Are you looking to boost your employee retention and job satisfaction? What about deepening the relationships you have with existing clients? Or maybe you are searching for new ways to attract potential clients? What if you could reach these seemingly different objectives with one investment? It’s possible to do all these things at once by hosting corporate events. Minneapolis is also the perfect place to do it. The Twin Cities offer many options for great entertainment, food, and expert event planning, not to mention the exact right venue to bring it all together and make your corporate event not only a hit, but a memorable hit as well.

Whether you are celebrating a milestone with employees and clients, introducing an exciting new product, creating a buzz around your brand, or generating new leads, hosting a successful corporate event can enhance many areas of your company. Let’s take a look at the benefits of hosting corporate events in Minneapolis, as well as what goes into planning and hosting these events, to give your company the boost you are looking for. 

What Is a Corporate Event?

A corporate event is a shared experience hosted by a company with the goal of bringing employees, clients, and industry stakeholders together in one space. The event is curated for your employees, clients, and potential clients to help build connections, and fosters collaboration, both internally and externally. Well-planned corporate events can strengthen stakeholder relationships and forge new partnerships.

The key to hosting an event that showcases your company or organization though is to make sure it sticks with participants. Highlighting your company’s accomplishments or launching a new product is important, but making sure the event is memorable will help those accomplishments or products stand out after the event is over. Making this lasting impression with event attendees is the most important part of hosting corporate events. Minneapolis offers companies all the tools to make that happen. 

Different Types of Corporate Events

Broadly speaking, corporate events fall under two main categories: internal and external. Each of these categories serves a slightly different purpose. An internal event is usually more private and involves your employees, clients, partners, or vendors. External events are more public facing and focus more clearly on customer experience, where participants are more likely to be drawn from your target audience. Within these two broad categories though are many different types of events. Let’s cover a few of the more widely hosted events in more detail. 

Company Retreats

One of the more popular internal corporate events is the company retreat. It is a chance to get out of the office setting and bring your employees together in an environment that supports team-building and social activities. These events break employees out of day-to-day routines, which helps to build better morale, stronger teams, and a more positive company culture. 

Industry Conferences

One of the most common external corporate events is the industry conference. These events tend to be on a larger scale than a quarterly industry organization chapter meeting or work session, both of which are also standard corporate events that usually occur over the course of a day or half-day. Conferences, on the other hand, usually run over several days and may even include several venues or locations within a city. 

Conferences are designed to bring people from the same industry together in one space. Participants expect opportunities to network with colleagues, learn from their peers and industry experts, generate new leads, showcase products, and raise brand awareness. Companies that host industry conferences also generate revenue through ticket sales and sponsorships. 

Trade Shows

This type of external corporate event is geared toward bringing a large number of companies together in one space for the opportunity to showcase their products and meet new customers. Attendees can also take advantage of opportunities to learn new things, raise brand awareness, and capture substantial leads. 

Workshops

This type of corporate event can be either internal or external. The purpose of a workshop is to build new skills, complete a certification, work with new tools, or introduce new ways to solve industry-based problems. These types of corporate events usually have a smaller number of attendees and often incorporate more interactive activities with the purpose of enhancing the workshop experience. 

Product Launches

Another common type of corporate event that can be both external and internal is the product launch. Hosting a corporate event centered around the launch of a new product can be a great way to give a new product the boost it needs to enter the market flying high. A successful event organized around a product launch can help engage your audience in a fun way. It also can create hype and a media buzz for the product as it enters the market.

If you are looking to host one of these types of corporate events, Minneapolis offers several ideal locations that will make planning and executing the event that much easier. 

The Benefits of Hosting a Corporate Event

The benefits of hosting a corporate event hit all sides of your business, both internal and external. Events can boost employee engagement, strengthen client relationships, and inspire interest with potential new clients all at the same time. More than just a sales or marketing tactic, a corporate event benefits your entire organization, deepening your brand and boosting both employee and client connection to who you are and what you do. 

Get People Talking

Creating a buzz about your company and lifting brand awareness leads to what you want most, people talking about your company. Investing resources in a corporate event means you want a return on that investment. Using corporate events as one method in your creative communication strategy puts your company in front of the people you want. Weaving social media and other marketing campaigns into your event can help boost the benefit even more. 

