You have been entrusted with the organization of a company seminar and you don’t know where to start? This meeting between employees, which seems simple at first glance, requires real reflection and special organization in order to achieve the objectives set by management. A lot of questions arise and this is quite legitimate. You will have to choose the program, the place, the activities, etc…
CLEARLY DEFINE THE OBJECTIVES OF YOUR COMPANY SEMINAR
This first step is key to a good seminar organization because knowing your objectives will allow you to make the right choices. Like any professional event, the company seminar is no exception to the rule.
Organizing an event must be a logical response to strategic objectives set upstream of its organization. Depending on the company, the type of employees and the team involved, the purpose of each seminar differs. It is therefore impossible to conceive the same company seminar for everyone! The event must be tailor-made.
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PARTICIPANTS PERFECTLY
Company seminars are important moments in the life of a team. It is therefore essential that their seminar is like them. What is the profile of the participants? what do they like? what are the dynamics of the group? how is the communication between them? are there tensions between certain people?
IDENTIFY A BUDGET TO MAKE THE RIGHT SEMINAR ORGANIZATION CHOICES
Doing a 3-day seminar in a luxury hotel, sharing 2 days of residential seminar in the green in a charming hotel or planning a day of study in one of the castles does not meet the same expectations and does not require the same budget.
Getting to know the participants will allow you to offer them the ideal place where they will feel comfortable. A seminar in a palace is a particular positioning. It is therefore necessary to match your objectives, your desires and your budget in order to be able to design the seminar that suits you.
CHOOSE AN INSPIRING PLACE
The location is an important step in the organization of seminars. Once you have defined your objectives, the profile of the participants and the budget, you must then be able to orient your choice of location. For a working seminar, hotels located in the middle of nature offer a more conducive working environment for reflection.
DEFINE A BALANCED PROGRAM FOR YOUR CORPORATE SEMINAR
We often tend to want to optimize every minute of a company seminar to make it profitable. Be careful not to go overboard with too much work or a 100% fun seminar. In both cases, it can be badly perceived by the collaborators and lead you to organize a failed seminar. As a seminar organizer, you will have to define a balance between different dedicated times.
ENERGIZE TEAMS, A KEY POINT IN THE ORGANIZATION OF SEMINARS.
Facilitation can be present at all stages of your company seminar to energize working sessions as well as informal exchanges.
- Animation to energize work meetings
If you opt for a rather long working meeting time, there are many tools or practices to make these working moments more participative and involving. This will help you to memorize the messages. Digital is almost unavoidable with software in saas or webapps.
- Evening… and daytime animations !
In the context of a company seminar, the animations are an essential vector of conviviality and help to mark the spirits of your collaborators. The organization of a seminar therefore necessarily involves choosing the right activities at the right time for the time dedicated to relaxation.
- Participatory and fun activities
Gathering employees around games is often a good idea to develop communication and exchanges. For an early evening entertainment, you can privilege participative games such as wine casino or cocktail creation in team or involve artists such as digital magicians who will entertain your participants.
CHOOSE A TEAM BUILDING ADAPTED TO FEDERATE WELL
The team building is often a much awaited moment. It is therefore an important point of vigilance in the organization of company seminars. Today there is a very wide range of team building activities available to companies to challenge, entertain and develop team cohesion.
The great trend towards digital gaming now makes it possible to offer activities that go beyond the ordinary. Depending on the location of your seminar, you can opt for an outdoor activity or use a meeting room of your hotel for an indoor game.
ENSURE A WELL-OILED LOGISTIC ORGANIZATION
By logistics, we mean all the services set up around your participants: catering, accommodation, transport. For catering, it is generally proposed by the venue hosting you for a turnkey service. Nevertheless, you may need to select a catering service for a cocktail party or a restaurant to vary the pleasures.
MAKE YOUR COMPANY SEMINAR A LONG-TERM EVENT
A seminar is a given moment in the life of a company and a team. But it is important to integrate into your reflection the fact that you want to maintain the positive effects of this seminar over the long term. Anchoring the memories of a seminar can sometimes only be done by taking and keeping with you an object that represents this shared moment. It may simply be a photo printed on a photo kiosk on the evening of the seminar.
PLAN YOUR ACTIONS IN AN EFFICIENT WAY FOR A BETTER ORGANIZATION OF THE SEMINAR
If possible, allow 2 to 3 months to anticipate all the steps in the organization of your next company seminar. Less is actually possible but it will be less comfortable for you and the final result may be less comfortable. Indeed, you will first have to set a date to ensure the availability of your teams and find the place of your dreams.