Organizing a business event in Dubai or Abu Dhabi is certainly an interesting prospect until you find yourself with an empty spreadsheet three weeks away from the event. This is where a corporate event planning checklist comes to play. No matter if it is a product launch, a company conference, or any other type of business meeting, a properly built corporate event checklist will keep everything organized.
UAE is full of opportunities and there is constant flow of activity related to organizing corporate events. Venue booking can be done many months in advance, suppliers are working on several different projects during their busiest period of time, and your guests – who are usually made up of local executives and foreign business partners – will expect perfection. A carefully designed corporate event planning checklist will eliminate any uncertainty and help turn your complicated event into a stress-free task. In this guide, we will go through all the necessary elements of a good corporate event planning checklist and see how to organize successful business events in Dubai and across the UAE.
Why Every Business Needs a Corporate Event Planning Checklist
Checklist is not only a way to organize yourself, but also to mitigate risks. A corporate event includes hundreds of elements such as venue agreement, food services, audiovisual equipment installation, list of participants, permits, branding tools, and many more. Missing even one element will cause domino effect and result in chaos during your event.
There is one more thing that makes the process of corporate event planning checklist much harder in UAE than anywhere else. Namely, there are specific requirements related to organization of a public event, license for serving alcoholic beverages, organization of outdoor events in extreme temperature months. A corporate event planning checklist prepared for conditions in UAE takes into account these aspects rather than use standard templates for different regions.
Finally, a checklist protects the company’s reputation because in business environment such as Dubai, any mistake could affect the relationships with clients or investors built during months of work.
Step 1: Define Your Event Objectives and Budget
First, before making any bookings, determine why you are organizing the event in the first place. Do you want to create an event to get media exposure for your new product launch? Are you planning a conference to establish your brand as a market leader? Or perhaps it’s a corporate event intended to boost the spirits of the teams?
Your objectives will impact all subsequent decisions in terms of venue selection, attendees, and entertainment type. After setting the objectives, assign an appropriate budget to your event. For corporate events in UAE, the following is a common budget distribution guide:
- Venue rental and setup
- Catering and beverages
- Audio/visual production and technical services
- Decorations, branding, and signage
- Entertainment / speakers
- Photography and videography
- Marketing / invitations
- Contingency (10%-15% of total budget)
Not accounting for contingency is one of the most frequent errors companies make when organizing events. The costs associated with making changes in your vendors at the last minute and paying for extra hours in the venue may increase dramatically.
Step 2: Choose the Right Venue and Date
Venue selection is when the benefits of a corporate event planning checklist become apparent. From top-tier hotel ballrooms to rooftop bars and beachfront properties, the UAE and especially Dubai have it all, but availability of these venues is limited in the busy season, which is from October to April.
When selecting venues, take into consideration:
- Capacity compared to your expected guest list
- Ease of accessibility for guests who come from other emirates or abroad
- Parking and valet parking facilities
- Whether the venue provides in-house AV or not
- A backup indoor venue if your idea involves an outdoor event
Booking your venue two to three months ahead of time will give you some flexibility regarding negotiation of costs and availability of your chosen catering and décor providers.
How Far in Advance Should You Book a Corporate Venue in the UAE?
If we talk about medium to big events (more than 100 guests) then your venue should be booked eight to twelve weeks ahead of your event date. For smaller events, you will need only four to six weeks’ advance notice.
Step 3: Handle Permits, Licensing, and Compliance
While this step is commonly forgotten, it is a necessary component of any complete list of items that must be addressed when making plans for corporate events in the UAE. Your particular event may require approval from various local agencies, including the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, Dubai Municipality, or another body responsible for issuing permits within the particular emirate where your event is taking place.
Some of the typical permits required include:
- Event permits for public and semi-public events
- Liquor licenses for serving drinks
- Noise licenses for live performances or amplified music
- Civil defense approvals for large constructions and temporary stages
Having an experienced local partner in organizing events can make this task easy for you, as they know which permits you actually need.
Step 4: Coordinate Vendors and Logistics
With the venue and permits organized, it’s time to organize your vendor team: catering, decorations, audio visual production, photo and video production, as well as entertainment. Every vendor requires a brief, a schedule, and an individual point of contact on the day of the event.
