Finishing work in daylight hours, green leaves on the trees, and red a red sky at night! It can mean only one thing – the sweet smell of Summer! So, get the BBQs out, put the Pimm’s on ice, and set up the croquet lawn – we’re ready to plan awe-inspiring corporate summer parties.
Here are some of our top tips for planning memorable corporate summer parties…
Know your objective
Think about what you want from your event. Is it an opportunity to bring your team together after so long, to let their hair down and socialise? Or do you feel your team needs to find ways to strengthen their working relationships through team building?
Understanding what you want to achieve is crucial and sets the way for the rest of the event planning.
Set the budget
We’re putting it out there early – we need to know your budget. This will help us determine priorities for the event and where we can allocate funds out accordingly.
Creating a great event doesn’t need to cost the earth. We can make anything work if we know your parameters.
Source the perfect venue
Now onto the fun stuff! Every great event starts with the venue – that’s why it’s in our name! So, once you have the objective and of course, the budget, it’s time to start finding that perfect venue.
No matter where you are in the UK, we’ll find the one for you. Here are some of our quirky ideas to get the mind bubbling.
Twickenham Stadium
Location: London
Capacity: Think as big as you want, the facilities can be catered and tailored to your needs
Perfect for: Pitch-side barbecues, team building on The Patch, Parties on the rooftop in the British Airways Rose Garden
DoubleTree By Hilton Manchester, SkyLounge
Location: Manchester-Piccadilly
Capacity: Up to 200 guests in the penthouse SkyLounge with adjoining terrace, breakout areas, and function spaces with natural light.
Perfect for: Drinks receptions, summer parties, corporate events
Somerset House
Location: Strand, Central London
Capacity: River Terrace hosts up to 500 for a standing reception
Perfect for: Riverside views across the Thames – invite guests to enjoy a private reception while the London landmarks light up your Summer event
West Midland Safari Park
Location: Three amazing venues in one unique location in Bewdley, Worcestershire
Capacity: up to 500 seated in the Treetops Pavilion
Perfect for: A whole host of corporate events including Summer Parties
Honourable Artillery Company (HAC)
Location: Armoury House, London
Capacity: The Artillery Garden has five acres of outdoor space plus capacity and functionality for even the wildest of event briefs
Perfect for: Stylish summer parties, corporate celebrations, team building events, sports matches
Clifton Observatory
Location: Clifton, Bristol
Capacity: 100 standing
Perfect for: With indoor and outdoor space available to hire, the venue is versatile. It can be adapted for any event including corporate events and private parties
London Zoo
Location: London
Capacity: 20-700 guests
Perfect for: Meetings, conferences, dinners, product launches, summer parties, team building, and away days
Knebworth House
Location: Stevenage, Hertfordshire
Capacity: 250
Perfect for: A variety of events. From conferences and seminars to exhibitions, awards ceremonies, summer parties, award ceremonies, and corporate receptions
For more on these venues and thousands more, complete our quick venue search, and we’ll help you find the perfect one.
Work with the experts
Aside from ourselves of course! We love collaborating with industry experts to incorporate different elements that make your event one to remember. Taking into consideration your main objective of the event, whether it’s team building, entertainment, theming, or all the above, we have contacts with the know-how.
Here are a couple of suppliers we have great relationships with:
- Off Limits: specialise in providing an extensive range of activities, team-building exercises, evening entertainment, and bespoke events throughout the UK and abroad with a “can-do” approach.
- Team Build With Bite: Amazing alternative team building company.
- c/o Mr & Mrs Grey: The force behind Elegant Entertainment – and Eventologists – specialists in event production, theming & decor for private and corporate events.
- First & Foremost Entertainment: Quality assured acts that will keep the party alive.
- Event Solutions: Award-winning venue styling company.
However, we also like to consider suppliers local to the venue. It’s a sustainable factor for the event, and can often save on costs as it avoids suppliers having to travel far.
Keep delegates at the planning forefront
Remember, you are planning this event for other people. While you may get excited about ideas you know you will enjoy, think of the wider group. Will it suit their needs and entice them to join you? After all, you need to be inclusive unless you want a party for one.
Bringing your team together is crucial for team morale and your employee’s mental health and well-being – to ensure they’re socialising. Although people are returning to the office environment, many organisations have retained some remote working.
With that in mind, let our Bien Venue experts help you source the perfect venue, and plan a memorable corporate summer party for everyone to enjoy! Drop us an email at sales@bvevents.co.uk
You can also make a start yourself. Use our Free Venue Finding Tool to explore the various options for your summer party.
Bien Venue is a boutique creative agency that specialises in a free UK venue finding service. It’s not just workshops, training, conferences, or off-site meetings we can arrange and venue search for but also away days, residential training events, awards ceremonies, networking, roadshows, hybrid events, summer parties, Christmas celebrations, private dining, team building, incentives, employee engagement hampers as well as virtual activities. We also offer accommodation booking platforms for both corporate bookers and event-specific allocations of bedrooms.
What does Event Management mean to us?
We see event management as any part of the planning process from conception to delivery, it’s not just the onsite event management we specialise in but also the pre-planning and logistics plus post-event. Our flexible approach means you can pick and choose which of our services you would like to use or just use our free UK venue finding service.