A corporate event is a chance to send your company message out to the world. It may signal that you are ready to do business. It can galvanize your employees, engage new customers, reward your existing clients, launch new products and grow your bottom line.

Your company message may say  “hire us,” “buy from us,” “thank you,” “you are awesome,” and “we are worthy of you.”

If corporate events are not done correctly, however, the company message could be “leave us alone,” “you still here?” “we’re better than you,” and “your job is hanging by a thread; by the way, so is the company.”

The fact is, no matter how big or small your corporate event is, it is actually the forum for a very important conversation you are having with your target audience. Before you make any decisions around your event, you need to be very clear on who you are trying to reach and the company messages you want to leave with them.

A good Corporate Events company can help you through this process but it’s something you can begin on your own as well. A productive place to start is by determining who you want your corporate event to engage.  Who your event is for will determine how you communicate with them through your event, both directly (demonstrations, shows, announcements, speeches, invitations, brochures, website, etc.) and through subtle choices like colours, themes, staging and food, if that is part of your equation.

The questions you need to answer depend on the circumstances but, at the very least, you need to think through the basics on the members of your target audience, including:

• How old are they?

• What do they do?

• How familiar are they with your company, product or service?

• How far have they had to travel?

• What is their income bracket?

• How educated are they?

• Are they predominantly female? Male?

• And what time will they be eating?

When you have a good sense of who you are talking to, you need to think through what you would like them to do as the result of your corporate event. In other words, what are the goals of your event and what is the company message?

Far too many businesses undertake corporate events for vague reasons: they’ve done them before, their competitors are doing them, they feel they should do them…. Unspecific reasons lead to unspecific results. Successful corporate events come from setting specific goals you want your target audience to do, feel or think.

• Are you rallying existing customers around a new product or service?

• Are you winning back clients who have left you for competitors?

• Are you establishing your position in the marketplace?

• Are you mitigating the delivery of bad news to stakeholders?

• Are you helping your workforce redefine itself after restructuring or downsizing?

The more you understand about your audience, the more successful your event is likely to be.

Once you know who you are talking to and what the goal of your event is, you need to think about what your company message(s) will be to your target audience through your corporate event.

An event with a message that says “your business will improve by joining our exclusive club” looks very different than “we have reinvented ourselves to be immediately relevant to you and responsive to your needs” which looks different again to “you are the staff that are the lifeblood of our company and we value you.”

Your company message will be as unique as you are and the people you are trying to connect with. No matter what else is going on, corporate events are about connection and about people.  Everything you do at your corporate event sends a subtle message, from the colour of the drapings to the type and quantity of food (if any) you serve.

The point is to make all of your corporate events work for you and not against you. And yes they can work against you. With advance thought, clear objectives and an understanding about who you are targeting and what you want to say to them, however, your corporate events can be an effective tool to for your company message to connect more resonantly with those you need to reach.