Corporate Event Planning|Event Management|Event Planner

Whether you are a planning a wedding, a birthday party, or even a convention there are some simple things to consider and implement that can drastically improve the quality of the event. Using the knowledge I have gained over the years I've put together a list of 10 tips that have helped in my pursuit for terrific events.

1. Always have a little bit more food than needed


2. If you don't hire an event planner at least have someone act as one. That person would be in charge of making sure the vendors are set up properly and can help keep everything running smoothly. Whether it's a friend or family member the organization will be appreciated.


3. If you hire a DJ be wary of the distance between his/her setup and your guests. The last thing you want is a blaring speaker deafening a guest.


4. Try to find a suitable venue and make sure it suits your particular needs. Consider things like the number of guests, whether or not it needs to be wheel chair accessible.


5. Consider trying to find package deals which some venues might offer.


6. Be wary of weather alerts before and the morning of the event. Nothing is worse than having an event washed out or worse.


7. Lists!, lists!, lists! I can't stress this enough. If you keep an up to date list the chances of anything being forgotten or going wrong are greatly reduced. Anytime I have an event or even just trying to accomplish a goal I create a to do list. If something doesn't get accomplished I roll it over to the next day. When planning an event it helps to not forget things like carded place holders for tables or napkins.


8. Maintain contact with people your vendors. When planning an event make sure to maintain contact with your DJ, caterer, limousine driver. Sometimes in the chaos of preparing for an event services or people you require to get the job done can get left behind.


9. Develop and stick to your event budget. The quality of an event does not depend on the dollar investment, rather it depends on effective event planning. There are easy ways to save money shop around a little and check event directories planning directories which will sometimes allow you to find inexpensive event related businesses.


10. And last but not least keep calm, cool, and collected. Event planning is a lot of work and it's easy to be overcome with stress. If your stress or exhausted you can't put together a great event and remember stress shows.

Amidst the various upcoming professions in the world today event management is among the most promising field offering opportunities to thousands of people every day. This area of study has emerged from the application of project management and involves the planning and execution of festivals, seminars, live shows, events and conferences etc.

According to a report a total of $500 billion is spent annually in organizing big and small events all over the world. This figure shows how vastly this industry has developed in the last 15 years.

For those of you who are looking for the best way to pursue an online career in this field. It is important that you have some feedback about how you can acquire an online degree in event management.

The article below discusses the various online degree programs available and provides you the names of the top accredited schools and colleges which offer the event management degree online.

Online Degree in Event Management Overview

There are three different online degree programs a student can seek which include the associate, bachelors and masters degree programs. Along with these you can also get online certification and courses.

Online Associate Degree Program

In order to be eligible to receive this degree program a student should have a high school diploma or GED certification. This program enhances the students with skills and over all understanding of the event management industry. The following courses are available in this degree program:

• Event Promotion


• Food & Beverage Management


• Essentials of Meeting, Conference & Planning

Online Bachelors Degree Program

The bachelor's degree program builds a deeper understanding inside the students and grants them administrative and leadership skills which help them in their future career in this field. Few of the schools also need students to complete a particular internship to qualify for this degree online degree program. The common courses included in this program are:

• Hospitality Law Course


• HR Management


• Convention & Meeting Course

Online Masters Degree Program

The masters program serves as the means for providing managerial ability to people. Students are provided with the theoretical and practical significance events hold and the way to handle them. The major areas of study in this online degree program are logistics, budgeting & management:

In order for you to pursue with this program it is important that you hold a bachelors degree in hand from any accredited school. Few institutes also require the student to have work experience in the event management industry. The important courses covered are:

• Strategic Management


• Organizational Behavior


• Entertainment Management

Online certificate in Event Management

In the certificate program students are provided with practical and theoretical experience which in turn gives them an upper hand throughout their career. Most institutes place students within event management companies to gain work experience or give them the responsibility to co繹rdinate an event for the institute itself which is then supervised by the faculty. The online courses that are included in the certificate program are:

• Catering


• Risk Management


• Marketing


• Finance Management

It is easy to assume that hiring an event planner can solve all the hassles of arranging a large-scale event in no time. However, the things are more difficult in reality. Many a times, organizations cannot afford to hire a planner and hence, they need to plan the entire program on their own. To help you plan a successful event, we have shared a few tips to make the process a straightforward and simple one.

