Organising your annual diary of events

The Annual Kick Off may fall at a different time of year depending on your company structure, but whenever it takes place, it needs to be memorable and engaging! It’s important to remember exactly why you’re conducting a Kick Off meeting and not simply doing it because you’ve done one every year. What are your top goals and priorities for the year? How can you share these with the organisation? How can you encourage best practices and ideas amongst the teams? Content is key for your kick off event for getting everyone working in the right direction for the year ahead, but if you’re planning to end the conference part of the day with some time to network and celebrate, make sure that this isn’t an afterthought and you put just as much focus into this part of the day.

Networking doesn’t have to just be about meeting new business prospects or suppliers. Have you considered a networking event for your large organisation? Often, companies have large teams with employees who have never met before, so why not plan something to encourage knowledge sharing amongst teams. It’s becoming more popular to arrange meet ups between people across departments to create a more cohesive workplace. Whatever the focus of your networking event, we encourage providing the right layout to make it feel as natural as possible, with good food and drink options!

The phrase ‘Team Building’ often causes a sea of eye rolls and a gentle groan in the office, but it doesn’t need to be that way! Whilst the old-fashioned ways still work (think building a tower with spaghetti and marshmallows), there is a plethora of exciting new ideas available to get everyone together and building relationships. Team Building can be a fun and effective way to define your company values and boosting morale.

Summer Celebrations don’t have to break the bank, and they are an important way to celebrate and reward your team after the first few quarters. Roof top venues in London are always incredibly popular, particularly on Thursdays and Fridays, so it’s important to get them booked quickly. Other great ideas include a summer sports day or a traditional British picnic. One of our favourite summer events in recent years was a festival themed event hosted on a multi-storey carpark! You can read all about it here.

It’s the return of the school year, a great time for training to take place mentally. Training days have a very specific purpose and it’s important that the content of the day is the top priority. We appreciate that training can’t all be fun, but we suggest considering a venue which is a little quirkier, which will promote engagement, in turn improving the learning taking place in the room. Spaces for collaborative work, sharing thoughts with colleagues and innovative training techniques are important for the success of this style of event.

Whilst incentive trips aren’t achievable for all companies, making them available to your employees or even your clients can have a huge boost towards your KPIs. Most incentive trips are often a destination event, whether it’s somewhere in the UK or further afield. For a truly memory occasion that your guests will remember for years to come, generally require a huge amount of planning to ensure they run seamlessly. We recommend you get the professionals in for this type of event and the Smart Live team are always ready to help! We can work with you to create money can’t buy experiences to bring the wow factor to your incentive trip.

It goes without saying that most employees will expect an End of Year celebration of some sort! Getting ahead of the game and planning far in advance will not only leave you feeling more organised and less stressed, but you’ll ensure you get your pick of the best venues that truly represent you and your brand, but also guarantee you the best possible rates!