways
- Event planning involves managing multiple suppliers and logistics.
- Unexpected challenges, like venue availability, require strategic negotiation.
- Professional event management allows teams to focus on their core tasks.
Transcript
Here is what nobody warns you about. You have decided to fly your entire team abroad for an offside. Your executive team is excited. How hard can it be to book a venue and some flights? The reality is it's not just some flights and a hotel. Every piece will have its own supplier, contracts, and so many invoices. From the hotel, travel agent, entertainment, backdrop, branded t-shirts, you name it. You'll have to keep in mind those passports that expire for your team, and where they need the visas for the location, you will bring them to. And here's the blind spot. Everyone wants to plan an event. Almost nobody wants to execute one. Writing the run of show, it's easy. Running it, it's not. It's 7.20 in the morning, and the breakfast that I order for seven o'clock, it's not there. Someone is asking where are the meeting rooms for the C-suite to meet with their customers and prospects. And at the same time, someone is asking for their branded t-shirt because they couldn't make it to the brief yesterday, all at the same time. None of this was part of the run of show. Let me tell you a story. I was organizing an event, and I had the budget, the date, the location. Then a major conference took over the city. All hotels were fully booked. Those available, I couldn't afford them. My client is asleep. It's 11 p.m., London time, and I'm back to back on calls to find their venue. The CEO and the CFO approved the budget, and whatever I was to decide that night, it had to land within it. We found the hotel in the location my client wanted, and we negotiated hard. They wanted 100 rooms for one night. Most of the hotels will require two nights minimum. We got it done for one night. Once you sign the contract, you are liable for 80% of those rooms to be fulfilled. We negotiated with the hotel, the Thames, so we could give that in the list one week before the event, so my client didn't need to pay for empty rooms. So this is the difference between booking a hotel and risking an event