Identify your target audience

Identifying and understanding your target audience will assist you to plan an event in the most effective way. Keep in mind, that audience for each program will be different. For example, the guests invited for informal occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries mostly include friends and family. However, for corporate parties, you have to make to attract specific business audience in relation to the event planned. It is important to remember that type of entertainment should be selected keeping in mind the age of the audience attending the program.

Understand the type of the event

Every event is different and so are their requirements. Hence, "one size fits all" motto will not be appropriate always. Determining the type of event is of vital importance in this connection. The planning process of a corporate event will be different from that of charity event or social event. However, there are some common elements, which you can incorporate irrespective of the type of event.

Schedule your events properly

Proper scheduling is the key to a successful and fruitful event. Bear in mind that formal programs are organized at a particular time of the year. For example, a Hawaiian party works much better in the summer. A proper schedule often helps in attracting large volumes audience to your event. Hence, determine the schedule and date of your affair carefully.

Determine Event location carefully

The venue contributes significantly to the success of your event. While selecting a venue, you need to consider several factors. It is essential to determine easy availability of accessibility in terms of transportation and affordable accommodation when selecting the venue. Apart from these, you must consider weather conditions, if your event proposes to have outdoor activities.

Reasons for hosting the event

Knowing the reasons for hosting an affair helps to plan it in the most effective way. Most of the events are arranged for three reasons- corporate entertainment, fundraising and social occasions. You have to determine category in which your program falls. It may seem like a basic question but defining the main purpose of the affair is key element to hosting a successful event.

You want to create a festive party for the end of the year as a thank you for your group of employees and managers who have helped to keep your business running for these methods. Now, the question is, how can you pull it all off? Perhaps your budget is not huge or you may not have any idea what the company employees would actually want to do. The following are a few tips to help you to plan a successful event that is not only a success but also incorporates your company's goals.

Establish Goals

What do you want this festive party to actually include? Here are a few things to think about.

1. Do you want your employees to receive awards for their stellar performance?

2. Are you hoping to just get everyone together to say thank you to them?

3. Are you using this as a sales or motivational event?

The fact is, you need to know what you plan to accomplish by hosting the event before you actually get started in the planning of it. You can do this quite easily through just knowing what your goals are and organizing them.

Get things in Place

There are several things that you have to get in place as soon as possible, to ensure that your group has all of the necessary resources and information available to them. Here are some plans to help you with this as well.

1. Pick a location. Try to do something that is outside the actual office setting.

2. Choose food for the event, since this is almost always included

3. Invest in music, decoration, and gifts, favors or awards for your staff if you plan to give them out.

Now that you have these items in place, there are a few things to think about outside of them. Most importantly, you want to choose to have a company Christmas party that will suit everyone's needs. So, consider a time and place that works for everyone. If you will host it after hours, ensure you and your staff can make it then, or host it during normal working hours so that everyone can get there. You also want to ensure that everyone is able to communicate, network and build relationships. You may want to make it somewhat of a team building exercise by incorporating games that force people to work together.

There are many aspects to planning a successful party for your work family. That is a good way to look at them, too, as a family. That way, your company Christmas party will be the ideal way to bring everyone together to celebrate or just to say thank you to them for all the hard work they do for your business throughout the year.

Company meetings have earned a notorious reputation for being boring and largely forgettable. The reason is simple: few are willing to think outside the box and take the kind of bold steps that are necessary to really make an impression and let employees have fun. Take your next outing to the next level with one of these creative and cost-effective ideas.

Sumo Suits

Encourage a little bit of friendly competition by involving pairs of co-workers in a friendly game of synthetic sumo. You can easily rent giant padded sumo suits, designed to be worn over virtually any clothing. Completely protected, your employees can then bounce around an arena until one is declared the winner.

Inflatable Jousting

This more competitive alternative to sumo suits offers you the opportunity to tap into your customer's competitive side. With these, you'll be fighting to actually unseat each other, and there's a much more defined win/loss structure than in something like sumo. Inflatable jousting can be a lot of fun, and like the suits it is completely safe because everything is padded and filled with air.

