7 HUGE Events You’ll Land with Corporate Event Planner Courses
Corporate event planning is a growing and diverse industry! Often people will hear “corporate event” and think it can only apply to small, boring affairs that might not even need a planner. But, there are some huge events that you can be in charge of if you are equipped to handle them! The best way to prepare for this line of work is to become a certified corporate event planner. And trust us; you’re going to want to sign up for corporate event planner courses after you check out this amazing list of opportunities!
So let’s get to it! Read this list of some of the possible events you can take on…
1. Gala
Are you interested in planning a large upscale event? Galas are usually black-tie affairs with multi-course sit-down dinners. They are often done to celebrate and reward people – like the presentation of a service award – or to engage people with a company or brand. Not only do these events require you to handle catering, décor, and venue, they also involve speakers and entertainment! With these events ranging from 50 to upwards of10,000 people, these events will test your skills and make you a nice chunk of money in the process!
Galas are also a great event for letting your creative side run wild! More often than not they involve a theme! Themes can be simple and only shown through décor or they can be complex and seen in the lighting, music, food, and props! For example, if you’re having a Gala for a company that is having an awards ceremony for their work in the environmental industry, you can make sure the food is sustainable, leftovers are donated, transportation is only through electric vehicles, and so on. Of course, this all depends on your budget and your client’s interests, but if they’re looking to boost their brand reputation going all out might be exactly what they need!
2. Fundraisers
Charity fundraising events by corporations have been on the rise in recent years! Companies are looking for even more ways to give back and make their employees and customers happy. The non-profit industry is also heavily involved in doing balls, benefits, and other events to raise donations or awareness for various causes. These events can be enormous and with technology like live-streaming and social media, your event can be worldwide in real-time!
To effectively plan these large-scale events you’ll need to determine what the goals are and how you can help best achieve them. Finding sponsors, working on branding and marketing, and employee-satisfaction can all be part of this job!
3. Office Retreats
Retreats come in various sizes and are used to create an open dialogue and strategic plans for a company’s future. They can also be used for orientation or team building and are often held at least once a year. That means if you plan an amazing retreat one year, chances are you’ll be called the following year to plan it again! So, if a company has many small teams going away on retreats multiple times a year each year, the singular events might be smaller but the amount of work you’ll get is going to be HUGE!
Venue is a particularly important piece of an office retreat because the retreat should take people out of their day-to-day activities. If it is too close to home they might feel that separation, if it’s too far people might have a problem with travel. Again, find out your client’s goals and use your event planner training to evaluate the logistics of the retreat.
4. Corporate Holiday Parties
Most companies throw holiday parties for their employees as a way to show appreciation! It can be seen as a perk to increase employee retention and is a good way to bring employees closer together to make them more effective at communicating during work hours.
Big companies like Google have lots of money and throw giant lavish holiday parties that you could be planning! Food, music, décor, and atmosphere are usually focal points for these parties and annual parties mean you can have repeat clients! If you make their employees loyal to them, they will become loyal to you.
5. Conferences and Tradeshows
Conferences and tradeshows are very similar because they bring large groups of people together to discuss a topic or industry. The major difference is the guest list! Most trade shows are closed to the public while conferences are usually open to anyone that can purchase a ticket.
These events can have thousands of people in attendance and logistics can be tricky to manage. There usually are multiple spaces set up for different activities like a networking area, presentation stage, exhibit space, and more! Most conferences involve keynote speakers that also require special attention. You might also be in charge of finding and recruiting speakers to attend your event depending on your role in the planning. You don’t need to be an expert on a topic or industry to run this type of event. But, you definitely need to be an expert in corporate event planning!
6. University/College Alumni Events
Post-secondary schools often hold large-scale events to engage alumni. Usually, the aim is to secure donations for the school or encourage mentorship with current students! These events can be themed around different interests like causes, clubs or sports and can vary in size – though they are often rather large.
These schools often count on their Alumni and take these events very seriously. Researching the school before meeting is a great strategy to impress these clients and better understand their goals! Usually, spaces on the campus are used to hold events when it is the off-season for schools. But, these events do happen all year long. Getting involved with a post-secondary school can lead to a very lucrative career!
7. Product Launch
Last on our list is a product launch. These are large events to create awareness for new products and brands! Having a background in marketing will be a huge asset in planning a product launch to help create buzz and lead to sales. If you don’t have this background, a corporate event planning course will equip you with that marketing knowledge so you know who to invite, how to get the word out, how to pick the best theme, and what venue to choose.
Product launches are all about creating an image and these launches are often done on a very large scale. So get to studying! And set your eye on companies like Apple and Nike because they might be your future clients!
These are just some of the enormous events that you could plan with a corporate event planner course. There are opportunities that are much smaller, but if you thought the only corporate event was a Skype meeting then we hope we have opened your eyes! This is a growing and lucrative business so what are you waiting for?
Did we miss any big corporate events that you would like to plan? Let us know in a comment below!
