“Wow” corporate events leave lasting memories with company members and fuel engagement. By organizing an overseas meeting for corporate teams, businesses provide the chance for employees to reflect on their experiences in new environments, encourage intercultural growth, and strengthen team interaction.
Definition of a corporate event
A corporate event is a meeting sponsored by a company, which aims at bringing corporate teams and, in some cases, business clients or investors together. The aims of setting up such gatherings differ, but what unites them is the striving to create the specific atmosphere that would encourage networking, relaxation, communication, and reward employees for their hard work.
How to organize a corporate event overseas
Businesses view it as a cutting-edge trend, start-ups – as one of the goals to aspire to, and employees – as a part of the outstanding corporate culture. Organizing an incentive business trip or a corporate gathering in another country can be the puzzling issue, but it definitely, sets a high mark for a corporation.
7 reasons why you should organize a corporate event overseas
So, here are the top 7 reasons why you should care about abroad events:
#1. Bonding benefits. If you’ve ever been travelling with a couple of friends or family members, you know that there’s nothing that unites people better than the exploration of new things in new environments. Take your team on a bus or plane, rent a big house for everyone so that employees could share rooms with each other. In other words, connect people through a daily routine and get your super-strong team!
#2. Entertainment variations. Local food, music and performances – fresh cultural insights give you the chance to add some unique flavor to an overseas corporate event. You can invite a local band or use some traditional entertainment that defines the culture of the hosting country, and voila: fascination, joy, and excitement!
#3. Exploring the target audience. Let’s say, a company is based in New York, but targets the Chinese market, which means people who work for it can benefit from direct interaction with the Chinese, exploring the traditions, buying behaviors, etc. Organize a corporate trip to the location that is the flagship of your business strategy and reap generous benefits for future performance!
#4. Idea hunting. A corporate event shouldn’t always be the “fun for the sake of fun” deal. In fact, purposeful events make a new trending philosophy in the highly competitive business world. Think of all the thousands of companies that run hackathons to generate ideas in a new way and organize social responsibility projects to demonstrate the corporate positioning. Using events abroad can be a great idea in terms of encouraging people capture inspiration and learn from the relevant industries in an international perspective.
#5. “Testing” your team. This is a great idea for young companies. If you want to see how your team can deal with stresses and tackle challenges, bring people to the unknown place and organize a quest! A language barrier will spice the things up!
#6. Networking perspectives. Abroad corporate events open up new horizons for networking. Establish new partnerships, be empowered by inspiring stories, improve your foreign language skills – all in one shi-bang!
#7. Foster mobile communication habits. Digital is invading the world fast. By encouraging your team to communicate through mobile during the trip, you’re preparing people for a trending “remote work” mode, and nurture work schedule flexibility.
Challenges of organizing an event abroad
Why most companies say an abroad event is just too much for them and they would better set up a corporate meeting in a cosy restaurant nearby? Because overseas corporate meetings are not only about event planning, but about the travel industry, safety concerns, and budgeting as well. Therefore, before making your team count days to the dream trip, make sure you can find solutions for the following issues:
- affordable travel packages;
- employees’ safety;
- accomodation and booking;
- venue selection.
Tips for organizing corporate event overseas
We have to be honest here. As a corporate event organizer of an overseas trip, you’ll have some pain points to deal with. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you make things easier:
- Start planning early. Ideally, it shouldn’t be later than 8 months before the trip start. Timely preparation will give you enough flexibility in terms of selecting optimal venues and cost-efficient travel packages, as well as making all the necessary reservations.
- Collect experiences and ideas. Organize a team discussion to capture the expectations and preferences of employees, add some ideas from event professionals, and enter the game with enough ammo!
- Create an itinerary. You don’t want someone to get lost in an unknown place!
- Set up a pre-event session. Gather the whole team together before the start of the trip and provide clear instructions in terms of the action plan, safety implications, and documentation.
- Connections must be. In the case of emergencies, the team members have to be able to connect to each other. Set up an online discussion and encourage people to share their phone numbers with each other. Apart from that, every person should be provided with the printed itinerary, city map, the contacts of a hosting organization, embassies, and an event organizer.
- Use a software solution to automate the process. An end-to-end platform with integrated apps for online registration, email marketing, and internal communications, will not only simplify things, but also give you an agenda to improve on strategy in future.
Get started with GEVME now and enjoy the high quality of corporate event organization. GEVME specialists will help you find the appropriate solutions in terms of inviting employees for an overseas event, handle registrations, manage ticketing and reservations with top automation.
Corporate event trends change over time, but the benefits of overseas trips are always there. Don’t hesitate to accept the challenge and reap the benefits of abroad events!
About the author
Tetiana Hanchar is a Content Marketer and Strategist for GEVME – the integrated software that caters for event needs. With over 5 years’ experience in Content Management, Tetiana works with insights from the Event Planning industry and PR.