Unconventional Team Building

Traditional "team building" games and trust exercises have historically shown little ability to perform either function. Instead of relying on those, try something that will get your team working and thinking together without presenting the traditional kind of problems. One very good option is to have your employees solve an everyday problem that might confront your company, but mix together people from different departments or teams. Working with new people will provide fresh perspectives and encourage unity across the different sectors of your business.

Avoid Lectures - Use Demonstrations

Nothing is quite as boring as having someone talk at you with relatively little opportunity to interact. If you want your employees to learn about something new, present it in a way that lets them really get into it. The best way to manage that is by making something funny or something that really gets into their brain and makes them think. Demonstrations are great because they can combine these two elements alongside an opportunity to experience something hands-on. If your workers can try whatever it is they just learned and be guided by an expert, they're much more likely to remember it later on.

Make Sure To Build In Time For Fun

Even if the inflatable jousting described above seems like too much of a stretch for your next event, make sure it isn't all business. You want your team to come together as a team - that means they have to see each other as more than just people who do business together. They need to rely on each other, enjoy laughing with each other, and care about each other's success. That kind of caring grows more slowly when you're working on something that is strictly business related.

Large business conferences with delegates that come in from different parts of the globe as well as mass events, require the participation of many people and are definitely very difficult to organise. When organising an event such as this, you have to make sure that any event technology you have is indeed up to par so that everyone can enjoy the conference or the live event you are putting together.

Many big companies actually buy their own audio systems. This is very beneficial, especially if the company in question frequently organises small to medium conferences and live events. But buying and hiring your very own AV system can be a real hassle, especially if you do not have the techies to handle the nitty-gritty of the different aspects of event AV equipment handling.

There are a lot of plausible options out there. You can hire AV experts to do the installation for you during your events. This is especially a more plausible option for those once or twice a year big events, conferences and seminars. Doing it this way is just more cost-effective and convenient.

By now, you probably have a million questions in your mind for when it comes to hiring event AV equipment. Not to worry, because there are reliable AV systems hire companies almost everywhere you go that can cater for all your audio event planning needs.

This is how to go about selecting the right one:

Start searching the internet for AV hire companies in your area. Look for a company that has very flexible services. Make sure they not only cater to seminars and conferences but a myriad of live events that will suit the purposes of your business well.

Check the expertise of these companies to find out what sort of equipment they are capable of installing. Look for those with extensive knowledge not only of installation but also of troubleshooting. Find experts that are not only capable of handling sound systems but projectors and displays and control systems as well.

An all-in-one company should know your needs before you realise them and be really great to work with. They would not only provide excellent technical solutions but solve practical problems with furnishings and suchlike as well. If your company is lacking the right cabinets, podiums and furniture for the event, they can help provide that for you. These are needed for the right installation of sound systems.

Check their credentials and track record. Make sure they have catered for other live events in the past already and that they are flexible in the installation of the equipments in various places such as churches, training rooms, sports centres, hotels, restaurants, university venues and so on.

Once you have identified the right company to hire, find out if they can visit the venue first before installation so you can learn more about the systems required to make a sound system most effective in that area. Some reliable companies also offer their own equipments for hire. In the event that your equipment is not enough for the sound system, you can hire their equipment in the mean time.

Make sure their expertise extends to large events as well. This will ensure that they really know the ins and outs of large events.

A lot of companies do not like working with a bunch of techies who do not know how to speak in audio systems layman terms. If your company is one of those, make sure you hire event technology companies with technicians that are fun and easy to work with.

When it comes to large events, a good working relationship between the AV management team and the company throwing the event is crucial for success.

This also ensures that there will be no differences in opinion and there will be no problems of miscommunication. Get to know the various event technology experts today. Search for those companies that do not only offer audio systems but also event AV equipment handling and installation of your very own sound system.

These experts should foresee untoward events and make sure that these things do not happen on the day of the event.

In three words, these experts should be flexible, professional, and comprehensible.

While organizing an event, you need to match up with your event organizing staff and look into hundreds of functional details to ensure everything is in the right place. However, organizing one or multiple events across locations involves lots of stress and exhaustion. To avoid doing such stressful job, many organizations are now embracing user-friendly online event management software. This Cloud-based software can be used by anyone having an internet connection. Besides, you don't have to spend any additional dollars to buy or install any software, as this web-based solution appears to be generally compatible with PCs and Macs.

