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There are many ways an organization can benefit from conducting a corporate event.  Not only can it boost morale and increase productivity, a well organized corporate event can also engender a sense of belonging and loyalty among the rank and file.

Whether you’re going to organize the business convention or other event, or hire an outside vendor to plan it for you, there are many details which need to be considered.  The following contains useful information on how to make the most of your event.  Read the full article here.

Before you decide to conduct a corporate event, you need to decide upon a few things.

• List out your goals. You should have a clear idea of what you want
to achieve by conducting the event. You have to decide whether you want
to enhance skills like team building, problem solving, leadership
qualities or if you just want your team to have some fun and unwind
from the daily crunch.

If you do decide to manage the event internally, it is important to have clearly defined goals.  It can be very easy to lose sight of them in the planning process.  It would also be a good idea to have a facilitator to ensure that your corporate events run smoothly.

corporate events, event planning, event management

If you are planning an event, you need FOOD, don’t you?  Well, how much food and where it comes from are line items on your Event Planning Checklist, so the following Event Catering Directory sites should come in handy in locating a local event caterer:

www.localcatering.com/onlinedirectory.aspx

www.cateringfoodservice.com

www.eventective.com/USA/Caterers.html

catering-services-directory.com

www.findqualitycaterers.com/catering-directory.asp

You can estimate you will need about 1-1.5 pounds of food per person, but this depends on a lot of factors, like the type of event you are holding, what time of day the event takes place, etc.

We all love Hors d’oeuvres, but these are the hardest items to estimate so find an event caterer that seems to have this calculation down pat.

There are a ton of Event Planning sites (here is a list of top Event Planning Websites), and a lot of them have gone belly-up or have been bought out. Some of them offer event tickets and managing the process as part of the slew of services they provide.

However, a couple online event planning sites that include event tickets as part of their offerings have a model whereby they take a percentage of the ticket sales. This model seems to be working. Evidence of this is in the venture funding these sites have attracted according to the story below.

This means event tickets can be still be done online along with all of the other event planning and marketing functions, but it looks like paying for this part of the service is the only viable way for this service to continue to be offered.

For the full story:

Event ticketing companies Amiando and Eventbrite get European backing

If you want to reduce your impact on the environment and go green the next time you plan a meeting or other event, here is a great article that has 10 Easy Steps for eco-friendly meetings and includes ideas like ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’, ‘Choose a Local Destination’, etc.

Read the full article here:

Green Planning

You would be surprised how easy it is to plan a meeting while taking into consideration the impact it will have on the environment. Follow the steps in the above guide and Go Green!

The next time you plan a business event, whether a formal dinner, seminar, conference or award recognition ceremony, the following corporate invitation websites can help you find the best style of invitation to fit the occasion. These sites cater specifically to business invitations, or have a section dedicated to corporate event invitations, whereas most of the other sites online are for wedding and other social occasion invitations.

I compiled this list so you don’t have to go hunting around for corporate function invitations the next time you need invitations for your event:

www.myexpression.com

www.paperandmore.com

www.irisb.com

www.paperstyle.com

www.invitationbox.com

www.finestationery.com

www.invitationconsultants.com

www.ballisticblue.com

www.thepartystartshere.com

www.announcingit.com

There are other corporate invitation websites other than those listed here, but these seem to offer the best user experience and professional look and feel.

If you’ve thought about becoming an event planner, this guide is sure to help.  As you go through each of these points, think about whether you have the personality, organization skills, creativity, and attention to detail that a success event planner needs to have:

10 Tips On How To Be An Excellent Event Planner

There are lots of perks to being in the event planning business - find out if you have what it takes but reading the above article.

When busy on site with managing an event, sometimes the little things like ‘eating’ get in the way - here’s a solution to the problem of what an event planner eats.

The Meeting Planner Diet

Personally, I find the Warrior Diet works for me. A quick piece of fruit, coffee, or tea during the day and a big meal at night fits my schedule and is ideal for an event planner and event manager.

Event managers and event coordinators need to be responsible for a lot of details in order to create and manage a successful event. When you hire an Event Manager, what do you look for? True, attention to detail can make or break your event, but since you are outsourcing all of this to a professional, why not choose someone that also provides great customer service and is flexible to your needs, as well as understanding and accessible?

Here’s a great article on what makes a Successful Event Manager

Using the guidelines and recommendations found there, you should be able to choose an Event Manager that fulfills all of your needs and executes flawlessly.

The following list should save you time locating the type of event planning and event management tool you need for your upcoming event. Most of the sites listed here are not entire front-to-back solutions, in that they may lack some essential functionality that you require. Some are simply directories of events or event venues, but event planning and management features are soon-to-be released, so they are listed here.

These are listed in no particular order:

1) http://www.eventwax.com

A free, online comprehensive event planning and management site. Allows you to create an event and will host a website for your event (you can custom format with your own CSS), or you can link to your own site, lots of ticket pricing options (like Early Bird, Group Discounted, etc), integrated with PayPal for ticket purchases, creates mailing lists and email templates for invitations to be sent out and handles RSVP replies. Includes an RSS feed to track event activity and XML export of your data.

2) http://www.eventspace.com

A free, online event space directory as well as an event service provider directory. Also allows for creating and sending invites and finding upcoming events. More features to be released.

3) http://www.pingg.com

A free, online event management site with outstanding invitation design features, invitation sending, RSVP management, guest list management, photo sharing, reporting, but lacks the ability to handle processing payments for tickets at this time (coming soon).

4) http://www.eventbrite.com

A comprehensive, mostly free online site for planning, managing and marketing your event. Processing fees per ticket sale are charged, but more ways to pay for tickets are available than the other sites offer. Also, lots of event marketing functionality built in that other sites lack.

5) http://eventsbot.com

A mostly free online event management site. Allows for customization of hosted event webpage only with Premium account option. Handles event ticketing and emailing invites, but lacks robust invitation creation features. Has some event promotion features.

6) http://www.lovento.com/en/

Mostly a multi-national event guide and event venue directory and review site. Publishing of your own events coming soon.

7) http://purpletrail.com

A free, online event management solution that has unique features like a desktop application to download so you can stay on top of invites and other communication, chat features and event consensus features so attendees can all agree on a place and time, robust invitation design and sending features, but lacks ticket purchasing and other more business-oriented features.

http://www.activeciti.com

A free, online event management site more for social events than business events. No invitation creation or ticket sales functionality, but has basic event registration and calendar features.

9) http://www.ipartee.com

A free, online event management site for sending invites and tracking guests but lacks robust invitation creation and business-oriented features like ticket sales. Unique in that an event venue owner can publish and promote upcoming event details and gather feedback from attendees.

So, the next time you have an event to plan and management, check out some of the above sites to see if your job can become easier by utilizing one or more of these free tools.