A guide to choosing an internal events agency, for Heads of Internal Comms, People Directors and Chiefs of Staff with a conference, offsite or company-wide moment coming up and two or three agencies to compare.
Most agency guides tell you to start with the showreel. For an internal event, it tells you less than you might think.
A showreel shows spectacle. Spectacle matters, at an internal conference as much as at a customer launch, but it is rarely what decides whether an internal event worked. That comes down to the people in the room. Did they leave understanding, believing or doing something they did not before? Did two merged workforces start to feel like one company?
So the right way to choose an internal events agency is to test how they think about your audience and your message before you look at how they stage the day. Below are the eight questions we would ask if we were in your seat, what a good answer sounds like, and how to brief agencies so you can compare them fairly.
What an internal events agency does, and what it does not
An internal events agency designs and runs the events a company holds for its own people, such as conferences, all-hands meetings, offsites, launches and awards nights. Its job is to make sure the message or moment lands with employees, not only that the day runs on time.
That second part is the difference. A general event agency is usually built for audiences who come once and leave, such as customers or guests at a brand activation. An internal audience knows each other and knows the leaders on stage. They compare notes on Monday and are still in the business when the next event comes round.
A good one works on the whole moment: what the event is for, the format, the agenda and speakers, the venue, the production and the run of the day, plus the suppliers, budget and logistics. You can see what that looks like in our internal conference work and our work as an internal events agency in London.
What an agency should not do is set your strategy or write your leadership message for you. It should help shape how that message is told in the room, challenge a weak agenda and get speakers ready. The content still belongs to your business.
When you do not need an agency
In-house usually works for small, regular events where the format is settled and the team has time, such as a monthly team meeting or a quarterly social. Agencies rarely say it, but plenty of internal events run well without one.
An agency earns its fee when the event is large, rare or high-stakes, such as a merger all-hands, a leadership summit or a company conference, and the internal team cannot also own the design. Three signs you are in that position:
- The event happens once a year or less, so nobody in-house has run one recently.
- A lot rides on one message: a new strategy, a restructure, a merger or a change of leadership.
- The person organising it also has a full day job, and the event is landing on top of it.
If two of those are true, the bigger risk is a day that runs smoothly and changes nothing. That kind of event has costs that never show up in the budget.
Eight questions to ask before you shortlist anyone
Ask what they think your event needs to achieve, who will lead it from brief to the day, and which comparable internal events they have run. Then ask how they handle a late change to the leadership message, what they will measure afterwards, and what is not included in their fee.
Ask them on the first call, before anyone has written a proposal. At that point the answers show how an agency thinks rather than how well it presents.
1. What do you think this event needs to change?
A good agency asks this back to you before it says anything about venues. Listen for whether they push past "bring everyone together" to something specific: what should the room understand, believe or do differently by the end?
When Perkbox and Vivup merged, the brief for their first conference together was to make 450 people from two businesses feel like one company, the first time they were ever in a room together. Every decision came from that sentence. The venue near Heathrow was chosen so travel was not a source of friction. A networking game gave people a reason to meet colleagues from the other business, rather than a duty to.
2. Who will run our event day to day?
The person who pitches is not always the person who delivers. Ask who your day-to-day contact will be, how many other events they will be running at the same time, and whether they will be on site on the day.
3. Which internal events like ours have you run, at our size?
Ask for named examples at a similar scale and format: a 300-person sales kickoff, a two-day leadership offsite, a town hall during a restructure. Festival activations for brands and private parties are different work. A strong answer is a specific story about what the event had to do and what happened, the way our work is set out.
4. How do you work with our leaders and speakers?
Most internal events rise or fall on the people on stage. Ask how the agency handles rehearsals, speaker briefings and changes to the running order, and whether they have helped senior leaders who are less comfortable presenting. If the answer is a lectern, a microphone and a clicker, that tells you a lot.
5. What happens if the message changes the week before?
It often does. Ask the agency to talk you through the last time it happened and what they changed. You want to hear a calm process, not reassurance.
6. Who do you think is in the room?
An internal audience is rarely one group. New joiners sit next to people who have been there ten years, and head office teams next to people who have travelled in. Ask how the agency would design for those differences.
For NextEnergy Group, the brief was to bring 350 people from nine countries into one room for the first time. The global off-site opened with an all-hands in the morning, then mixed people into cross-company teams for an afternoon challenge. New working relationships formed through the task itself, without forced introductions.
