What are the 7 most common types of corporate events?

Stay up-to-date on the latest corporate events trends and discover the potential impact on your organisation.

Corporate events! What are they?

Corporate events are meetings and gatherings of people with one or several interests in common. Stay up-to-date on the latest event trends and discover the potential impact on your organisation.

All corporate events have common objectives, whether organised for employees, clients, suppliers or institution associates:

• Encourage company employees to increase productivity;
• Capture the attention of new customers;
• Build customer loyalty;
• Share knowledge;
• Promote networking;
• Stimulate interpersonal relationships;
• Increase product and services sales.

Under the advent of new technologies, we are seeing a true revolution, in event formats for the corporate segment.

The role of event planners and event agencies! 

The development of the corporate segment and the meeting industry supply, highlights the value of hiring the services of an event agency such as The House of Events. The agency acts as an extension of the organisation, before, during and after the event, creating a relationship of symbiosis between both parties.

Our experience in organising events in Portugal and abroad, allows us to advise you on the best destinations, venues and partners for your company or institution’s event.

Large urban centres such as Lisbon and Porto are, normally, the most wanted destinations for large-scale events, due to their offer of congress centres, hotels, event venues and a whole network of adequate infrastructures. However, if we talk about smaller events, up to +/- 500 participants, we can suggest alternative destinations, which allow us to have more authentic experiences, with the same rigor and professionalism.

We list the advantages of having a professional event agency by your side:

• The permanent support of a team, with more than 20 years of experience, capable of drawing up creative and innovative proposals that create memorable events;
• The sharing of information, experience and expertise to obtain the best cost-efficiency ratio and minimise risks;
• The selection of exclusive spaces and innovative formats, capable of generating impact and identification with your brand, creating customer loyalty and generating return on investment;
• The preparation of a detailed sustainability plan for the event, which ensures the minimisation of the eco footprint, while transmitting this culture of environmental conservation to all the stakeholders;
• Ensuring logistics management and execution,  under teams supervision and strict control of services, setup and dismantle, audiovisuals, catering, etc;
• Preparation of an event contingency plan to ensure COVID-19 protocols, rules, regulations and safety measures, are fully implemented.

Types of corporate and associative events

Hybrid congresses and conventions

Hybrid congresses and conventions are here to stay! If the pandemic has taught us someting, it is how to take advantage of technological solutions and turn problems into opportunities. 

Planning a hybrid event allows attracting a larger number of participants, speakers and extending the knowledge sharing and topics discussion.

Overall, events can be regional, national or international with a minimum duration of 1 day, on average 3 to 5 days.

During the event, sessions may take place with different formats, depending on the objectives of the organisation. 

• Lectures – can have two different objectives: motivate or inform. In both cases what determines the success is the choice and preparation of the speakers.
• Roundtables – These formats have an average duration of >20-30> minutes;  objectives are to clarify, promote discussion and exchange ideas about specific themes. The speakers expose their ideas and discuss among themselves.
• Symposium – Meetings with an average duration of two hours, in which the objective is to debate a specific theme. The symposium is conducted by professionals linked to the theme and a moderator, who introduces the guests, leads the conversation to the various topics and themes under discussion. At the end there is a question and answer (Q&A) session with the audience. 
• Workshops – Events with the main objective to train and motivate, and requires the active participation of all participants. It is intended that they put into practice the knowledge learned during the session, which usually lasts for half a day or the whole day.
• Technical visits – It’s main objective is to contribute to demonstrate the implementation, promote the integration between theory and practice of knowledge acquired in a training or research context.

Product Launch and Brand Activation

As the name suggests, these events have as main focus the launch of a certain product or brand. They are usually planned to take place in informal formats, such as cocktails, parties, roadshows, among others.

The challenge is to capture the participants’ attention to the new product or brand, gather clients and attract potential new clients, investors and stakeholders in general.

Fairs and exhibitions

Fairs and exhibitions are corporate events that bring together a group of products and services companies where they are given the opportunity to showcase their products, services or even innovative projects to a specific audience. 

Depending on the context where they are organised, in most cases, over-the-counter sales are not allowed during the exhibition; the main objective is to extend the network of contacts, potential customers and to make products and services known.

Seminars 

Sequence of activities applied by specialised professionals, normally with space for debate and discussion at the end with the objective of developing new capacities and information on a specific theme. This particular format is easily transformed into a virtual or hybrid event and usually structured by two or more lectures.

Courses

 Corporate events with the objective of providing knowledge to be applied in the day-to-day work to employees and for the development of new skills in teams. It can be divided into stages or even last for several days.

Forums

A more informal corporate event with a central purpose and objective of exchange and discussion of ideas between participants. In this type of event it is normal to have an active social programme, with various activities and dinners to increase networking and participants’ engagement.

Incentive programmes and team-building

Events with specific objectives for team work and leisure. The program concepts can be purely playful or educational and mostly focused on the interpersonal relationships and in the behavioural change of the participating groups.

What are the next steps?

It is essential to follow event market trends to ensure the future of your organisation/company, evaluate all the strategies to keep it competitive and continue to communicate with your audience, especially now, when we have seen so many changes in work environment, due to the pandemic of COVID-19 that has affected all markets.

We invite you to visit our blog and discover other articles, we think will be of your interest, to know what we do, our experience and how we can contribute to the success of your company through event organisation.