Frequently
Asked Questions

Working with a certified event management business assures that you are working with an organisation that is committed to the highest quality event management business practices, consistency and reliability in the delivery of services, professional standards and dedication to continuous improvement. You know you are working with a business with at least one team member that is a certified event manager who is recognised as achieving a balance of holding academic achievement, industry qualifications, event experience and delivery quality.

Yes, we have travelled worldwide with our events and can assist you wherever your event takes you!

We offer a complimentary worldwide venue finding service for all your event needs. From corporate dinners to major conference events, we do all the hard work for you. Our longstanding and strong relationships with hotels and venues across Australia and internationally allow us to source and negotiate the best rate for your group.

We have the expertise to deliver a variety of formats to suit your budget and requirements for an engaged audience across a multitude of available platforms, including full integration with our event software. Our team are OnAIR certified and would love the opportunity to work through the best solutions to suit your event.

We have extensive experience in dealing with the unexpected. In fact, after 25 years in the events industry, we are extremely good at it! We build in contingency measures for all our events and are continually formulating Risk Mitigation Strategies to cope with emergency situations. Rest assured your event is always in the most capable hands.

Typically we like to start working on an event around 12 months prior; however, this will depend on the size & scale of the event. Many of our clients have a very short lead time, and we have been known to pull off miracles within a week or less!!

There are many benefits to hiring an event manager, some of these include: to save yourself from the stress and considerable amount of time required to manage an event (often pulling you away from your normal daily tasks!); to give a new, fresh feel to an annual event; to allow experts to seamlessly manage the often underestimated, challenging logistical nature of an event; to ensure you get value for money from your budget; because your event has a high profile audience- and you need it to be professional; because you started planning a little too late or simply because you are completely overwhelmed at where to start! Anyone can make an event pretty – Cornerstone will ensure it is remarkable.

Amazing ones! We are proud of our retention rate of clients and work on a wide variety of event sizes and nature – from 12 to 3500 – covering the spectrum of executive board meetings, sales conferences, international symposiums, and incentive journeys. We have clients that are associations, corporations, government departments and not for profit organizations – we never work with competitors of our clients at the same time, rather providing exclusivity in market sectors.

We charge a flat fee for our event management. That way, your budget is set, and your finances can be managed more efficiently than many operators who work on sliding scales and percentages of sponsorships or overall event spend. There is no incentive to achieve the best prices for a client if the management fee is a percentage of overall spend. Once we receive your event brief, we can provide you with an accurate quote based on your dates, numbers, destination and other requirements. We’d love the chance to chat with you about your requirements, and we can create a budget outline.

Everywhere – We have run events all over the world, from Peru to Dublin, to Bangkok to Lorne!

We apply a tailor-made solution to every client, as each event is so individual. We will ensure that you have one of the owners of the business involved from start to finish, along with our incredible event management team.

We offer a range of services which include but are not limited to

• venue selection;
• contract negotiation, program development;
• online registration, venue management;
• speaker & entertainment management;
• scriptwriting & production;
• accommodation management;
• group travel & logistics.

Unlike many other Event Management companies, you don’t necessarily need to utilise ALL of our services. You may pick and choose based on your requirements, internal resources and budget. We simply become an extension of your own team and help to lighten your workload.

From small board room meetings to large conferences of 6000 pax.

Cornerstone approaches each client event with a bespoke solution to their needs. Once you contact us for a quote, we will prepare a comprehensive budget outline based on the discussions we have with you. Once contracted, we will prepare a key milestones document with agreed timeframes for you, and then get cracking – we can’t wait to hear from you!

We carry out a risk assessment highlighting the event risks, including COVID19 related probabilities. Guidelines are subject to the place, time and government health department policies, and the Cornerstone team will ensure these are reviewed prior to the event and again on the day of the event for any changes/updates in the location where live events will be held. Our team have also undertaken government-endorsed COVID Safety Guideline training in their respective states.

Event design and event planning work hand in hand to deliver a successful event. Event design is about bringing your event to life with appropriate venue choice, colours, themes, room layout, logos, branding and curating a program to deliver on your objectives.

Event planning is about coordinating the logistical elements, following a critical pathways document and budget management. Both have measurable outcomes, and we would recommend sourcing feedback from your attendees in a post-event evaluation.

Unlike many other event management companies, the Cornerstone team is 100% transparent with all costs: big-ticket items like production costs are negotiated on your behalf and passed on without margin being added. Our team will work for you and your bottom line. The pricing is fixed per the total – we charge a flat fee for our event management. That way your budget is set and your finances can be managed more efficiently with no hidden surprises!

If you are interested in having us plan your next event, please contact: karen@cornerstoneevents.com.au

Most definitely. We can build a custom conference registration site for you, reflecting the design concept of the event. This provides an easy collection of necessary data whilst also assisting your attendees to understand the various options available to them. Data captured can include contact details, registration type (e.g. attendee, exhibitor or speaker), dietary requirements, relevant medical conditions and any additional data. It will also provide accommodation and travel solutions for attendees. We then look after all of these aspects including name badge printing.

The first step is determining the key objectives for your event, who your delegates are and where they are travelling from. We would then look at the number of attendees, logistics, identify any current local issues (particularly with overseas destinations) and your budget.

The Cornerstone team book in excess of $60 million in events during the year, providing significant buying power for all our clients. Our longstanding and strong relationships with suppliers across Australia and internationally allow us to source and negotiate the best rate for your events.

We will work with you and your team to plan, design and develop the branding and theming for your event. From the outset, Cornerstone would seek a solid understanding of the purpose/key objectives of your event and offer suggestions from designing logos for your conference website, program content, through to themed gala dinners, team merchandise or corporate gifts.

We have a terrific event platform that is fully integrated with an online solution to deliver your events in either an entirely virtual or hybrid environment. What that means is that you can perhaps consider replacing your full conference with a virtual offering. Our platform enables face to face networking, small group forums, meeting hubs, exhibition/sponsorship face to face meetings as well as traditional conference plenary and concurrent sessions. If your organisation or association typically gains funding from your annual conference sponsorship, the exhibition component of this platform provides an excellent opportunity to facilitate this – we’d be delighted to demonstrate it to you.