Usually, the responsibility for planning business meetings and corporate events is delegated to employees who have little or no contact with the executive team. This can present several challenges during the course of planning and executive events.

We have previously discussed the suggested steps for getting CEO buy-in and some of the documents that may be helpful.

It is important to stress the fact that, without executive level input, it may be difficult to ensure that meeting content or the event agenda dovetails with senior management priorities.

1. In RFPs, outline the steps required to ensure quality including the stages at which you will need input from or sign-off by a representative of the executive team.
2. Provide specific examples of why executive buy-in is crucial and what can go wrong if executives are not given the opportunity for input:
   • You run the risk of arriving at the retreat and having the CEO or VP set aside all or most of the agenda on the day of the meeting.
   • Even for events that are strictly recreational, failing to stage manage the executive team can create major logistical challenges. For example, if the CEO decides that he or she would prefer Japanese cuisine and dinner arrangements have been made for an Italian venue, the event team can be left scrambling to find an alternative.
   • For events that involve scoring team results, it is important to wait for meal service to begin until all teams have checked in so that ample time can be left for scoring while the group dines. If the senior management team has not been briefed, they will invariably insist on an early start to service which will leave participants sitting around restlessly waiting for results.

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