When you host a corporate event, you can get people talking about the event, but in the process, they are also talking about your company. During the event they are also interacting with your brand, and you have the opportunity to create many touchpoints for potential clients to see the solutions you offer for their pain points. Overall, the event puts your company front and center in potential customers’ minds, and it tends to stick there if the event is successful. 

Create a Space for Network-Building

Networking is a business buzzword for a reason. It’s a fuel for building working relationships and beneficial partnerships. The meet-and-greet atmosphere of a corporate event spurs the human interaction at the core of networking. There just is no better way to generate new clients than talking with them face-to-face. It’s a big reason why to host corporate events, and also why people show up to corporate events. Minneapolis is a hub city in the middle of the country. It is easy to fly into and sports some top-notch venues where you can gather industry leaders, experts, and colleagues together to grow business opportunities. 

Build Community and a Sense of Belonging

Again, it’s that human, face-to-face connection that creates productive relationships. This may be the biggest lesson we all learned from the global pandemic. Inviting people to gather for a meaningful event creates a sense of belonging and builds an industry community. By bringing people together in one space, corporate events show those invited how important they are to your business. In the end, it’s gathering people together that makes corporate events memorable, and makes your company memorable too. 

Cultivate a Positive Company Culture

Your team is made up of people too. A corporate event that celebrates wins, rewards successes, and recognizes employee contributions helps cultivate a positive company culture by giving your team a place to gather, celebrate, and engage. It also increases employees’ connections to each other and the company in general. This, in turn, boosts productivity and strengthens teamwork. Showing employee appreciation through a shared event goes beyond the day-to-day and targets the larger reasons employees stick with a company and do their best work. 

Enhance Your Marketing Strategy

Corporate events create the type of photos and videos you can’t help but share on your social media channels. Events can also create livestream opportunities that spread the event beyond the actual venue. If you plan your marketing strategy along with your event, you can get the most mileage out of your resources. 

The Most Important Elements of a Corporate Event

When you set out to plan your corporate event in Minneapolis, there are a few important elements that you will want to include. These elements fall under the who, what, where, when, and why of planning your event. 

The Why: Setting Goals for Your Event

First and foremost, you need to understand why you are hosting the event. Set an end goal, such as what you want the attendees to understand, recognize, or identify about your company, its accomplishments, or its products by the time your event is over. Knowing the why of the event will help you further organize:

• Who the attendees are
• What you want to showcase and how
• Where the event is located and when

Once you know the why of your event, make sure to allow enough time to find and book everything, so the event will have the impact you are hoping for. 

The What: Substance, Fun, and a Budget

The “what” is the substance of your event and includes anything from entertainment and food to logistics, speakers, activities, and materials. It also includes your budget. Decisions about the what of your event will be dictated by your budget. Setting one and sticking to it will allow your event to be a successful, worthwhile investment and not a failed liability.

Corporate events in Minneapolis can include top-notch food and drink that are enjoyable and memorable, but will fit into your budget as well. This is also true when it comes to booking corporate event entertainment. Minneapolis has a wide range of entertainment possibilities to fit your needs and budget.

In addition, Minneapolis has a wide array of fun activities that are easy to book and can be seamlessly included to make your event pop. Some examples of fun team outings that can supplement corporate events in Minneapolis include a Vegas night, a trivia showdown, or a pickleball competition. Other corporate event ideas in Minneapolis include a river cruise, a first-rate performance, or a live music concert in one of the many outdoor parks in the Twin Cities.

When planning your next event, you may want to incorporate some of these fun corporate events in Minneapolis.

The Where: Finding the Right Venue

Where you hold your corporate event may just be the most crucial element of all. It is important to do your research to find the perfect corporate event space. Minneapolis offers many options to choose from.

Some favorite corporate event locations in Minneapolis offer the ideal space with just the right atmosphere, plus the planning and technical support you need. Contracting with a venue that offers media support is important while planning. Make sure you choose a venue that can accommodate the technical requirements of your corporate events. Minneapolis venues, such as the Lumber Exchange Event Center, offer the right combination of a stunning location and the required support for your technical needs.

Make It Memorable

Whatever corporate event you end up hosting, making it memorable is the key to success. Curating a memorable experience for employees, clients, stakeholders, and prospects alike is what makes your investment in a corporate event reap its full benefits. It is the best way to get the most out of hosting corporate events. Minneapolis, with its outstanding venues, entertainment, fun activities, and food and drink options, not to mention its array of event planning experts, can provide you with the resources you need to host a perfectly memorable corporate event.