A Beginner’s Guide to Planning a Team Building Event
Organizing fun team building events can help businesses forge closer working relationships, align goals, and enhance employees’ problem-solving abilities.
However, while most enterprises have an idea of what they want to accomplish, including improving employee morale and education, they soon get mired in logistics, which puts a damper on their enthusiasm.
Luckily, experienced industry professionals have the capabilities to make your ideas a reality by executing the event from beginning to end. Therefore, while event planners handle activities behind-the-scenes, it will allow you to soak up the atmosphere of a successful event.
So, to help you successfully plan a memorable team-building session for your company, Houston Event Planning has put together a beginner’s guide to planning a team-building event. Through this guide, you will learn how to prepare for the occasion.
Getting Started
Make a plan: An essential thing to have before you begin the planning process is a rough idea of what company-related values you’d like to include in your event. Sharing these with your planner will allow for a more personalized team building event that will also fall in line with your company’s mission and vision.
Consider your objectives: Ask yourself what type of event you would like to have? Would you prefer a casual or a formal one? What kind of demographic are you trying to engage? Do you want to incorporate specific ideas, or would you prefer suggestions from a planner?
Seek help: Planning can be overwhelming, so it’s essential to include one other person to assist you. At the same time, events are challenging when run by a committee, as it takes more time to reach a consensus. We suggest limiting the decision-makers to one or two people.
Next Steps
Research planners: Don’t forget to meticulously verify and vet the best planners in your area. Besides, if you already have an idea in mind, ask if they’ve planned and executed something similar.
Request for proposal (RFP): After you send your RFP, your prospective planner should immediately know what to do once they receive it. If they ask basic questions or have not worked with an RFP before, they likely don’t have much expertise with corporate events.
Consider preliminary work: All events require preparatory work, so don’t be startled if the planning firm requests a retainer to start the job even before a formal contract gets drafted. Initial groundwork includes narrowing down prospective venues and vendors, creating an event proposal, as well as allotting hours for meetings with you and the planning team.
Advice From The Pros
Brainstorm your ideas: One key thing to keep in mind is the feeling you wish to create to inspire in your team. Do you want your event to be a bonding time for your employees, or do you want to wow them with a unique experience?
Set realistic goals: Keep a clear vision and limit contact points between the event company and your team to make the planning process streamlined and smooth.
Maintain open communication: Don’t forget that planners do more than execute events, so communicate your fears and trust them to know what needs to happen from one moment to the next.
On a final note, planning events can be challenging, but your team will fully appreciate all your hard work by the end of the event.
At Houston Event Planning, our goal is to exceed your expectations. As the go-to experts in Houston, TX, for all your event planning services, you can feel confident about creating an incredible team building event with us.
We also specialize in weddings, grand openings, and conference management. Visit our website to learn more or contact Houston Event Planning today.