Corporate events in international locales can set your organization apart and engage customers, partners and salespeople. Meetings and summits, product launches, user conferences and trade shows in exciting destinations expand your company’s reach, enhance your brand presence and enrich relationships.
Whether your target locale is cosmopolitan (Rome, Rio or Riyadh), an exotic beachfront resort or secluded mountain retreat, global events require planning and foresight.
Here are 6 ways to ensure the success of your next international event:
- Research the culture. Culture covers more than just language and artifacts in museums. Culture includes humor, fashion, body language, regard for personal space, entertainment, current events, politics, and of course, cuisine. Of equal importance is business culture: vendor attitudes, negotiation style, hours of operation and tipping practices.
- Find a local partner. Local event partners handle logistics and help negotiate in-country contracts and transactions. Your partner must speak the local language, plus your language, and should have five+ years operational experience. Also key are in-country relationships – travel agents, event venues, transportation companies, hotels, caterers, translators, tour guides, shopping locales, and government officials.
- Scout locations. Organizations begin their international event journey with a few locales in mind. To narrow your list, prioritize selection factors – cost, availability, business impact, cultural compatibility and “wow factor”. But nothing beats strolling down the praças and Straßen of candidate sites. Don’t rely on the Internet and never commit to locations sight-unseen.
- Have translators available. English is the world’s #1 second language and the #3 first language (after Mandarin and Spanish). But even in G20 countries, not everyone speaks English fluently or understands it effortlessly. Inventory the language skills and preferences of attendees, your event team and the local population. Consider contracting professional translators to support the event, ease local excursions and provide translation for event content.
- Set agenda at least 3 months in advance to facilitate travel planning. Business people – customers, prospects, partners and your own team – face myriad constraints on their personal and professional calendars. Lead-time is critical to event attendance and to avoid conflicts with other commitments. Publish event agendas in advance and send attendees regular reminders to make events more compelling and minimize cancellations.
- Use an international event planning company. Tasks 1-5 speak to decades of experience in global corporate event management and can be daunting for professionals accustomed to event production in North America. To simplify international event planning and deliver seamless event experiences, leading organizations look to an international event planning company. Temple Rock Productions, an award-winning event production company, with two decades’ experience spanning four continents, is the ideal supplier and partner for your next global meeting, launch or trade show.
The world doesn’t have to be a scary place for business engagement. Energize your corporate ecosystem with world-class experiential events in popular and exotic international locales. Let Temple Rock Productions ease the way to impactful, memorable, and inspirational experiences for audiences, and innovative, collaborative, and stress-free events for our customers and partners.
Contact Temple Rock today for more information on international event planning.
