Essay On Corporate Events: Types, Benefits, Organizing Tips.

Identify and evaluate the different types of corporate events and the different organisations that use corporate events.
Analyse how a range of corporate events can be used by organisations to enhance their profile and image.
Develop an understanding on how corporate events can be facilitated in various locations.
Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical issues and corporate events: e.g. entertainment vs inducement.
Presents finding effectively through a variety to techniques;
Evaluate information from a variety of sources.

Corporate hospitality is the services provided to the clients from the organization for their entertainment and satisfaction. Many companies or organizations believe that corporate hospitality is the best feasible way to maintain cordial relationship with the employees. This hospitality is provided by inviting in events, giving refreshments at the events, etc. In this report I will mention about the event that we had organized to celebrate the golden jubilee of GSM. The group work reflected on our individual skills to coordinate such a grand event (Anderson and Bolt 2015)

Personal skills of an individual determine his soft skills that include the demonstration of his attitude, behavior and quality.  These skills help an individual to interact with his co- workers, express and manage himself and leading his life.  

Time management- in any event management, time plays the pivotal role. There is a saying, time is money. Once it goes out of hand it cannot be regained back. In any event, time management is very important as it leads to a successful and hassle free end to the work. Therefore we made to- do list prior to the event to avoid mismanagement on the final day. The dates in the calendar were marked according to the task. There was also some time kept separately for any extra work that might come in the 11^th hour. I, being the coordinator of the event decided not to keep any work for midnight or the last moment (Buruck et al. 2016).

Organization- organizing the task accordingly helps in saving time and unnecessary tension at the last moment. A proper planning is required before a big event as the people appointed for the task, what task is for what time, what are the other requirements and so on. Keeping that in mind, I had set up objectives beforehand for properly organizing the event. Then I had allocated members who looked after the venue, light and sound boxes, other entertainment activities, public relations, media, sponsorship, accommodation, transportation, food and refreshment. If all these necessities are met with then that will be a great failure on the part of the event management team and I being the coordinator of the event could not afford to do so (Cottrell 2015).

Communication- Communication, in any form, is very important while organizing an event. It can be of different types, like oral, written or through any medium. I followed two types of communication- via telephone and through email. I personally called up the chief guest, the key note speaker and the VIPs four months prior to check on their availability. Invitation was sent through mail to the alumnus and other guests for attending the event. A reminder mail was sent one month before the commencement of the event. I had provided my contact number along with every mail in case the invitees have any query to ask. I had also kept volunteers for receiving the VIPs from the airports. Even after the event was held, I had sent ‘thank you’ mail to those who participated in the celebration and an expectancy mail for those who could not attend. The media was also given press release regarding the program to make it an auspicious occasion (Csikszentmihalyi and Wong 2014).

Time management

Cooperation- if a coordinator or team leader does not have obedient team members then it would become next to impossible for him to complete the given task. It depends on the entire team whether they want a successful event or not. Being a good leader is not enough; a successful event requires a whole group of workers who does the task efficiently. My team members had a great cooperating and coordinating nature due to which the event came out successfully. I gave them full freedom and facility to work according to their own will and they did not take advantage of that opportunity. They were always on their feet to participate actively because all of us were eager to give our best for the event (Dabbagh 2015).

Problem solving skills - during any crisis period, only the problem- solving skills help to come out of the crisis. Who will have a better skill; will be a better option when it comes to handling an event. Crisis can come in any form, be it financial, political or on some petty issue. Sometimes there might be a notorious member in the team who can manipulate others against the team leader. Such crisis should be handled very tactfully and carefully. This skill includes two mental skills, creative and analytical. We succeeded in crossing every hurdle that came in our way of organizing the event. There was financial crisis in the beginning as it was hard to get sponsor but eventually we got the required finance. We could solve this problem by using our analytical skill (Drake 2014).

Loyalty and dedication- loyalty and dedication are directly proportional to the excellence in work. The more loyal and dedicated one is towards the work, the better he will perform in that work. When someone is given a task it is his duty to take that work as his own. These are the inborn qualities in some individuals while others inherit or acquire in their lifetime. We tried to put on all our efforts with dedication and loyalty towards the celebration of golden jubilee of GSM. If we had not been loyal and dedicated towards our work then the event would not have been a success (Gul and Mehmood 2016).

