I’ve seen many a corporate event strategy hinder the event practically before it’s had chance to get off the ground, at the point the brief first takes shape. Here’s why it happens, despite a strong starting point…
Key stakeholders define why the event exists: you link this huge melting pot of wants and needs from all corners of the business, partners and commercially vital points of view to overall business priorities. And everybody agrees what success looks like.
So far so good! As your corporate event management partner, we are THRILLED to hear that this stage exists and it’s the building blocks for an event that doesn’t just feel good; but financially delivers for your business in measurable ways.
Then the brief moves through the organisation, teams, and email trails. And before you know it, it’s diluted under the scrutiny of various stakeholders with their own subjective criteria. Everyone thinks they know best and decisions are made without talking to us; the event experts.
The fact of the matter is this is where something crucial gets lost, because your event brief to us becomes logistics focused event factors, like:
- Venue options
- Delegate count
- Format
- Budget constraints
- Timelines
These are all essential elements, don’t get me wrong. And we are very much in the business of taking the all consuming event logistics off your desk leaving you to focus on the politically sensitive or commercially crucial elements of the event.
But they don’t define your brief. And for this reason, you lean on your event management company to solve all the logistical problems rather than using our expertise and intense passion for ANY business that we work with to bring a new perspective to your business ones by the time we’re brought on board.
On the other hand, sound event brief development together WITH your corporate event management agency helps keep proceedings on track. And this prevents your corporate event strategy – and ultimately your event itself – losing impact, or money, due to lack of direction and measurable objectives.
FYI Engagement IS NOT an Objective
Many briefs look polished at first glance. But I’ve seen my fair share of:
- Engage our workforce
- Align leadership
- Celebrate our culture
To be clear, these are well-intentioned. But they’re NOT outcomes; they’re too woolly and difficult to measure so no one knows how to get to the end result or work out if you achieved it or not.
This is where you risk having a brief that isn’t really a brief at all, because it doesn’t give any direction on objectives or include any measurability.
For these reasons, an unclear corporate event strategy lacking in what it aims to achieve often has the following adverse impact:
- Content becomes generic
- Decision-making lacks focus and choices become reactive – the event responds to the stakeholder who’s shouting the loudest
- Success can’t be measured against fluffy benchmarks
- Future budget becomes harder to justify as a result of all the above
So, yes, an event audience engagement strategy can be factored into your overall event strategy. But it isn’t the strategy in itself.
Which begs the question – What is?
Ask the Right Questions for Powerful Event Brief Development
The right questions characterise your brief and bring precision to it before you even start any venue searches, speaker shortlists, or creative concepts.
These questions should incorporate key objectives, such as:
- What do you want your audience to think, feel, and do differently after the event?
What does success look like in terms of –
- Feedback scores?
- Behavioural or cultural changes?
- Commercial outcomes?
- What’s the single most important message attendees must retain weeks later?
These answers must shape every decision during event brief development and every associated action moving forwards, as your corporate event strategy is brought to life.
Otherwise, even the most well-planned and delivered events struggle to return meaningful results without them. And accordingly, this is where early doors involvement of a leading B2B event agency in the UK is worth its weight in event gold.
Ignite Your Corporate Event Strategy with Early Agency Involvement
An experienced, senior-led event partner like Brightspace Events adds value early, at the point of definition, rather than salvaging what we can at the point of delivery.
This is because we act as a translator between corporate event strategy and execution, which means working with stakeholders to:
- Define clear, measurable event objectives linked to business outcomes
- Align internal teams before decisions are made
- Oversee event brief development to ultimately reflect intent without having to rely on assumptions
- Guide sustainable event planning from the outset, including both the format and location in terms of the carbon impact of corporate events
- Steer content, messaging, and speaker direction purposefully
- Evaluate venue options, including venue sourcing for UK and Europe corporate events, based on audience experience and environmental impact besides convenience
As a result, risk is reduced before it has chance to appear and start wreaking havoc. In addition, it also protects the most important thing of all – your reputation.
Treat Events Like the Business Tools They Are
Events deliver activity when they’re built on solid operational choices. Moreover, they deliver outcomes when they’re rooted in clear intent.
This difference positively impacts:
- Stakeholder confidence
- Audience engagement
- Measurable return
- Longer term value
And in today’s turbulent climate, the importance of event objectives and ROI measurement can’t be overstated.
“Having defined goals provides clear metrics that you can measure”, explain Cavendish Venues of London in their article How to Write a Good Event Brief Guide, “So you can measure performance from the start and highlight areas for improvement.”
At the end of the day, bringing in expert support from event brief development ensures you’re building on solid foundations rather than shifting sand.
This is infinitely preferable to correcting things later under pressure, when everything following has to work harder than it should, thanks to a flimsy brief. And your event can still miss the mark, ending up as just a costly event for the sake of an event.
Prescribe the Brief, Own the Outcome
At Brightspace Events, we live and breathe corporate event strategy so you don’t have to.
We’re a brilliant starting point when you’re looking for honest, reasoned answers to questions like:
- What makes a good event brief?
- How to measure event success?
- Why corporate events fail?
- When to hire an event management agency?
- How to improve audience engagement at events?
Get in touch to give your event a clear direction from the start. Together, we’ll design a brief to delivers results you can stand behind with pride.
What We Do
We deliver exceptional event experiences whilst protecting the planet’s resources and helping its people thrive. We save you time and support your business goals, with services including event management, delegate registration, exhibition stand design and build, event staffing, incentive programmes, hybrid event, AV and productions services, event safety.
Link to Our Website
https://brightspaceevents.co.uk/
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