The best event managing solution should provide you with a rich set of tools including event registration, secure payments option, online calendars, communication tools, and others that are important for the smooth running of your business. Hence, you should check the availability of such tools before investing money on any such web-based solution. These simple yet powerful set of tools and modules also offer extremely high level of scalability. Thus, it is likely to cater to your business continuously, even as it expands over time.

As a social event organizer, you should always try to go for the solution that will actually save you precious time and money! Moreover, it is always good to use a cost-effective online solution instead of going for the conventional and, of course, costly manual process of creating and managing events and activities.

Another important point to keep in mind while buying an event administering service is that whether the service that you have opted for supports social media website connection or not. In other words, you should try to use an online event registration and management solution that offers quick connection to all popular social media websites. To summarize, you must ensure the software lets you easily create an event's page on Facebook and lets you promote all your events details on this social networking site. Besides, the solution should also enable you to instantly include your event and training/workshop details on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and such similar top-ranked social media platforms.

Your event planning and managing software should also provide you with the option of sending any program-related information directly on the Smartphone of your customers. The service should also enable you to easily send text messages, website links, as well as emails on all your target audience's mobile phone. It enables the receiver of your message to quickly search for information covering any of your events as well as browse through your registration or business website pages to finally attend your function.

Many planners still consider "strategic" to be synonymous with "long-term". Executives enjoy long term strategic planning because it's usually pure fantasy. Consultants love to do long term planning exercises because they make everyone feel good. Yet long planning horizons are the root cause of visions and strategies that are too motherhood to be successfully executed. According to Peter Wright of The Planning Group "when we take executive teams through an exercise to create a 2-3 year practical vision, they are visibly uneasy. If they commit to a vision of the company only 8-12 quarters away, real plans will need to be underway within a few months just to be on track."

This sense of urgency is the best reason to keep planning horizons short. Bridging the gap between strategy and execution is difficult, and a vision that is both practical and compelling is the best foundation. A vision should drive the articulation of an organization's most crucial priorities, its "strategic imperatives", as well as a solid plan for how to achieve those priorities. Without that short, practical vision, turning strategy into action is almost impossible.

There is one important caveat: strategic planning, in particular vision statements should never have a horizon that is too short. A vision for an organization that is only 12 months away, for example, is likely unrealistic, and can cause a sense of hopelessness. This can be just as damaging to successful execution as a vision that is too long.

There is a place for a very high level, longer term strategic vision for your firm, but don't let it be a substitute for a practical vision and strategy that will be the drivers of real action. Keep your business planning horizon between 2-3 years to create plans that are practical, compelling, and stand a fighting chance of execution.

Planning a company event can be a daunting task. It can also be a lot of fun. Setting a date. Creating the right theme. Inviting the guests. And whether you're planning an open house or a company picnic, never waste an opportunity to promote your brand.

Choosing a Theme Most companies plan several events every year. The winter holiday party. The summer bbq. An open house with the local chamber of commerce. A dinner with your top clients. Or a fund raising event for a local charity. Whatever the event may be, make sure you take some time to think about your goals, and create an event that will achieve your goals and please your guests. Choosing the right theme is a key element for a successful event.

Setting a Budget Just as important as picking a theme is deciding upon a budget. Can you achieve the theme with your desired budget? There are plenty of ways to achieve your goals on a tight budget. One of our most successful events every year has been the company bowling party. It's also an inexpensive event that brings our staff closer together every summer.

Branding the Event From the initial invitations to the parting gifts, you will have numerous opportunities to promote your theme and your brand along the way. Remember that everything you do or say is part of your brand, and conveys a message to your guests. What message do you want to convey? Think of fun ways to invite your guests. Carry the theme and your company brand throughout the event. Serving dinner or snacks? Use custom coasters, personalized napkins or promotional cups to display your theme proudly. And if it fits in the budget, make sure everyone leaves with a branded item to remember the event.

Company events can bring your staff together, earn you new clients, and reinforce your brand. And with a little planning, it can be an event to remember.

In this modern era, mostly women want to stay at home with their kids and also earn money. The best option for them is to generate income from home online. In this way, they can look after their family as well. Beginning a work from home business does not need you to be an internet expert, and best of all you get to select your working hours and do it from the relaxation of your home.