I being the coordinator of the event had to supervise over everyone’s task. Starting from planning for the event to fixing the dates, consulting with other members, seeking permission from the authorities, checking the venue, electricity, food and drink, transportation, each and every detail was taken into account by me.

Communication within the team was done effectively. Although my team members were very efficient but to make everything perfect sometimes I had to shout at them. After that they did not give me a single chance to complain because our group communication was fruitful. It is not possible to plan and organize an event without obstruction.

Approach to the resolution of the problems was carried out with efficacy. Not only did we face financial crisis but also technical error at the prime time. With the help of some efficient members of the team we could solve the problem and did not let it hamper the event anyhow (Hertzman, Moreo and Wiener 2015).

Organization

After organizing this event I understood that such group task should be given to the students more often to teach them the planning and implementation of corporate hospitality. This kind of task will help us to be acquainted more with the real world and we will get the scope to apply our theoretical knowledge practically. From this task I learned the value of time, money and hard work. There is no alternative to hard work. When I was selected as the coordinator of this event, I was not sure whether I will able to keep up to his expectation or not. But at the end of the event I must say I am enriched with knowledge on event management. I learned how to deal with vendors as well as how to keep the guests happy. After this event I became more dedicated towards my work which I was not. I understood what it takes to successfully manage an event although a lot more is left to learn (Italian 2013).

It is not a mandate that every group work will turn out to be successful. It depends on the leader and the whole team whether they will coordinate among themselves or not. It is needless to say that the event turned out to be a great success. Everyone, from the guests to our teachers, appreciated the effort that our team took to organize and complete this grand event (Wajcman 2013). The name of GSM spread everywhere through the media and the success of the event added another feather to our crown. Our team was given a token reward at the finale for our perseverance and the positive result. We were in seventh heaven when we were being congratulated in front of a large audience. This was really an unexpected moment for us as we were terrified as to how to give shape to such a great event.  We were delighted when the VIPs came and shared their satisfaction with us. It meant a lot because we were still a novice in the task (Sheikhy and Shafiee 2015).

To improve our work in future assignments we arranged for the system of a drop box where the guests could drop in any suggestion. A soft copy of the suggestion form was also sent through mail for the betterment of our work. Majority of the guests had praised our effort and there was no big suggestion as such. But we had a team meet after the event where we discussed on our drawbacks. The most wanted suggestion that came out was about the behavior of the volunteers which should have been a more stern but not in a rude way. As it was our first task so we tried to deal with the guests very politely which gave rise to certain awkward situation. We were left with no option but to tolerate silently. This is one part where we have to work upon for our future events (Vance et al. 2016).

Reference

Anderson, L.E. and Bolt, S.B., 2015. Professionalism: Skills for workplace success. Pearson.

Buruck, G., Dörfel, D., Kugler, J. and Brom, S.S., 2016. Enhancing well-being at work: The role of emotion regulation skills as personal resources. Journal of occupational health psychology, 21(4), p.480.

Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave Macmillan.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Wong, M.M.H., 2014. The situational and personal correlates of happiness: A cross-national comparison. In Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology (pp. 69-88). Springer Netherlands.

Dabbagh, N., Kitsantas, A., Al-Freih, M. and Fake, H., 2015. Using social media to develop personal learning environments and self-regulated learning skills: a case study. International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, 3(3), pp.163-183.

Drake, C., 2014. Does corporate hospitality at special events deliver customer loyalty in B2B relationships?. CAUTHE 2014: Tourism and Hospitality in the Contemporary World: Trends, Changes and Complexity, p.817.

Gul, F. and Mehmood, N., 2016. A Study to Assess Relevance between Content of Business Courses and Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Technology Education Institutes. Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (1994-7046), 24(2).

Hertzman, J.L., Moreo, A.P. and Wiener, P.J., 2015. Career planning strategies and skills of hospitality management students. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 14(4), pp.423-443.

Italian, N., 2013. Personal skills and competences. Eur J Nutr.

Sheikhy, A. and Shafiee, A., 2015. An Investigation into the Association between Personal Skills, Organizational Learning, and Innovation, and Organizational Performance in the Power Distribution Company, Northern Kerman. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(6 S2), p.715.

Vance, L., Vance, L., Raciti, M.M., Raciti, M.M., Lawley, M. and Lawley, M., 2016. Sponsorship selections: corporate culture, beliefs and motivations. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 21(4), pp.483-499.

Wajcman, J., 2013. Managing like a man: Women and men in corporate management. John Wiley & Sons.