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It is not uncommon for staffers to be thrown in charge of handling company meetings these days. Even if they have no professional experience with putting together one, many companies can not afford to outsource a professional planner and opt to put their own in charge of this type of event. If you are the chosen one or know someone that has be dubbed meeting planner than this is the blog post for you! As with putting together anything there are some basics for you to follow and can hopefully guide you while allowing you a chance to breathe and not get overwhelmed, at least that is our hope at the Photo Booth of the Stars.
Just for a moment think back to when you were learning grammar. Remember the 5 W’s?
- Who
- What
- Where
- Why
- When
The 5 W’s apply when starting your planning!
- Who?
Who is going to be attending the meeting? Who are your vendors going to be that you are collaborating with? Who can help?
When thinking in terms of planning a wedding – the ‘who’ is your guest list. This is a great place to start your planning! Figure out how many people you are going to be including so you can select an appropriate sized venue to hold them all. The same concept can be used with your company meeting or any event you are planning as well.
Your vendors are the obvious, venue, caterer, photo booth rental, florist, photographer, etc. Once you have an idea of how many people you want to attend you can figure out your venue, (this may not be the exact order when it comes to wedding planning.) Often times your venue will dictate a number of planning factors and if your dream wedding venue only holds 100 people, I think you will make arrangements to get that guest list from 120 down to 100 to accommodate your dream space to get hitched.
Helpers – we love you! Who has planned this event in the years past if it is an annual gathering. Are they still in house? If so do a happy dance, because now you can revert back to them and gain some knowledge and find out what worked well and what didn’t. If you do not have the luxury of speaking with the person previously in charge, find a co-worker that had attended that you can get a little insight from and go from there.
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- What?
What is the budget? Once the budget is determined you can then figure out what type of meeting you are planning for. Is this going to be an over the top meeting at a five star restaurant, or a morning pop in where you pick up the bagels and coffee on your way into the office?
What type of meeting or event is this going to be?
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- Where?
Once you have determined why you are having this meeting you should know the best place to host the meeting. If you are selling a client on a new product, than you may ideally want to take the client to the product to educate them and sell, sell, sell that product to them.
- Why?
Is your company meeting with 20 of your biggest purchasers and need to convince them to keep their business with you and you need to go all out to win them over or are you showing a client different photo booth strip options? The overall budget will highly determine how over the top this meeting will be but don’t forget, it doesn’t always take a bottomless budget to plan an event for everyone to enjoy either. Obviously whoever put you in charge of planning for your company feels you are creative and competent enough to pull it off, so get creative!
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- When?
This is a very key element to the formula! Many venues, caterers, and other vendors will offer great discounts during off-peak seasons. If your date is flexible keep this in mind when looking at venues so that you can get the best deal possible. That should make the boss happy!
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We hope these factors be your map and guide you through the initial planning stages.
Call our Chicago area Photo Booth of the Stars office today at 815-975-8762 and reserve your date!