Corporate Event Planners Los Angeles

HOW TO PLAN A COMPANY PICNIC

If you’ve found yourself reading this blog you’re probably wondering about what it takes to plan a successful company picnic. Perhaps you’re prepping for a company picnic you’re about to plan or just curious. But no matter what the first step in planning any event is determining the objectives.

Why should a company plan an annual picnic?Identifying the goal and purpose of the event helps steer the event in the right direction. For a company, these kids of events are beneficial for employee bonding and boosting morale. Hosting a picnic is a wonderful way for coworkers to get to know each better in a fun, informal environment. After all, happy employees lead to better performance. Now that we understand some benefits of having an annual Picnic, let’s figure out the details of our event.

After the objectives, the most crucial factor for any event is the budget.Nothing can be planned or prepped without a thorough break down of how much money can be spent and how it should be allocated. As the planner, we sit down with whomever is our contact person at the company and hash out all the financials. Upon seeing the budget and doing some research, we let them know what is possible with their budget.

Think about rentals, decorations and food etc. Will the event need catering or will someone barbeque? Usually this depends on the size of the company, as a large company would have a tough time barbequing for 500+ people. What is the physical set up? Will the picnic need tables, or will blankets suffice? These things must be considered when thinking about the budget and feasibility. After that’s settled then we can start planning the rest of the event.

Next, we must determine our audience. Who do we want at our picnic?In this case that question is pretty simple. We want our employees to come out and enjoy the event. But let’s take it a step further. Can our employees bring a guest, is it family friendly, or maybe it’s a company picnic that we want to open up to the community (could be a promising idea based on the type of company). As Corporate Event Planners Los Angeles, once we figure out the specifics we can send out invites and RSVPs and can get a rough estimate of how many people are going to come. Knowing this comes in handy when planning the rest of the picnic. Because this is a corporate event, invitations can be sent via work email and promotion is all in house.

Now that we have the who down pact we can figure out when and where. From a Corporate Event Planners Los Angeles view, Obviously picnics traditional happen outside at park or somewhere with lots of open space. Additionally, picnics usually occur in the afternoon on a weekend, because this is corporate event it can also happen during the week providing more flexibility. Knowing this information gives us kind of a head start. Now we just have to narrow down the exact space and time.

When picking a location, it’s important that the location is easily accessible and convenient. Since this event is a company picnic, a park with parking might be best, especially if the event is family friendly.

Once the logistics have been squared away, we can get to the fun stuff: entertainment and activities. From a Corporate Event Planners Los Angeles view, a good place to start may be deciding on a theme if desired. For a picnic a good theme could be Water or Sports or even no theme works too. However, having a theme aids in picking fun activities. For example, Water theme might have a water-balloon dodgeball game, water-guns, dunk-tank etc. Of course, a simple picnic with no theme just food, good music and people can be just as desirable.

Aside from activities there must be other forms of entertainment. Live music, board & card games, performers, raffles are all good forms of entertainment aside from the activities that may be more demanding than some people are comfortable with. Additionally, if the event welcomes families and children keep in mind activities they would be interested in as well.

And always remember to keep the budget in mind when planning all these things.

xoxo

Justus