The Value Add from Event Production Companies
Expertise
Event Production Companies are incredibly specialized. Their undertaking of multiple large-scale corporate events each year gives them a heightened understanding of the production process. In other words, they’ve seen all sorts of big ideas succeed or fail for numerous reasons. Executive Producers utilize this insight to give your company both big and practical ideas. Not only that, but they know how to execute each little detail in that process, too.Discovery
As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” In essence, you’re not going to get a whole lot accomplished without a clear roadmap of your event’s landscape. With that in mind, your team’s first priority is to understand the challenges you’re up against. A good partner takes this task extraordinarily seriously, taking creative measures during discovery to identify the core challenges your business faces.Strategic Thinking
Once there’s a shared understanding between the event production company and your team, you can get to work creating an event that impacts. A great production partner adjusts their focus to your business’s unique needs. This is the part where their industry expertise fuses with your objectives. They’ll begin to address needs such as audience engagement or employee retention and design a one-of-a-kind experience that tackles them.Efficiency
Event Production Companies consolidate the communication points within an event by acting as a liaison between AV companies and their client. This dramatically decreases the amount of coordination required by corporate event planners, giving them more time to focus on other important meeting aspects. In addition to handling vendor communications, producers develop a plan of action for potential problems before they have a chance to manifest. Agencies provide an easy-to-manage process that is more likely to run smoothly. Those two factors alone secure event production companies as an important piece of the puzzle.Measurement
In the corporate world, it’s ROI or bye-bye. If you can’t prove your annual conference is producing results for the company, then you or your event won’t be around much longer. Event agencies understand this crucial factor. They’ll help you set, approve and measure key goals that determine the ROI for your event. Once the goals are in place, they track and report engagement KPIs like attendance, app usage, social response, engagement scores, other survey results and much more.
Content Development
From email campaigns, teaser videos, surveys, script development, executive presentations, app content and more, all event communication must serve a purpose. Since event production agencies play a key role in determining your communications strategy, they are best equipped to execute on the creative content development end. This is where a production agency’s creativity begins to take life. Their in-house and outsourced team of creative strategists formulate a compelling narrative around your theme and infuse those ideas with your content. In the end, the right partner delivers you a brand story that resonates with your attendees.Content Delivery
Oftentimes, the content delivery is as critical as the message itself. If you don’t package your content in an interesting way, then your campaign risks the possibility of falling on deaf ears. Agencies provide a wide range of solutions in this regard. Whether you need a low-budget medium or an outside-the-box project, they’ve got options for you. For example, experiential producers love designing participatory workshops to spark interest through interactive learning. The campaign could be as simple as an in-theme email campaign following the event. It really is up to your company and what everyone agrees will best get the job done.Communication Strategy
Finally, it’s important to note your event isn’t the only place to spark your employees’ imagination. A great production partner crafts a communication strategy that spans throughout the entire employee lifecycle. This involves pre-event engagement tactics producers design to maximize your event’s effect and post-event strategies to keep the fire burning. If done right, a single event can lead to a multi-year ongoing engagement campaign.In a world filled with feel-good slogans and catchy advertisements, it’s really easy to question an agency that specializes in “creative strategy.” Nevertheless, corporate event planners continue to turn toward event production companies to help with their annual conference every year. Why? There is a long list of capabilities a strong production agency brings to the table. That list spans much longer than the one mentioned here, but these 8 cover the basis of what an event production agency should provide. If you’re producing events in-house, perhaps it’s time to take a serious look at your event and communications strategy. And if your current partner isn’t fulfilling at least the 8 things mentioned here, it’s time to get creative.
