How to plan successful events by Lettuce & Co
Have you ever scrolled through the IG feeds of event management companies and saved their posts because of the MAGIC they created in a room? There is a lot involved when planning a memorable event and to a business owner, managing all the details can feel overwhelming.
For anything and everything to do with product launches or corporate gatherings, look no further than Lettuce & Co. While they manage many luxe private events throughout the year, they also look after some stellar clients in their portfolio, including the Australian Open, Chobani, and Frankie Footwear.
As it’s Galentine’s Day, we decided to chat with the wonderful Founders Lisa and Robyn about their tips to creating successful events.
Tell us a bit about what you do.
Lettuce & Co was born from a creative collaboration in 2013 and ever since we’ve been on an epic ride designing and delivering events of all shapes and sizes. From weddings, corporate events such as end of year parties and launches to private celebrations.
We are the creatives, the stylists, the planners, the prolific list-makers, the logistical engineers, the budget sleuths, the late-night consultants, the dilemma technicians, your co-conspirators and your new ‘favourite’ on your phone.
We’re made up of a team of talented humans with backgrounds in Marketing, Floristry, Styling, Graphic Design, Hospitality, Production and Event Management.
Pulling together any event involves many hours of planning, attention to detail, honest advice and direction. And every event is different and unique in their own right.
What are the do’s and don’ts to plan a successful corporate event or product launch?
DO’S
Think about your guests, after all, you are putting on an event for them.
Who are they? Staff? Clients? This helps determine how you want the event to run and look.
Where do they mainly reside? This helps when shortlisting a venue location.
What do you want to get out of the event? How do you want your guests to feel? A successful event is when all aspects about an event from location, catering, entertainment, aesthetics, special personal/targeted details and touches are thought out and professionally executed.
DON’TS
Settle and if at all possible don’t leave it to the last minute. Great venues are hard to come by so lock this in first. At times it can’t be helped and an event will need to be planned last minute.
This is where you turn to the professionals who can take the load off and can create magic with very short timeframes.
3 Strategies to raise awareness and stay on budget
When it comes to event attendance, it starts at the invitation. Personalise it, make it special. The traditional invitation in the mail makes it that bit more special.
Follow up with an email invitation. Again, personalise it. Make the invitation inviting enough that the recipient wouldn’t want to miss it.
Keeping to budget. We are old school and we love an excel spreadsheet. Set a ‘minimum’ budget as a starting point but have a reserve. Categorise all the components ie. venue hire, catering, styling decor, event planner/stylist, client gifts, entertainment, photographer etc. and allocate an amount from your minimum budget to each category. Prioritise your must-have items and keep the nice-to-have as extras should budget allow. It’s not until you go out to receive quotes based on your brief that you’ll see whether your cost allocations are set realistically.
Tell us what’s the simplest but most effective way to get people to attend an event.
As per above re invitations. But also depending on the event you may offer the recipient the chance to take a guest.
The date, time and location are always important too. If it’s an annual event such as a corporate end of year Christmas party, make it a good one. Make it memorable and fun enough that when the next one arrives, they won’t want to RSVP with a no.
What are the key trends in corporate/product launch events for 2020?
Needs to be Insta worthy! : )
No really, we have found that more and more corporate businesses are having the impressive end of year Christmas parties to thank their staff for a great year and the bigger the better.
For some inspiration for your next event, check out their socials:
