How far in advance should you plan a corporate event?

For a convention, kick-off or gala dinner of 100 to 300 people, 12 weeks is sensible. You can do it in less, but you pay in venue options, supplier prices and team overtime.

What is the first step in planning a company event?

Close the brief: goal, audience, guest count, date, city and an indicative budget. Without it, any budget or venue proposal is a guess.

What should you check the day before an event?

Final run of show distributed, confirmed guest list, dietary and allergen list sent to the venue, badges printed, weather forecast if anything is outdoors, every supplier's phone number and a plan B for each critical point.

What is an event's financial wrap-up?

Comparing the budget with what the event really cost, reconciling supplier invoices, invoicing the client for approved extras, and calculating real profit and margin.

What tools do I need to plan a corporate event?

At minimum, something for the budget, contracts, registration, seating and the show-day run of show. In Murphy OS each is an app and they share the project's data.

Corporate event planning checklist: a week-by-week guide

To plan a corporate event without nasty surprises, work in phases with fixed dates counting back from show day: 12 weeks out you close the brief, budget and venue; 8 weeks out, contracts and registration; 4 weeks out, seating, run of show and crew; the final week, confirmations and plan B; show day, live operations; and afterwards, the financial wrap-up, which is where you find out whether the event really went well. This checklist walks through each phase with what must be done and which tool to use.

We built it around a convention, kick-off or gala dinner for 100 to 300 people. For a smaller event, compress the timeline; for a conference with travel, stretch it.

Before you start: three rules

Every task has a named owner. “The team” is not an owner.
Every phase has a deliverable the client signs off. No sign-off, no next phase.
One place for each thing. One budget, one guest list, one run of show. Copies cause almost every disaster.

12 weeks out: brief, budget and venue

This is where you decide whether the event will be profitable. Whatever goes wrong here, you pay for in every later phase.

Brief

Event goal in one sentence (motivate, launch, celebrate, align).
Audience: who, from where, how many and what profile.
Date, approximate times and city.
Client’s indicative budget, even if it is a range.
Who decides on the client side and who pays.
Must-haves and red lines (brand, content, protocol).

Budget

Per-guest and fixed lines separated.
Margin per line, agency fee and VAT per line.
Price per guest with and without VAT.
At least two saved versions (for example, two venues).

We use Planner here: line items with VAT, fee and margin updated instantly, versions to negotiate and a client PDF without your margins. We have a separate guide on building an event budget if you want the detail.

Venue and date

Three venue options with real capacity for the format (theatre, banquet, cocktail).
Site visit: access, loading dock, power, load-in hours.
Option held in writing with an expiry date.
If anything is outdoors, check the trend and 20 years of history for your slot in Meteo (free) and budget plan B now, not the week before.

12-week deliverable: proposal with concept, venue and budget approved.

8 weeks out: contracts, suppliers and registration

Contracts

Contract or quote acceptance with the client, with payment schedule and cancellation policy.
Contracts with venue, AV, catering and performers or speakers.
Room block if there is accommodation, with release dates.
Tech rider and quotes attached as annexes.
Liability insurance reviewed.

In Contracts you start from templates for event management, supplier, venue hire, performer, speaker, freelancer or room block, switch on the clauses that apply (cancellation, force majeure, outdoor events, deposit) and sign with a code. They are guidance templates: always have them reviewed by your adviser or lawyer.

Suppliers

Written confirmation from each supplier of what is and is not included.
Load-in and load-out times cross-checked with the venue’s.
First version of the setup by day: day -1, show day, load-out.

Registration

Landing page and form in the client’s branding.
Useful questions: dietary needs and allergies, coach, T-shirt size, capped activities.
Privacy and image consent boxes, and a data processing agreement signed by the client.
Automatic confirmation email.
Review link so the client approves the landing page before it goes live.

Forms has convention, kick-off, gala and team building templates with questions that only show when relevant, capacity per activity and a waitlist, plus a tracking link so the client sees the numbers live.

8-week deliverable: suppliers contracted and registration open.

4 weeks out: space, crew and run of show

Space and seating

Venue floor plan to scale with stage, screens, bars and zones.
Room layout signed off by the client and by AV.
Seating plan if there is a dinner: numbered tables, groups and protocol.
Equipment list for the rental company.

In Scenes you upload the plan (PDF, image or DXF), calibrate it with one known measurement and place elements at real size. For the dinner you paste the guest list, auto-seat by group, and the client can adjust from a link with no account.

Accommodation

Rooming: who sleeps where, including sharing requests.
Rooming list for the hotel with the check-in details they need.

If registration runs through Forms, the Rooming board places confirmed guests in rooms and exports the Excel or PDF for the hotel.

Crew

Staff numbers by role: hosts, stage management, technicians, coordination.
Extra hands booked, with profile and rate.
Crew briefing scheduled.

Short on people? On the Freelance Board you filter by role, city, languages and availability, download the CV and message them from the app.

Content and speakers

Final programme with the length of each block.
Deadline for receiving slides.
Rehearsals scheduled.

A three-minute video telling speakers how long their slot is and how to send slides saves twenty emails. We record it with Plató: screen and camera at once, with your brand.

Run of show

First version with chained times, owners and teams.
Fixed cues marked (doors, CEO walk-on, dinner).

4-week deliverable: floor plan, seating, rooming and draft run of show signed off.

1 week out: confirm everything and prepare plan B

Forms exports the dietary and allergen PDF for the venue and printable badges with crop marks. Scenes exports the list by table, the alphabetical index for registration and special meals for catering.

1-week deliverable: everyone knows what they do, where and when.

Show day: door and live operations

Production on site well before the first supplier.
Setup checked against the floor plan and equipment list.
Full tech run with real content.
Door open with several entry lines if numbers require it.
Live run of show: every cue ticked, delays communicated.
One person dedicated only to incidents.
Backstage photos and video for the wrap-up.

In Forms you open several QR check-in lines from different phones, with no account and nobody getting in twice. In Run of show (Escaleta), Live mode shows now and next, the crew ticks each cue from their phones and the client follows the programme on their link without seeing internal notes.

If there is networking, the team can share their details and scan paper cards with Business Cards, which groups them by event.

After the event: financial wrap-up and lessons

The event does not end when the lights go off. It ends when you know what you made.

First week

Thank-you to guests and speakers.
Short satisfaction survey.
Photo and video delivered to the client.
Internal debrief on what worked and what did not, with notes.

Financial wrap-up

All supplier invoices received and checked against contracts.
Approved extras invoiced to the client.
Budget updated with real costs.
Real profit and margin compared with the budget.
Project marked as closed.

In Planner you update the budget with final costs and compare it with the approved version. You can also mark each project as Won or Lost and see the year summary: invoiced, profit and margin on what you won.

Post-event deliverable: client report and internal wrap-up with real margin.

Mistakes we see on almost every corporate event

Choosing the venue before closing the brief. You end up bending the goal to fit the room.
Not saving budget versions. When the client goes back to option A, it no longer exists.
Opening registration without a data agreement. You become responsible for something that is not yours.
A run of show with no fixed cues. Everything moves and nobody knows what cannot.
An unbudgeted plan B. If it is not in the budget, it does not exist on show day.
Skipping the financial wrap-up. You will repeat the same margin mistakes next time.

Your next step

Copy this checklist into your next project and put a real date on each phase, counting back from show day. Then give every line a named owner. If you want it all in one place, start by creating the project in Planner: the budget, the day-by-day setup and the agenda you later import into the run of show all start there.