Summer is Coming: 5 Tips to Consider When Hosting An Internal Corporate Event

With summer just around the corner, it’s about that time of year when companies shift their focus from sales strategies to employee appreciation in the form of a summer corporate event. While most summer internal events typically involve outdoor activities such as barbecues, picnics, or sports matches, today summer corporate events are more open-ended and can range from a 3-day offsite whitewater rafting trip to an afternoon carnival.

Before treating your entire company to a well-earned day of recreational fun with co-workers and family members, team leaders should first review some corporate event planning guidelines to ensure their event is a success from the initial concept to execution. Here’s a list of five tips to consider when planning your company’s summer corporate event:

Know the Goal

When organizing your company’s internal corporate event, it’s important to communicate with stakeholders early on about what they want the event to ultimately accomplish. In order to ensure everyone on your team is on the same page, it’s necessary to meet with stakeholders and all other essential members of your company beforehand to establish a clear-cut goal. What is the main purpose that your company-wide event hopes to achieve? Is it to build team morale, make any announcements, or set future goals? Some of the most standard objectives for internal corporate events that your stakeholders may suggest include:

• Bringing the company together to evaluate historical performance and determine future goals

• Collecting groundbreaking ideas from within the company

• Aligning departments to carry out daily business operations more efficiently

• Determining a “vision” or “purpose” for the company at large

No matter the objective, one of the best ways to attain your event’s goal is to put together a checklist and to consult it periodically throughout the planning stages and in the days leading up to the event.

Work With Department Heads

Communication is key when it comes to planning any company-wide event. Not only is it important to approach stakeholders, but team leaders will also benefit in the long run by consulting with department heads about the budget, timing, and overarching goal of your corporate summer event.

Utilizing every member of your team will guarantee that you’re made aware of any current ongoing components that may affect the success of your event. Is there an overabundance of new employee onboarding costs or any upcoming substantial projects that will seriously detract from your corporate event’s budget? When deciding upon the optimal date to host your corporate event, are there any extensive holidays coming up in the near future that will impact your options? Inviting department heads to take part in the dialogue will help your company avoid any foreseeable hiccups that could negatively influence the event and will encourage a collective corporate culture.

Be Inclusive

Most corporate events set out with the aim of completing team building exercises to improve the corporate climate and establish a greater bond between employers and employees. There’s no better way to accomplish such a task at your next company event than to regard inclusivity in every step of the planning stages.

Your corporation has a diverse range of talent, consisting individuals of all ages and backgrounds, which therefore needs to be taken into account when organizing an internal event. If your team lands on sports as the activity of choice for your corporate event, don’t forget to take the time to openly discuss all of the rules of the game and how it’s played, allowing all of your guests the opportunity to take part. If the event invites additional guests such as family members or significant others, accommodate them by renting a larger venue or by adjusting the program to be appropriate for all ages.

Celebrate the Team’s Success

While mapping out the strategic aspects of a corporate event is a crucial task, the heart of your company’s social event should encompass a personal touch. An event tailored to employee appreciation should acknowledge the recent achievements and highlights of the past calendar year.

One of the best ways to celebrate your team’s recent successes is to tailor an activation to a specific achievement. If your team doubled growth in the second quarter, why not rent a double vision photo booth? Let’s say your company was referenced on Jeopardy; consider incorporating trivia into your theme or feature it as a single activation. Including activities that are personalized to your brand and your team’s accomplishments will show how much you appreciate your employees’ hard work and will improve corporate culture.

While this may be an internal function, team leaders should also consider using branding to further customize the event, similar to how companies would approach external events. Offering your guests party favors or treats featuring the company logo will express further gratitude and identity your corporation as one that values their employees.

Timing is Everything

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding on the best date for your company’s social outing. Before picking a day and time for your event, work with company leaders and department heads to select a date that won’t unfavorably impact the workflow of the organization. Since a company-wide summer event is meant to give your employees a moment of relaxation from the stress of day-to-day operations, be sure to choose a time in between the delivery of big projects or important meetings with clients to give your employees the break they deserve.

Since corporate summer events center on providing an enjoyable experience for the whole team, the timing of your event should also take your co-workers’ calendar into account. Plan your engagement around the socialization norms of individual employees, such as upcoming religious holidays, graduations, and other significant family affairs. While of course not every occasion can be accounted for, it’s important to schedule the event early enough in advance to allow employees to plan their vacations accordingly.

[Originally produced for an event management company associated with Marketing Insider Group in May 2019]