WHY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE BEING SPENT ON CORPORATE EVENTS?
As the corporate industry grows at an exponential rate, corporate events have become an enormous market. According to MEI (Meeting Professionals International), a staggering amount of more than $112 billion is spent annually in the United States meeting industry alone. This money is spent on resorts, restaurants, hotels, conference centers, convention centers and country clubs; all for corporate meeting purposes.
This boom of corporate events is the leading cause of why the corporate event planning agencies are making good money. Dubai is the hubs of businesses, is one of the prominent places to host corporate events. National and international organizations opt to hold their corporate events in Dubai.
Large corporations usually have corporate event planners on their staff. If this is not the case, then they build a contract with an event planning agency. Medium and small businesses hand over the job of planning corporate events to their Human resource department.
Most corporate events fall into the following categories:
Board Meetings
Board meetings are held to provide an opportunity for board members to give an overview of the business performance. It also helps them connect with company executives and discuss the prospects of the company. These may be carried out every year, bi-annually or even quarterly.
Shareholder Meetings
Shareholder meetings provide all members of the staff to share and absorb the recent performance, future goals, business strategies and offer ideas for improvement. These may be carried out at any point in time, as to whenever there are prospective shareholders want to meet. With Dubai’s boom of property and business, this is the most commonly arranged corporate event in Dubai.
Seminars
Organizations hold seminars with a pre-planned purpose. These meetings are inaugurated with a targeted audience and with relevant information. People from outside of the company may/may not be allowed, depending upon the nature of the seminar. These are usually shorter events that last a couple of hours to half a day. One or more speakers may be present.
Conference
Conferences consist of multiple sessions that will occur concurrently and will focus on different aspirations, interests, positions or roles. These are typically held at hotels. Breakout sessions are held throughout the conference according to the topic. The meeting is opened by a keynote session to make sure the audience knows what to expect. Most conferences last for more than a day and are divided into sessions of one to three days. Such corporate events in Dubai usually are held at the posh hotels in the region, i.e., Landmark, Ritz Carlton, Marina, Sheraton Dubai and the list goes on...
Appreciation Event
Allowing the host to spend some informal time with the guest gives both parties an ample opportunity to get to know each other better and discuss mutual business developments and priorities. These events are focused on appreciating the employees whose have shown exceptional performance. Moreover, client appreciation is displayed in these appreciation events. These may be held several times during the year in the form of the following:
- A day out at a golf or race course
- Dinner or lunch
- Day and evening cruises
- Tickets to happening events in town
- Invitation with family to an event
Organization Milestones
Grand openings and other significant achievements are celebrated with organizational milestones. These are similar to employee and client appreciation events. They are more celebratory and can be limited to company employees or be inclusive or clients. Sometimes, larger companies also invite famous people from the general public.
Trade Show
Organizations make their presence known at trade shows for the generation of leads. It is up to the organization to choose to either host or sponsor a trade show to portray their image as a lead in the industry. Members of the organization, clients, prospects, and suppliers are all brought together at trade shows.
Product Launch Event
Project launch events are inaugurated for internal product launch meetings that would inform all the employees in the company about any new products. They can also be full-blown product launch parties with music and great celebrity endorsements to create a buzz with the release of the product among customers and the media. Most of these product launches are for B2B companies.
No matter what the event may be, Dubai will never fail to provide one if the most beautiful venues in the world. So next time your company is planning to arrange a corporate event, Dubai should be the place of your choice.