Even though, like any other business, it is vital you learn the basics of earning money online. Grasping of the basics and becoming a master at specific methods are little things you need to become conversant with past to gain any income from your internet business. There are various ways of generating income from home online:

繚 Affiliate Marketing
繚 Start an Ecommerce websites
繚 Sell tangible goods or products
繚 Google AdSense Program in which you get paid for referrals
繚 CPA Networks
繚 Writing articles for website owners
繚 Flipping Websites
繚 Flipping domains
繚 Pay per click
繚 Pay per sale
繚 Blogs Posting
繚 Forums Posting
繚 Start your own affiliate website to generate income from home online
繚 Website Marketing and Advertising
繚 Create your own members only site in which people pay a fee in order to become member
繚 Earn from Blogging
繚 Earn from eBay business
繚 Network Marketing helps in creating funds at home on the internet
繚 Buy a website in lower price and sell a website in higher price
繚 Generate Squidoo lenses
繚 Doing data entry online jobs
繚 Daycare facility provider
繚 Online training classes
繚 Develop your own event planning business
繚 You can design logos of various companies if you are designer
繚 You can develop websites if you have knowledge of web application development languages like PHP (Preprocessor hypertext PHP)
繚 You can give On page SEO services to various online clients
繚 You can do blog commenting, social book marking, and directory submission
繚 You can promote classified ads
繚 You can buy or selling inside the currency market in order to generate profit operating from home

To Sum up, there is a wide range of ways to generate income from home online. Working online gives comfort to your life and family as you can work anytime. Moreover, everyone can do work while sitting anywhere in the world as you are attached to unlimited amount of people via internet. Furthermore, It does not require any dressing up as you can do work practically in your pajamas. You can say internet gives feel free work with quick earning.

This guide is not intended to be a substitute for a carefully planned formal Business Continuity Management plan, but may assist in raising issues for consideration that might otherwise be overlooked in trying to continue the business.

1. Stakeholders: The expectation of clients/customers is that a business will have something in place to provide redundancy in the business functions and services provided to them. For the most part, they are not interested in the cause of a disruption: they are interested in how the business is going to continue to supply the service.

2. Objectives: It is important for an organisation to know its objectives to be able to determine those things that will have an impact on those objectives. In the case of a disaster / crisis, the only objective might be survival of the business.

3. Critical Functions: In developing a Business Continuity Management plan, it is necessary to conduct a business impact analysis to determine which functions of the business are critical to achieving the objectives of the organisation. By focusing on critical functions, the organisation's energy and resources will not be diverted to comparatively less important aspects.

4. Critical Vs Important: When considering the critical functions of a business, care has to be taken not to confuse critical with important. Many functions of a business will be important, but they may not be critical to the business achieving its objective. For example, the organisation may consider it important to provide staff with a canteen, but is it critical? Staff can bring their own lunches, or food can be outsourced in the short term.

5. Resources: To be able to maintain continuity during a significant event, the organisation will need to develop adequate resources. These resources include human resources in the form of sufficient numbers of staff, and appropriate staff. The resources may also include equipment such as heavy machinery or computers, necessary furniture, alternative accommodation etc.

6. Communication: In concentrating on taking steps to continue a business, it is all too easy to forget about communication. This communication could be with: staff in advising them of the organisations objectives and steps to recovery; or with the public in general in relevant circumstances.

7. Supply Chan: It may be the organisation is not directly affected by the disaster / crisis, but there could be an impact on the organisation's supply chain. It may be necessary to consider alternative suppliers - either immediately, or in the near future. Obviously, the supply chain aspect applies if the organisation is directly affected.

8. Leadership: Leadership is about being able to manage the stress levels and stay focused. Senior management need to be able to determine and establish priorities. Is about issuing unambiguous directives, which are a really interesting thing particularly in a crisis, and being able to monitor and assess results and responses.

9. Effective Coordination: Coordination is about knowing and using the resources. Those involved must be able to work as a team. It is necessary to have effective and timely communication, and be able to maintain situational awareness. It's about being able to understand what's going on. Being able to keep an eye on what's going on in each senior person's particular area.

