Having just finished working on a corporate event project, I’ve been reflecting on the way in which running a large corporate event is like creating a new business. But it’s a business with an extraordinarily short lifespan. Months and months go into the planning, the event opens, a thousand customers show up, and five days later the business shuts its doors, the walls come down, everything is hauled away, and there’s little sign the business was ever there.
I’m not sure anything quite compares to it. Except maybe a circus.
Large user conferences and other annual corporate events – think MacWorld as an example – have a planning cycle that can last 12 months or longer. Indeed, initial planning may actually start 2 or 3 years (or more) before the event, beginning with contract negotiations with the property (conference venue, hotels, etc.). In some popular locations, like New Orleans, the most coveted properties are locked down for several years at a time. It’s not unusual for companies to put down deposits 3 years in advance (or, in some cases, 5 – 10 years ahead of time) to ensure they get the location and dates they want for their conference.
So the planning begins well in advance with site visits and negotiations. At that point there may only be one or two people working on the event, helping to conceive and design it. But as the conference approaches the 12-month mark, the team grows. Planners are brought in to help with a number of different areas: logistics, food and beverage, accommodations, budgets, audio/visual and staging, entertainment, travel, registration, website development, marketing and advertising, sponsorship sales, exhibitor management, onsite meeting management, and more. It quickly becomes a complex organization employing people with a wide range of special skills.
Opening day arrives. Hundreds of people may be onsite to serve the event’s customers, from waiters to registration attendees, from security guards to the keynote presenter. Everyone with a role, everyone focused on making this business a success.
And the financial investment is substantial. Even a moderate-sized conference with 1,000 attendees may have a budget of $1.5 million or more, a capital investment that many startups can only dream of. Most business open their doors on far less money, and many have to make a modest savings extend for the first 12 months. Corporate events, by contrast, set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars for a venture whose lifespan can be measured in days, if not hours.