How To Make A Christmas Corporate Event Work For The Company

By Cara Logan


It is likely that most organisations could benefit from some additional team building time, other than that spent purely in a professional environment. With Christmas fast approaching, what better time is there to encourage team bonding with a corporate event to thank your staff for all of their hard work? Additionally, this will allow your team the perfect social event in which they can get to know each other outside of the office.

Christmas corporate events are a great opportunity to promote team building. Though it is worth keeping in mind the amount of time and money that are invested in order to create a successful event. Corporate events usually involve 1% of your total available working hours and budget.

Most companies often describe the last quarter of the year as their busiest period. With that in mind, many don't want the additional pressure of organising an extravagant event. However, this is where a recommended corporate event planning company can relieve you of any extra stress.

There are many individual elements that should be considered when organising your Christmas event, including venue sourcing, any entertainment and decoration choices and well as invitations, menu options and the music. Corporate event planners will be experienced in managing the entire process and juggling the many elements that need to be managed.

With all corporate events, it is important to be clear about the objectives. These objectives should tie in to corporate goals, and the type of event you have will be strongly influenced by the outcome you are trying to achieve.

For instance, most objectives are likely to be psychological more than anything else, such as rewarding staff for a good year or to break down internal barriers. If you are trying to build upon successes and reinforce that positive behaviour for next year's trading. However, you may want to take a different approach if you are concerned with improving communication.

Once you have defined your goals, and decided on a general approach, the 'psychology' of a corporate event needs as much planning and coordination as the logistics of transport, accommodation, activities, break times and meals.

If your corporate event is planned with the aim of improving relationships between staff and management then you may want to consider mixing them together within the seating plan. Other options include:

-Ensuring everyone is briefed and understands the need to mix and network.

- Introducing a formal seating plan.

- Seating people in a random order such as by their birth dates.

- Asking every other person to swap tables or seats between courses

You will understand what suits your company best, however - make sure that all decisions are made with your objectives in mind.




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