
Every year, employees look forward to it… it is the company’s internal convention. Often synonymous with relaxation, the employees appreciate this event for its informality and the team cohesion it allows to maintain.
Today, the convention has become a real management tool to get the right messages across. As an executive assistant or marketing project manager, you are at the heart of the organization of your company’s internal convention. You therefore represent a key element in the smooth running of this event.
How to organize a successful company convention?
- Define objectives and messages
Organizing a company convention requires a lot of energy and time. For your investment in this project to bear fruit, it is important to make a well thought-out preparation. Starting by clearly defining the objectives and messages you want to convey through this internal event. This is a step that takes a lot of time but is worthwhile.
Indeed, the objectives will condition all your preparation but also your decisions. Meeting with the managers of the different teams in the company will allow you to identify their needs and, above all, the messages to be delivered during this convention. But not only that! A good internal company convention is above all a convention that conveys the right messages to employees.
Indeed, the messages established by the management are not necessarily those expected by the employees. Failure to mention certain subjects that affect employees can be detrimental to the company. This is why it is important to consult employees early enough to clearly define the objectives and messages to be conveyed.
That way, you will have enough information to work on the content and you can then think about the destination, location, theme, conference topics, speakers, types of activities, and roundtable discussions, for example.
- Lock in the convention budget
Once the objectives and messages have been defined, lock in the allocated budget before you begin organizing this corporate convention. It’s a no-brainer, but the budget is an essential element to take into account before going operational. All the more so because if your company is experiencing budget restrictions, you will have to make choices of service providers, locations, activities, equipment, etc.
- Choosing the date of the convention
Next, the choice of date is essential to ensure that all participants can come. Depending on the company’s current events (product launch, restructuring, change of strategy…) you can choose a date at any time of the year. Of course, bridge weekends and school vacations are to be avoided. It is nevertheless advisable to set the date of your event at a time when all the services of your company are available and are not overworked.

- Finding the ideal location
The next step is to find the ideal location for your company convention. A location that will fit your company’s image. The choice of the location is a crucial step in making this event a real success. To find the right venue, you need to list everything you will need: location, style of venue, number of participants, audio equipment, overhead projector, caterer, stage, seating.
Establish the guest list
That’s it. You have scheduled the date of your internal company convention, it’s time to draw up the list of participants. Who are the internal people invited, which departments…? Depending on the objectives defined beforehand, you won’t invite all the company’s departments at the same time. If it is a product launch, the communication, marketing and sales departments will be invited.
There is no need to invite the accounting department for this type of agreement. Ask yourself the following question: what are the messages to be addressed? It will allow you to clearly identify your target audience. From this list of participants, you will be able to start looking for a location for your company’s internal convention.
Elaborate the convention program
You now have all the elements to start thinking about the internal company convention program. Plan the course of the event based on the plenaries, workshops, parties, meals and activities you have planned. The trick to managing this event on a day-to-day basis is, of course, to create a back plan! It will allow you to follow your project with precision, to estimate the deadlines and the feasibility of certain tasks.
The second document you will have to realize concerns the planning of the internal company convention for the participants. It will include conference and activity schedules, break times, meal and evening schedules. As with the retro-planning, we advise you to leave some leeway if a conference spills slightly over the program.
Communicating the event well
Finally, the last tip for a successful internal company convention is communication with the participants. Indeed, communicating well about this event is an essential element to create real team cohesion and motivate employees.
Communication also concerns the post-event period. Once the internal company convention is over, well, it’s not over yet! A few days after the event, don’t hesitate to send a satisfaction survey to collect employee feedback on the event. Finally, one week after the event, send a thank you email to the participants with a report, photos and a few suggestions for improvements based on the feedback you have collected.