Amidst coordinating the color schemes and scheduling the entertainers, it is easy to lose sight of the goals of a corporate event. Yes, you want everyone to have fun and make lasting memories, but if that’s the only thing that comes from your event, it likely wasn’t a successful one.
Events should have clearly defined goals that benefit all attendees – and successful events achieve those goals. If you are having trouble setting and reaching goals for your events, this guide is for you.
SMART Goals
Setting a goal for your corporate event isn’t especially different from setting any other type of goal. Whether you are talking about your personal health, your business growth, or your corporate event, you should be eager to create a goal that you can and will complete. Fortunately, there is a simple system to help you generate goals that are easier to adhere to: the SMART method.
SMART is an acronym containing the best guidelines for goal-setting:
- S: Specific – Your goals should clearly define your intentions.
- M: Measurable – Your goals should include numbers that allow and encourage you to track your progress toward success.
- A: Achievable – Your goals should be realistic while still challenging you.
- R: Relevant – Your goals should be important to you and align appropriately with your other business goals.
- T: Time-bound – Your goals have a deadline that instills a practical sense of urgency.
Often, SMART goals help individuals devise New Year’s resolutions or businesses set short- and long-term objectives, but you can use this method for setting goals for your events, as well. By using the SMART method, you should be able to change your goal from “I want to organize a successful event” to “I want to organize a fundraising event that generates $100,000 for my startup by September 2018.”
Guiding Questions
If you know you want an event but you are struggling to explain what you want your event to achieve, you might need a push or two to get your goal-setting juices flowing. Here are a few questions to get you thinking about the objectives of your event:
- Why are you having this event? Events are too expensive and time-consuming to organize for no reason. Maybe it’s an anniversary, a new product launch, a client appreciation, or something else that made you want to get people together.
- What do you want attendees to leave with? This should always include positive feelings toward your company, but you might also want your guests to leave with new products, swag, and other tangible and intangible options.
- How will you measure your success? If your business is closely connected to social media, you might pay attention to increases in followers, shares, and likes; you might also track your money coming in, your engagement with products, and other aspects depending on how you ultimately define event success.
These questions should work in tandem with the SMART method to help you generate useful goals. However, if you are still struggling to understand your event goals, you might seek help from a professional event production team. Not only do professional event planners have many more questions than these to help guide your event in the right direction, but they have additional tools and techniques for achieving event success.
Event Strategies
Once you have your goals established, it is time to devise strategies to ensure success. If you have opted to use the services of an event production team, you likely don’t need to stress much about this step; your event planners will work with you to develop a foolproof event strategy.
However, if you are trying to go at it alone, you should remember to plan for two perspectives: yours (or, more accurately, your business’) and your attendees’. Sometimes, what is right for the guest is not right for the business and vice versa. Balancing the needs and wants of both participants is vital to planning a successful event.
Success Evaluation
Your work isn’t over after your event concludes. At this point, you need to evaluate the success of your event to determine whether you’ve achieved your goals. If you haven’t already, you should begin measuring the impact of your event according to your previous guidelines. Then, you should analyze the data you obtain to better understand what your event accomplished. Depending on your industry, the event, and your goals, you might not know whether your event was a success for several months. Fortunately, if you set the right goals and enacted the right strategies, you should see the success you defined.
