Hosting a corporate event can be a stressful process. From entertaining your guests to thanking them properly for joining your company gathering, we hope to make it a little easier with 6 tips for hosting the perfect corporate event and some bonus tips from this month’s spotlighted vendors.
1. Partner with other businesses
Whether it’s sponsorships, donations, or co-hosting, make it mutually beneficial for you, them, and your guests!
2. Determine the style of event
Do you want to have a classy cocktail party, themed event, or interactive workshops & team building? There are a handful of options for you to choose from. Choose what works best for your audience.
3. Let the style of the event drive the style of the menus
Hosting a cocktail party? We suggest passed hor d’oeuvres that are easy to enjoy with one hand, as the other will be occupied with cocktails, business cards, and handshakes.
Themed Event? Themed events can be a fun way to engage your guests. Get creative. Incorporate your theme into the decor, food, and beverages. Here is a list of uniquely themed bars to help you brainstorm! 10 Creative Themed Bars For Your Event
Company Picnic? Much like a themed event, a company picnic can dictate your food, beverage and activity offerings. Keep it simple with cold cuts and spiked lemonade. Offer fun activities from our favorite vendors like American Bocce – The experience that American Bocce Company offers is highly sociable and interactive. Their representatives are adept at explaining the ease of gameplay and conveying the basic skills of bocce so that everyone is eager and excited to participate. Whether a group is tight-knit or wide-ranging, big or small, sporty or not, they’ll all be involved and interacting through the game of bocce.
Southern Hoedown? Smoked BBQ by Sweet Baby Ray’s and a whiskey bar would be the perfect merriment to round out this theme!
Our partnering caterer, Paramount Events, offers a few additional suggestions:
When working with clients on a corporate event, the main goal is always to make sure that guests stay engaged throughout. Guests want to have a memorable, enjoyable experience – and that’s where Paramount Events can help. Their first recommendation is always to make the event more interactive through its food and drink.
For a cocktail event, Paramount recommends Portable Bar Carts. They are the new hit of 2016. Why have guests head to the bar when the bar can come to them? The version in the photo to the left offers whisky in a jiffy so guests can enjoy table side service for their manhattan, old fashioned and more.
One of their fabulous suggestions is their Soft Pretzel Bar. A focal point at any event, this Soft Pretzel Bar will instantly turn into a fun gathering place for guests to socialize. With all their house made pretzel varieties and dipping sauces, everyone gets their favorite combination.
Here are a few other suggestions from Paramount Events:
4. Publicly thank your guests for coming
Gratitude is tasteful. Before the event comes to a close, be sure to thank everyone for coming and give a shout out to your sponsors and donors for their support and continued partnership and your vendors for helping make the event a success.
5. Offer a door gift
Door Gifts are a great opportunity to utilize your sponsorships/donations and help promote their products and services.
6. One last thing…
Make sure to collect business cards at the door so that you can send a follow up “THANK YOU”.
For more information about hosting an event, contact us!