Common Mistakes that Can Undo your Corporate Event

Planning a corporate event might seem straight forward but it can turn out to be a very daunting aware. It takes time, manpower, imagination, and exceptional organizational skills. Our Pittsburgh limo service specialists have decided to compile a list of some of the most common mistakes made by event organizers and how you can avoid falling into the same pitfalls. So if you were planning to host a corporate event any time soon, this post is for you.

The very first mistake most corporate event planners make is overlooking the transportation aspect. We recommend employing the services of a reputable concierge car service like our Pittsburgh event limousine service for your event’s transportation needs. Not only will this guarantee that your guests arrive and leave the venue at the prescribed time but it will also go a long way in making a positive impression of your organization even before the event is underway. Let’s have a look at some of the most common mistakes made by corporate event organizers and how you can avoid making the same.

Starting Late

The CDC should classify procrastination as a disease; it is the ultimate enemy to any form of progress or success and it is the number one mistake you want to avoid when it comes to planning your event. If you don’t start planning for your event early enough you can rest assured that you will have problems down the line. As soon as you have set a date and the budget has been allocated for the function, start making arrangements immediately. Secure a venue, send invites to potential guest speakers, contact your preferred transport provider, etc. Create a checklist of all necessary arrangements and begin checking them off one by one. This will guarantee that everything is in order well ahead of time, you don’t want to do that last minute dash or, even worse, realize that certain crucial aspects were not considered on the day of the function, which would be a disaster.

Failing to Competing Events

Have you ever had a noisy neighbor? As much as they are not in your space, what they do in their space can be very distracting and if you were planning to have guests over you would probably pick a day when you are certain they are not around, right? The same applies to corporate events. Before settling on a particular date, you need to be aware of all the events scheduled for that date. Events in your area or events related to your line of work. You want to pick a day when there are no competing events scheduled in order to maximize attention and attendance. Don’t feel too confident and schedule your corporate event on when a competing event is going down, you may be disappointed by the turnout, or worse, your corporation may be overshadowed and flop. Do your due diligence and ensure that all eyes will be on you and you alone on the day of your event.

Failing to Confirm Vendors

Did you know that a contract with a vendor is a legally binding contract? Contract vendors for the day of your event and this will guarantee that they don’t bail on you at the last minute. This gives you something, in writing, which holds them responsible for the services they agreed to provide you on the day of the function. Nonetheless, your contract will not feed your hungry guests should the vendor decide to bail anyway. For this reason, you should contact your vendors on a regular basis to confirm that they will deliver as agreed on the agreed-upon date. Confirm a week to the event as well as the day before the event, which should give you sufficient time to look for an alternative should anything arise. Remember, event vendors get booked for numerous events and they could easily forgo your event for what seems to be a more lucrative venture despite their contractual obligation.

Forgoing a Backup Plan

You may have the perfect plan in place, but things can change in an instance and for this reason, you should always have a contingency plan. This includes a contingency plan should the weather turn against you during an outdoor event, a contingency plan for vendors and caterers, for PA systems, for guest speakers, for parking space, for power outages, you name it. Consider all the specifics of your event and ensure that there is a plan in place should any of them fail to work out as you had planned. By having a contingency plan in place you can salvage an event that would seemingly have flopped due to an unexpected turn of events. They say to pray for the best, but prepare for the worst, and this is the kind of mentality you need to adopt when planning your corporate event.

Insufficient Help

Labor is one of the biggest costs when it comes to organizing an event and most event organizers will go above and beyond to minimize this cost. However, we will tell you now, it is better to have more helping hands than necessary on deck than to have less. Imagine this: guests waiting for their lunch but only having enough waiters to satisfactorily serve half the crowd; now the waiters are running around frantically, mixing up orders and now you’re frustrated and getting mad at them when all along you decided not to recruit more waiters in an attempt to cut costs. You get the picture. Having enough helping hands on the day of the event is essential in ensuring that everything runs smoothly and that the event scheduled is adhered to.

Additionally, when it comes to hiring staff for your corporate event, ensure that you are hiring experienced individuals in this type of function. Brief them on what is required of them because a negative encounter with one of your staff members will reflect poorly on your organization, even if they were only contracted for that specific event.