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The guest speaker during the Mobility Conference 2015

Whether you’re a relatively small business or part of a multinational organisation, one way to get everyone together is with corporate events. If the idea of an old school corporate event is enough to elicit despair and dread, you aren’t alone. That’s why revolutionising the way you look at corporate event planning can make all the difference.

Have upcoming product launches, or keen on making the most of the next trade show? Whether you’re bringing together employees from all over or hosting the best and brightest in your industry, thinking beyond the cliches is the best way to get everyone having fun. If you’re stuck for ideas on the best way to implement conferences and events, we’ve got the ideal solution.

Read on now to discover more about how to steer clear of the cliches for your upcoming event:

Understand your audience

What is a corporate event?

Corporate events cover a vast range of different activities. The types of corporate event can be any shape, size, and scale. From days out designed to engage staff and celebrate achievements to ice-breaking exercises and large-scale conferences. So, when it comes to planning the perfect event for your specific audience, it’s all the more challenging to pick the ideal mixture of venue, activities, and meetings for success.

Corporate events may have numerous different purposes. Integrating new employees or announcing product launches, enjoying milestone celebrations, or entertaining guests at trade shows. These differences allow employers to tailor their respective conferences, meetings, and rewards to their business’s specific needs and goals.

An essential part of creating different types of corporate event, whether it’s for internal staff or customers, too, is to know what you’re trying to achieve. By getting creative with itineraries and innovative with your scheduling, you can make that upcoming event all the more memorable and fun for your target audience. By considering the attendees first, it’s much easier to create a corporate event that ticks all the boxes and provides a fun, enjoyable time for all by considering the attendees first.

Football Beyond Borders

Cliches to avoid when staging a corporate event

Many of your staff and guests will go into a corporate event with an idea of what to expect. Depending on their past experiences, that may not be a good thing for their enthusiasm or morale. If you find your attendees looking less than enthused during your corporate conference, that’s a sure-fire sign you’ve missed two of the critical components of success: engagement and fun.

Here’s how to avoid a cliché event and pleasantly surprise your guests with something they might never have expected:

Skimping on set design and layout

For large-scale corporate events, it’s easy to look cheap when you cut back on the set design budget. We’ve all seen the cliché of one man with a microphone standing on an entirely dead, empty stage. Ensure everything is appropriately staged, and everyone is seated comfortably to see the stage to ensure corporate event success.

Set design doesn’t necessarily have to be in-your-face or over the top. It doesn’t have to cost thousands upon thousands and be a spectacle of light and colour. But what you do want is something that fits the theme of your event and brings attention in all the right ways. High-quality set design can help make that happen.

Using cheesy imagery and stock graphics

One way to quickly cheapen your event is to use stock imagery and graphics. And no, that’s not just if you happen to be throwing an event for a particularly artistic industry niche. Stock imagery can look out of place at the best of times, making your overall theme feel less put-together and professional unless it’s handled by a specialist graphic design team.

Even worse if your attendees have spotted the exact same picture and fonts at the event that they attended just last month. The more original you can be with your graphics, the more of an impact your theme will make on your guests. At the end of the day, cutting corners with your graphics is a good way to reduce the professionalism of your event as a whole.

QE Hall, London 2019

Going royalty-free on your music

Short jingles and inspirational guitar may sound like a great way to add some liveliness to your event. But beware of the pitfalls of royalty-free music. Much like stock graphics, it’s likely your audience will have heard that music over and over again. Royalty-free content is, by nature, available to everyone – and you don’t want to accidentally connect your event to something on the less professional side of the spectrum.

Music can be an excellent way to add some fun into the average event, but don’t be afraid to splash out on something that’s either unique to you or at least paid-for content. It’ll make your presentations feel far more polished, and the ambience of your event as a whole feels less like a visit to your local low-price supermarket.

Encouraging interaction in only one form

Not everyone will want to engage in what you’re offering in the same way – but that doesn’t mean that they should be left out. This is particularly important for hybrid events that are both online and in-person, where you have to keep two crowds engaged in what you’re saying or doing at the same time. Keeping everyone interested in what you’re saying means stepping up beyond the average audience question time.

One way to integrate interaction is using technology. Just about every eventgoer will have a smartphone, and those calling into a video conference will too. You can use smartphones for anything from quizzes to scheduling to asking questions, allowing for great interaction with a crowd across two different methods of communication.

How Can We Help You?

Avoid the stress of event planning, and contact your friendly team at Eclipse for a free consultation today. Anything is possible and we always go the extra mile to make your event one to be remembered.

Using inadequate or repurposed equipment

Whether you’re hosting an online conference or planning an event with a large audience, hardware failure can spell disaster. It’s such a cliché for corporate events to experience equipment failure that it’s practically expected at this point. If you want to subvert expectations, hiring or investing in quality equipment is one of the ways you can earn that professional badge of honour in the corporate events circuit.

As for the tech you choose, ensure that the people using it are fully clued into how everything works. Whether it’s some impromptu training with the hiring company or a run-through ahead of time, tech proficiency pays off to help you look far more professional. One great way to exceed expectations is by hiring a corporate events specialist to ensure everything is running as it should.

Hours of dry speeches without breaks

When you think of cliché corporate conferences and events, you likely have that creeping dread of sitting through hours of dull PowerPoints or listening to management talk all day long. Beating the cliché is easy – you can still get your points across for sales and plans while also providing engaging sessions and enjoyment in-between vital information.

A packed schedule with no breaks or time doing something else other than lunch is a recipe for boredom at the average corporate event. Whether you liven things up with entertainment or you encourage audience participation, you’ll want to get people actively involved in what you’re doing instead of passively absorbing information.

Garden Party

How Eclipse can help you in planning a unique corporate event

If you’re looking to avoid cliches and create an event that stands out, working with a professional event production company is the best way to ramp up that wow factor. Our specialist professionals at Eclipse works with you to design innovative events that reflect your brand and make corporate fun in all the right ways.

Whether you’re looking for extensive set design and building or support for virtual and hybrid events planning, our team has the expertise and knowledge to make your vision a reality. Our connections with some of the best venues across London helps us to create the ideal environments for meetings, conference events, celebrations, and everything in between. You can trust our event planning service to create something on-theme and unique from start to finish.

Contact Eclipse today to take your next event up a notch

Are you planning an upcoming event for your company? Whether it’s part of an industry trade show or a global online conference, skipping the cliches is key to success. Get in contact with us today to discover why our customers pick us to turn their ideas into a creative reality.

How Can We Help You?

Avoid the stress of event planning, and contact your friendly team at Eclipse for a free consultation today. Anything is possible and we always go the extra mile to make your event one to be remembered.