10. Future Planning: It would be worthwhile keeping records of decisions / actions taken to address the disruption to provide guidance for the development of a formal Business Continuity Management plan after the business moves into recovery mode from the continuity phase. It may sound pessimistic, but if the business survives the disaster / crisis, the organisation should move to adopt sound business continuity management to improve resilience for the next event.

Businesses of all kinds use the Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to manage their customers and budget simultaneously. The software helps to seamlessly create and track the day-to-day administrative and accounting services. Now-a-days, many Salesforce CRM-using companies are taking the help of Cloud-based event management software to offer their customers the benefit of easy events registration and payment solutions from within the Salesforce platform.

The online event management software providers have designed a unique connector that can be used by the Salesforce organizations to quickly and most conveniently manage their event needs. For example, you will get an online registration solution to automate the process of managing the procedure of signing up attendees without the need to rent staff for the same. Then, there is the online payment software to allow you to accept money sent via credit cards, PayPal, and such other popular payment gateways.

The Salesforce Connector application enables automatic two-way seamless data integration between the event solution database and Salesforce CRM. The connector allows organizers to easily invite contacts and leads from their Salesforce CRM. Simultaneously, it automatically populates and updates Salesforce records with registration data for easy tracking and reporting by the event organizers from within the Salesforce platform.

Most of the online event management solution providers offer an AppExchange-certified Salesforce connector to allow automatic bi-directional synchronization of information. Now what is this AppExchange-certified connector?

AppExchange is the world's first marketplace for Cloud computing applications and services. When a connector gets approved by this marketplace, it becomes AppExchange certified. It means that the connector will now be displayed on AppExchange list and thousands of Salesforce.com customers can immediately access it. Thus, the value of your software and solutions increases tremendously once they get listed on the AppExchange.

Salesforce users can start using the connector to:

•Set up and manage web-based registration for meetings and conferences
•Create and manage online events without leaving the Salesforce interface
•Manage invitations, notifications, and reminders via the email marketing tool
•Automatically sync the leads, contacts, and campaigns in Salesforce
•Accept online payments via Salesforce CRM software

The AppExchange-certified Salesforce Connector helps event organizers simultaneously build organizational memory to improve customer relationship, collect feedback post event, as well as track the attendee participation history. The AppExchange-certified connector can help you create and manage the most successful seminars and trade shows. You can use the connector to arrange from simple to complex corporate parties, fundraisers, and similar other happenings in the days to come.

Managing events in traditional ways is passé. The new trending way is to hire professional Event managers. They will schedule, arrange and execute events ranging from birthdays, wedding parties to political rallies in an efficient and orderly fashion.

Going by dictionary meaning, it suggests the applying of managerial skills to the conceptualization, development and executing perfectly festivals, conferences or events. In India various firms are taking up this trade because it is very closely linked to promotion, marketing and bringing out creativity. This concept is relatively new in India but has a lot of scope in it to grow and prosper. The persons involved in this particular field must possess important skills like hard working nature, a lot of energy and zeal, a high level of flexibility, exceptional creativity, organizing and logistic specialty. They are actually involved in the process of brand building, promotion, advertising and marketing. It demands certain unorthodox qualities like giving attention to even little details, persistence, meeting deadlines, managing within the budget and most importantly keeping cool in case of any misfortune that might happen at the last minute in spite of the hard work and co-ordination involved.

Various professional courses are now available in different institutions for students if the choose to take up this trade as their career. If they choose so they can find themselves in event management consultancies, travel and hospital sectors, PR firms, media firms, advertising agencies, event budgeting and accounting corporations very soon in the near future. Amongst the most famous ones Event management in Ahmedabad is most sought after because of the happening nature of the events and the amount of exposure it gets through different media's like television, radio, newspapers or Internet. Various other cities are also pitching in, in order to gain much needed exposure like Ahmedabad, Pune, New-Delhi etc. among these Ahmedabad companies are really doing well because of their completely different cultural style, the way in which they handle events and the participation of locales in various events.

Event management corporations and firms doing Event management in Mumbai cater to a variety of field which includes the elite ones like international corporate events which include conferences, press meets, product launches etc and many public programs sponsored by various companies like grand openings, award ceremonies, road shows, rallies, film premieres, concerts, private parties, fashion shows etc.

This new trend is here to stay and flourish taking all those who are with it to new heights.