7. How will we know if it worked?
Ask what the agency will measure afterwards. Questions about the venue and catering tell you how the day went, not whether it changed anything. A strong answer links the measurement back to question one.
8. What is not included in your fee?
Ask how they charge, what sits in their fee and what sits in third-party costs, and how contingency is handled. A clear, itemised answer at this stage is a good sign of how the rest of the project will be run.
What a good answer sounds like, and the warning signs
Use this list to compare agencies after the first calls, or copy it into your own evaluation sheet.
What do you think this event needs to change?
Strong answer: They ask about your audience and message before suggesting anything
Warning sign: They lead with venues, themes or a showreel
Who will run our event day to day?
Strong answer: A named person, their current workload, and confirmation they will be on site
Warning sign: "The team" or "an account manager will be assigned"
Which internal events like ours have you run?
Strong answer: Named internal events at a similar size, with what each one had to do
Warning sign: Mostly brand activations, customer launches or private parties
How do you work with our leaders and speakers?
Strong answer: Rehearsal time, speaker briefings and a plan for a nervous presenter
Warning sign: Kit only: lectern, microphone, slides
What happens if the message changes late?
Strong answer: A real example and the process they followed
Warning sign: "That won't be a problem"
Who do you think is in the room?
Strong answer: Questions about teams, locations, tenure and any recent change
Warning sign: One plan for "the audience"
How will we know if it worked?
Strong answer: Measures tied to what the event had to change
Warning sign: A satisfaction survey and nothing else
What is not included in your fee?
Strong answer: An itemised breakdown and a clear approach to contingency
Warning sign: A single number with no detail
How to brief two or three agencies so the proposals are comparable
Send every agency the same written brief, or each proposal answers a slightly different question. One page is enough if it covers:
- What the event has to change, in one sentence.
- Who is coming: roughly how many, from which teams and locations.
- The date window and anything already fixed, such as a venue or a speaker.
- What is decided and what is still open.
- A budget range, even a rough one, so proposals are built to the same scale.
- How and when you will decide.
Ask for their thinking and the team they would put on it, rather than a full creative concept. Two or three agencies is usually enough. If a venue is already in the frame, our guide to the questions to ask before booking a venue covers what to check on the site visit.
Timings and budget: what to expect in the UK
For company-wide moments such as a conference or all-hands, brief three to six months ahead, ideally before the venue is booked and the agenda is fixed. Smaller events usually need six to twelve weeks.
Once the venue and agenda are locked, much of the design is already decided and the agency's job narrows to production. For a company all-hands during a period of change, that early window is where most of the value sits.
Budgets vary more than most people expect. As a rough guide from our own work, internal events run from around £2,500 for a small team day to £100,000 or more for a company-wide conference with full production. Headcount, venue, production and the length of the day drive most of that.
When you compare proposals, ask each agency to show its fee separately from supplier costs such as the venue, catering and production, and whether those supplier costs are passed on at cost or marked up. Expect a contingency line of around 10%, and agree that it is only spent with your approval.
Be wary of any figure given before an agency understands the brief. A directional estimate should follow once the goal and rough headcount are known.
Questions people ask
What does an internal events agency do?
It designs and runs the events a company holds for its own people, such as conferences, offsites and awards nights, and makes sure the message lands with employees as well as running the day.
When should a company run an internal event in-house instead of hiring an agency?
When the event is small, regular and settled in format. Bring in an agency when it is large, rare or high-stakes and your team cannot also own the design.
How far in advance should you brief an internal events agency?
Three to six months for a company-wide moment, ideally before the venue is booked. Six to twelve weeks for smaller events.
How many agencies should we ask to pitch?
Two or three, each given the same written brief, so you can compare their thinking fairly.
How much does an internal event cost in the UK?
It depends on headcount, venue and production. As a rough guide, from around £2,500 for a small team day to £100,000 or more for a company-wide conference. Ask agencies to show their fee separately from supplier costs.
Choose the agency that asked the better questions
The best sign in a first conversation is an agency that asks more than it tells. If you came off the call thinking harder about what your event needs to do, that is usually the one to work with.
That is how we start every brief at Herewith Events: with what the moment needs to do, and who is in the room. If you have an internal event coming up and want to test your thinking with a specialist, tell us about it.
