The definitive guide to creating the 2024 corporate events calendar

Before creating an event calendar, it's important to understand why corporate events are like this important: they generate engagement, or the involvement of people!

But what is engagement in detail? It is the level of emotional and mental connection that people have with regard to their work, the organization in which they operate and the teams they are part of.

When engagement is high, employees are motivated, productive and feel a deep sense of belonging. On the contrary, when engagement is lacking, the phenomenon of Quiet Quitting, that is, to do the bare minimum without giving added value.

The data on engagement in Italy are worrying: only 1 in 20 employees is fully involved in the work, the lowest figure in Europe! Italian companies struggle to generate a sense of belonging and intrinsic motivation in teams.

And yet engagement matters a lot to people: well 3.8 times more than in the workplace. Whether you work remotely, in person or in hybrid mode, what really impacts is feeling involved, valued and connected with your work.

Here's why engaging events, from Team building at corporate parties, they are an effective way to improve engagement: they create lasting memories and strengthen relationships and corporate culture.

With an effective recurring events strategy, it is possible to reverse the engagement figure in Italy. So let's dive into how to create it.

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From spot events to integrated strategy: how to create a corporate events calendar

To create an event calendar that generates engagement, it is crucial to integrate events into a consistent strategy, with defined objectives. Let's see in detail the 3 fundamental steps:

1) Define SMART objectives

First, identify the engagement objectives you want to achieve by planning an event. How can you be sure that you have better results? Simple, the objectives must be SMART:

Specific: not generic, but precise and well defined

Measurable: you must be able to monitor your progress with key metrics

Accessible: challenging but realistic

Relevant: aligned with the business strategy

Timed: with a defined deadline

Some examples of SMART objectives:

• Increase relationships between colleagues from different departments by 15% by the end of the year
• Disseminate the 3 key company values to at least 80% of employees in the semester
• Attract 50 new under-30 talents to career days in the quarter

Defining SMART objectives is not only a best practice, but it brings concrete benefits in organizing events that generate engagement:

Event management objectives help you clearly identify Focus and messages key to every corporate event. Know, for example, that a Team building aims to strengthen internal relationships, guides you to choose activities and corporate location adequate.

La measurability with well-defined metrics it is crucial to monitor results and effectiveness over time. For example, you can track the growth of ties between different teams with targeted before and after surveys.

Setting challenging but realistic goals allows you to Calibrate the necessary resources and optimize the budget and expected costs. For example, if the goal is to involve 80% of employees, you must provide locations and activities suitable for a large number of participants.

The relevance with respect to business strategy Make sure that every event contributes concretely to Overall mission. Choose aligned activities is a foolproof way to create an effective event calendar.

Finally, the deadlines define the programming priority, both by crossing the personal calendars of the teams involved and the management of projects at the company level.

Thanks to SMART objectives, every decision to organize engagement-driven events is simplified and optimized.

2) Build a strategic calendar

The ideal method for creating event calendars and plan a mix of events special throughout the year that work together to achieve the objectives. In fact, there are different ways of engaging, and each corresponds to different types of events.

• Team building to promote sociality and collaboration through fun activities that combine
• Internal conventions and Kick-offto spread corporate culture by sharing mission, values and strategies
• Training events for skill building, nurturing technical and transversal skills on different topics
• Corporate parties to create positive memories in an informal and joyful context
• Hybrid events to include remote team members with innovative remote participation solutions
• Hackathon to stimulate innovation through creative competition between teams
• Incentive trips and corporate retreats: a unique opportunity to reward talent.

A simple way maximize overall effectiveness and to avoid overlaps is to draw up the calendar of events in one place, together with the individual teams involved who will be able to report personal events and specific needs.

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3) Proactively listen to people

In addition to the quantitative analysis of the data, including spreadsheets, summary reports and so on, it combines the informal dialogue with people to better understand their level of emotional engagement. Some examples of activities you can do:

• Periodic employee experience surveys, to monitor indicators such as sense of belonging, motivation, satisfaction. Trends and changes indicate where to intervene.
• 1:1 interviews to collect personalized feedback, going into detail about individual experiences and needs. Stories help to find targeted solutions.
• Focus group on specific topics, to explore particular dynamics in an open and constructive discussion. You can see what the numbers don't say.
• Social listening analysis on internal channels, to understand spontaneous conversations and emerging latent needs of the target audience.

These active listening activities will enrich the strategy with qualitative nuances and they will help to create increasingly engaging and people-centered events.

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Three examples of corporate events to improve engagement

During the webinar People Power! we explored all these issues together with FiscoZen and OneDay Group, who not only spoke to us about how they plan their events but provided examples of how - in practice - they use them to improve engagement.

