Planning a Corporate Event Abroad: When You Need Local Expertise

Corporate events abroad create problems most firms don’t anticipate encountering until deep into the planning process. What should be standard event planning tasks around event space, catering, and transport become lessons in errors around unknown cities, alien business cultures, and no trusted vendor contacts to bail them out.

The obvious attraction of an event abroad is understandable. From incentive trips, multiple day seminars, and product launches, the impact of such events lasts long after any food has been consumed or presentations have ended. The implementation of them is where knowledge far beyond ordinary event management skillsets is required.

The Knowledge That Creates Problems

When planning an event in your home city, you likely know of every major venue, caterer, and transport vendor. You know about local business cultures, meeting times, which meals matter, and what can be considered formal or informal attire.

Go abroad, and that all counts for nothing. What appears to be the highest-rated venue in an unknown city might be located in a neighborhood impossible to reach during peak times. The best-looking catering firm might have standards that differ greatly from what staff expect. You miscalculate the transport time due to unfamiliar traffic patterns.

All these minor oversights become serious issues when they inhibit the effectiveness of your event. Instead of getting down to business with the purpose of the event, your attendees spend time caught up in logistical challenges.

When To Engage Local Knowledge

This is where destination management companies (DMCs) come in. A London DMC has established trusted relationships with vendors who have delivered on their promises over the years. They understand which vendors can be believed and which have only given half-truths.

We’re not just talking about someone with a few contacts in their email address book. These are individuals who know the operational realities these firms fail to mention in their marketing material. They know which venues accommodate 200 attendees but become cramped at 150. They understand which caterers excel at formal meals but are useless at informal dining. They realize you made a mistake when calculating transport times because you were unaware of traffic patterns.

Their insights are valuable across all levels of planning. What activities would work for your group profile? Which neighborhoods are worth including in the itinerary? When is the best time to schedule events around available meals? What delays should you anticipate?

The Culture That Is Commonly Overlooked

Business cultures differ far more than most firms realize until they’re in the situation. From meeting start times to what counts as business casual attire, expected gifts, and applicable networking conversation topics, everything shifts when you cross borders.

Involving local knowledge makes it a factor when organizing your event rather than a potential hiccup. Having someone local means everything from dress codes and verbiage in invites to the most appropriate welcome that sets the tone for the rest of the event. It includes the vendors used during the event who also need to be treated professionally.

Most international vendors are consummate professionals interested in seeing your event succeed. Problems arise when the different cultures involved make different assumptions around timelines, deliverables, and the process for changing arrangements. The more someone understands the context behind those assumptions, the smoother it goes.

The Complexity of Transporting Groups

Transporting groups of people across a busy city is more complex than most realize. Returning clients or employees to a hotel far away each evening and picking them up several times a day for activities requires a deep level of understanding and expertise.

Moving a group from one place to another is the type of logistical challenge best solved with years of local knowledge. What seems like an easily accessible route on a map may have one-way streets, bridges with height restrictions, or neighborhoods busy with pedestrians at certain times of the day. A local planner knows where transport services can drop people off; how to access parks; where they can wait for hours for groups to assemble, and what timelines they should consider.

They also know that what seems like a thirty-minute journey at night might take two hours during rush hour. They’re aware that public transport which seems feasible on tourist maps may include multiple transfers between three buses before reaching the hotel. Someone with local knowledge is equipped to put this information into the plan rather than people inadvertently finding this out the hard way.

Handling The Unexpected

Every event will experience equipment failure, overrunning schedules, bad weather, and changes in attendance that affects logistics. The ability to troubleshoot these elements is what makes a planner effective at saving face and ensuring the event continues.

When someone lacks depth in supplier relationships, it takes time to solve problems with arranging replacements. Locating a replacement projector within an hour is no easy feat. Finding extra seats in seconds for fifteen extra attendees is only possible when you already know reputable vendors. The more contacts someone has, the easier they will find a solution to problems that threaten to ruin an event.

Events abroad also come with rules and regulations relating to business licenses, permits, noise ordinances, and insurance that can ruin an event if someone isn’t prepared. The ability to navigate them is vital when something starts going wrong.

Understanding Requirements And Costs

Engaging a destination management company can seem like an extra cost. This may depend to some extent on them charging a percentage of your total spend. However, their existing relationships with vendors may make it possible to source acceptable costs as they find better prices than a firm operating at a distance for a larger number of guests requiring multiple services.

Much of this can be negotiated based on loyalty at a different level than that usually seen with a negotiation session. Business functions at a different level than companies attempting to impress the supplier with their first event abroad.

Returning with affordable rates also requires detailed knowledge about what prices various services cost. Local partnerships build up credibility over time, meaning DMCs can give realistic quotes rather than overly inflated figures given by vendors trying to impress new clients.

Factors To Consider When Making Your Decision

You may not require the services of a DMC for every event abroad in terms of the scale of gatherings requiring their involvement. A small gathering at a major hotel providing all services is easy to manage across borders. DMCs are also useful for more complex events requiring transport across cities from accommodation and organizations of various activities.

The more you operate in countries beyond your own, the less time you have available as planners to juggle so much with co-workers also requiring attention. The better option is to call upon others with knowledge and experience in business settings across multiple countries.