One useful step here is developing a common logistics file, which will contain the following:
- Arrival and set up times of vendors
- Schedules for load in and load out
- Emergency contact information
- Floor plan indicating locations for vendors to work
It is now the moment when the decision about technology becomes crucial. Hybrid events, RFID badge check ins, and live streaming have become a must-have in corporate events in the UAE, therefore, it should be considered early in AV vendors discussions.
Step 5: Plan Guest Management and Communication
The guest experience does not start on the day that he steps inside your premises, but you need to plan how you will handle communication from the time your event plans are underway. This involves a timeline for sending out your save-the-date, invitation, reminder email and post-event communication.
For corporate functions, it is important to know the number of guests who will be attending. This helps in catering, seating and other planning. Digital solutions for RSVPing makes things easier compared to using an Excel sheet to do all the planning, especially when dealing with conference audiences of over 200.
The registration and check-in process is key, as you want to avoid long queues at the entrance as guests arrive.
Step 6: Prepare Branding and On-Site Experience
Corporate events have branding implications, therefore consistency is key in the creation of the event. All your signs, backdrops, name tags, and even the color of your décor should be consistent with your brand image. This is why many companies hire an event management team to manage this phase.
Branded giveaways, an impressive agenda, and a photo wall can help make the event memorable and make it easier to talk about on social media, thus spreading the word further.
Step 7: Post-Event Follow-Up and Evaluation
The last and most overlooked part of the corporate event planning checklist involves everything that is done after the event ends. The follow-up is important as much as the initial planning.
In the first week after the event, one must:
- Send thank-you messages to attendees and speakers
- Provide attendees with professional pictures or video of the event
- Give out feedback forms
- Go through the budget and expenses
- Learn from mistakes and experiences to apply in the future
This is what makes an event a process, not just one time occurrence.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Despite having a checklist in place, there are a number of common mistakes that can be found among companies that have just started to arrange corporate events in the UAE:
- Underestimating the time required for setup and breakdown
- Not signing off on vendor agreements in writing
- Neglecting weather factors while organizing an outdoor event during summer
- Failing to take into account guests with special needs
- Procrastinating on brand identity issues
It is easy to prevent these mistakes by beginning in advance and giving responsibility for each checklist point to a specific person.
Should You Hire a Corporate Event Management Company?
Where there is no internal events team within a company, it might prove better to go for an efficient partnership. A reputable corporate event management company already has a network of vendors, experience in dealing with local authorities and the people to get things done from the checklist, while your team takes care of running the business.
Ishqat Events in Dubai works with companies in the UAE for their events including conferences, product launch, awards night, brand activation and executive seminars. The team takes care of every detail of the event from venue booking to managing everything on site. You may want to look at their corporate events management services if you are considering internal planning versus outsourcing the task.
Final Thoughts
The comprehensive checklist above can make the difference between an event that goes off smoothly or an event during which your entire team ends up running around like headless chickens. Every aspect from developing a budget to securing permits and coordinating vendors and follow-up plays a role in ensuring that the event turns out to be positive for your company
If you’re organizing your first ever corporate event or you’ve organized fifty events before, going through this checklist methodically — or using the services of a company that already does so — will definitely save you time and headaches and allow you to organize a corporate event that achieves its purpose. If you want more information about how we can help organize your next event in the UAE, please get in touch with Ishqat Events and ask for a quote!
Frequently Asked Questions
What should be included in a corporate event planning checklist?
A good corporate event planning checklist should have the following elements: objectives and budget, selection of a venue and date, permits and licenses, vendor coordination, guest management, branding and follow-through after the event.
2. How far in advance should companies begin corporate event planning in UAE?
Large to mid-size events should be planned well in advance, ideally eight to twelve weeks before the event, particularly in high season between October and April. Small-scale events can plan with four to six weeks of notice. Advance planning allows you to have the best choice of venues, vendors and permits that may be needed.
3. What permits will you need for your corporate event in Dubai?
It depends on where and what kind of event it is but usually permits include event permit, alcohol license if you serve beverages and noise permits for amplified sound or live music. All of them may vary from one emirate to another.
4. Should companies consider hiring corporate event management company instead of planning on their own?
Whether it’s worth doing so or not depends on whether or not you can afford to plan the event on your own. An event management company has all the resources and experience needed to conduct the event smoothly.