Events Planning with 365

Planning and executing successful events in the corporate world requires effective communication, meticulous organisation, and attention to detail. With Office 365, Microsoft's comprehensive suite of productivity tools, you can streamline every aspect of corporate event planning, from communication and collaboration to organisation and even designing custom party accessories. In this blog post, we will combine the three topics to provide a comprehensive guide on leveraging the power of Office 365 for seamless event management.

Streamlining Communication and Organisation:

1. Centralise Corporate Event Details with SharePoint: Create dedicated SharePoint sites for each event, storing and organising all relevant documents, such as proposals, agendas, guest lists, and budget spreadsheets. SharePoint is the perfect place to share information with the team, and you can invite the finance director to sign off on the budgets!
2. Utilise Microsoft Teams for Event Communication: Create dedicated event channels within Teams to discuss logistics, marketing, or entertainment. MSTeams is excellent for holding conversations on new ideas, and you can save the notes taken and share them to the relevant SharePoint site.
3. Automate Event Registration with Microsoft Forms: Collecting attendee names and menu choices is a headache; simplify event registration and data collection by creating custom registration forms using Microsoft Forms. Automatically collect and store attendee information in connected Excel spreadsheets, ensuring efficient tracking and management of registrations.
4. Enhance Event Organisation with Planner: Utilise Office 365's Planner app to create separate boards for each event, break down tasks, assign them to team members, and track progress. Planner fosters collaboration and accountability, ensuring timely completion of crucial event planning tasks. The Planner app can help assign tasks for achieving Business Awards, from the application or nomination to the Awards dinner at the successful conclusion.

Office Party Planning and Management:

5. Create an Event Calendar in Outlook: Use Outlook's calendar feature to create a centralised event calendar for office parties and special events. Birthdays and personal celebrations dates can be challenging to remember, so using a shared calendar means all can contribute. Colour-code events and share the calendar with the team to ensure everyone is informed and prepared for celebrations.
6. Use Microsoft Forms for Office Party RSVPs and Surveys: Collect RSVPs and feedback by creating custom forms with Microsoft Forms. You can include important information for party planning, such as attendance, dietary restrictions, and preferences. Send post-event surveys to collect feedback and suggestions for future parties and improve each one!
7. Utilise OneNote for Party Planning: Create dedicated OneNote notebooks for each office party event, storing and sharing ideas, themes, menus, and decoration plans. OneNote is an alternative to SharePoint sites and perhaps more friendly for personal events than corporate ones.

Designing Custom Party Accessories:

8. Design Personalised Cards with Publisher: Use Microsoft Publisher to create custom greeting cards for office parties. Personalise the cards with text, graphics, and images to express the party theme or convey special messages. People love and treasure personalised items, so make a special card for their occasion, complete with company logos and messages.
9. Create Custom Banners with PowerPoint: Design eye-catching banners using PowerPoint. Arrange text, images, and shapes creatively to form the banner design. Save money on designers and printing costs by printing yourself or converting slides to PDF for professional printing.
10. Use Excel for Budgeting and Expense Tracking to file party budgets and expenses. Create dedicated spreadsheets to monitor costs and calculate totals, ensuring effective budget management. For certain events, such as awards and fundraisers, you can track sales and profits gained as a result.
11. Design Custom Labels and Stickers with Word: Utilise Word to design custom labels and stickers for name badges, party favours or decorations. Add text, graphics, and even incorporate company logos to create personalised labels.
12. Access Creative Assets with Office Templates: Explore the vast collection of pre-designed templates in Office 365 for party accessories like place cards, party hats, table tents, and name tags and badges—Customise templates to match your party theme and print for professional-looking results.

Conclusion:

By harnessing the power of Office 365, event planning, office party management, and designing party accessories become seamless and efficient processes. With SharePoint, Teams, Forms, Planner, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and the vast array