Fiscozen's Tech team meets at PyCon in Florence

Fiscozen wanted an opportunity to bring together live for the first time his Tech team, who works 100% remotely.

The event they chose is PyCon in Florence, to which many of the tech team had expressed their desire to participate to update themselves on the most innovative topics in the sector. The People team jumped at it to organize an event that would combine engagement, recognition of results and recruiting.

In fact, not only a few colleagues have boarded the stage to tell the behind-the-scenes of Fiscozen's technology, but they did Ambassador highlighting Fiscozen's mission and values, the challenges of their work and the passion that drives them To aspiring talents. A great way to spread company culture and attract new talent.

All in days of sharing, leisure and informal work, where everyone had the opportunity to get to know each other and spend quality time together.

OneDay Group creates community

OneDay Group has an ambitious challenge: to generate a sense of Community between teams from different companies in the group.

To achieve this goal, they have focused on an integrated event strategy. The highlight is the annual convention that interweaves activities and focuses across the various realities of the group. This is an event that requires a high capacity for organization: each brand in the group has different activity peaks and workflows. An online calendar is not enough to synchronize everyone's commitments: it takes strategic capacity and focus on priorities.

But the engagement continues all year round thanks to the spaces created ad hoc at the OneDay Group headquarters to promote informal sociality between teams. Whether it's a workshop in common areas or a Aperitif at the bar interior, opportunities like these reinforce day after day the sense of belonging to the entire group. A holistic approach that has led individual teams to feel part of something bigger. Community building at full speed!

Kampaay unites Swedish and Italian teams

In Kampaay, the annual off-site is a Key moment to create engagement between Italian and Swedish colleagues.

Imagine the entire team flying to their chosen destination, from Sweden to the heart of Tuscany. For some it is the first in-person meeting after two years of calling.

The 3-day program is a mix of training activities and team building pDesigned ad hoc to combine the Two Souls by Kampaay. Sessions on business strategy alternate with group challenges between laughter and friendly competition.

It is a moment of cultural discovery and sharing that reinforces mutual understanding, the foundation of daily remote work.

La company dinner The final celebrates the goals achieved together. It is the sense of unity and pride that will remain etched in everyone's memories.

Here's how a well-designed event can make the difference in generating engagement between intercultural teams. The possibilities are endless!

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Streamline processes with new event planning models:

To make the event strategy successful in the long term, it is essential to streamline and optimize organizational processes. Let's take a look at some effective solutions in detail:

Actively involve teams

With Kampaay it's easy to allocate dedicated budgets for each team, allowing them to independently manage the organization of an event tailored to their needs.

Each team can freely choose between a customized catalog of engaging ideas, from team building to training workshop and synchronizing it with your personal calendar. Kampaay provides inspiration, teams bring creativity!

The admin will have a strategic vision of all events scheduled and will be able to monitor the use of budgets in real time.

The teams will talk empowered and protagonists, generating a virtuous circle of motivation and innovation. Kampaay makes their active involvement simple and fun!

Identify “Cultural Ambassador”

Another way to not overload HR and involve other people in creating engagement is to identify colleagues with a natural talent to engage and assign them a budget for events that spread corporate culture.

These ambassadors will choose in Kampaay catalog the activities that best reflect company values. Their charisma will do the rest!

By organizing events perfectly aligned with the purpose of the company, ambassador they will strengthen everyone's engagement. And they will become models of leadership and culture!

Kampaay makes it easy to value the right colleagues to amplify the effectiveness of the event strategy.

Make the most of digital with Kampaay

As we have seen in this article, in a constantly evolving world of work, a solid engagement strategy and a calendar of corporate events well-planned is essential for the company's success. Not only does it help to retain talent, but it also helps to create a positive and rewarding work environment.

We've given you so many suggestions, we know it, and with all the work you have, you might think that it's not possible to kick off a strategic calendar of corporate events.

Instead, it's never been easier with Kampaay! You will have at your disposal:

• Un catalog with infinite ideas ready, to easily find the perfect event without starting from scratch. You save precious time in the design phase. And if you want to create the event from scratch, there is the event expert with which to create a tailor-made proposal.
• La management of budgets, participants, logistics and suppliers in one place: A simple and intuitive platform. Everything organized in a clear and traceable way.
• Dashboard to monitor in Real time data, key analytics and report creation, to analyze performance and engagement. Concrete support for decisions.
• You have a strategic partner at your side, who not only helps you at every stage of event planning, but it supports you to create a strategy able to change the engagement of your company.

With Kampaay, the HR team is free to dedicate yourself completely to strategy and the involvement of people, being supported in part by the technology and talent of Kampaay's event experts.

Kampaay is the partner and the technology that simplifies processes and amplifies the results of each event.

The ideal ally for aEmployee Experience of value!

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