Corporate events management that actually does its job

How early should we start planning? Under 200 guests, 8-12 weeks is workable, but remember sourcing the venue is the showstopper, so plan as far out as possible. For 200-2,000 guests, plan 6-12 months out. For festivals or anything over 1,000 guests, start 9-12 months out. For conferences and association events: plan at least 12 months out, and if possible, booking for the subsequent event, another 12 months beyond this. Remember the closer to the date, the more you pay for venues and suppliers — it’s the biggest budget variable in event production. How much does a corporate event cost? It depends entirely on your style of event. I would turn this on its head and ask yourself: what kind of investment do you want to make in the delegates attending? For example: A European conference: you may need to budget £1,000 to £2,000+ per person as you would need to factor in travel and accommodation, transfers, dinners, entertainment etc A UK-based day delegate conference rate can be achieved between £50-150 depending on the venue A company fun day: a budget of £50 to £100 per person is more appropriate as the event has a volume of people A team build (depending on the activities): £75 to £200 per day. A client hosting day, for example, at a reputable shooting ground, expect to pay £300-£600 per guest Theme parties do vary, as you have the cost of the venue, the food, and then the theming and entertainment. Depending on location, you would probably need to budget £150 to £350 per guest. We can give you a directional figure on a 20-minute discovery call 01793 772999 Can you work alongside our in-house team? Yes. Interestingly, around 50% of our corporate event work supports a company's in-house team. We could be working on the entire project (reporting back to an individual or committee) or part of the project for that team. It's entirely down to what our client requests. Who are you generally working with inside a corporation? It does vary, but for companies that don't do a lot of events, we tend to be working with a PA, the comms team or the marketing team. With larger corporations, we tend to be working with the events team or an individual or committee within that team. What if something goes wrong on the day? Part of the planning process is to mitigate any risk and, in discussions with our clients, come up with a back-up plan including wet weather contingencies. Of course, you can never rely on every supplier, but that is where experience tells us to only pick suppliers who we have worked with in the past and are reliable. It's our job to vet them and check that they can deliver on time and on budget. Our team goes to great lengths to understand the logistics of an event. To risk assess and plan for all eventualities. How do you differ from other agencies? In our experience, most other agencies have specific knowledge of certain aspects of an event. For example, they are experts at audio visual and advertise event management services. Our skills lie in our end-to-end event management delivery. This is why we like working with clients who are looking for somebody to support their event from start to finish or to extend the reach of the in-house team to deliver a larger or complex event. Do you recommend the event company doing a site visit? Absolutely, in our experience it's essential that your event company or event provider conducts the site visit with you, be it in the UK or European destination. Your event planner will bring so much experience to this essential pre-planning visit. They will have an eye on not only the venue but the venue's internal team to support and deliver you a successful event. They will also look at the logistics of the site and all aspects of health and safety. At Planet Pursuits, we go one step further and we look at all the logistics, including transfers to and from airports, train stations, venues, entertainment, restaurants, etc. This is an essential part of the event planning.