Programme design
A running order sized to the time you have, with the speaking, the activity and the refreshments in an order that holds attention.
We plan and run International Women's Day programmes for companies in Pune: a speaker or panel worth listening to, an activity people join in, decor, a photo moment and gifting, all inside the working day.
A Women's Day programme at work has one honest job: the women in your company should leave feeling the hour was for them. Everything else, including the photographs and the social post, follows from that. Plan it the other way round and people can tell within five minutes.
March is a crowded month, so most companies want something that fits between meetings. The version that works is usually short and specific: one good speaker or a panel with a real brief, one activity that gets people talking to colleagues they do not normally sit with, a decent photo backdrop and refreshments. A long agenda with four addresses does less than a tight hour.
We plan and run the whole thing, whether it is a programme in your cafeteria in Kharadi, a half day at a hotel, or an evening for the company and their partners. That covers the programme design, the speakers, stage and sound, decor, the activity, gifting and a photographer. Your HR team briefs us once and attends as a guest.
Every photo here is from an event our team planned and ran.
The quickest way to get a corporate Women's Day wrong is to plan it for the company rather than for the women in it. The second quickest is to make it too long. Get those two right and the rest is arrangement.
Spend a week asking women across teams what they would find worth an hour, and let the answers shape the agenda. Some offices come back wanting a speaker on career and confidence; some want practical sessions on health, money or safety; some want nothing more than a good meal and time together without an agenda. All of those are valid, and guessing between them is what produces a polite, empty hour.
Decide who is invited and be clear about it. Women only, everybody, or women with their teams are three different events. A programme open to everyone works well when the message is about how the whole company behaves. A women-only session works better for candid conversation. Mixing the two, where men are invited but only to listen, needs to be said out loud in the invite so nobody is surprised.
Choose the format first and design inside its limits, rather than letting a one-hour plan swell into three.
| Format | Fits when | What goes in | What to leave out | Usual risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An hour in the office | Delivery teams cannot leave the floor | One speaker, one activity, refreshments | Multiple leadership addresses | Starting late and eating the activity |
| Extended lunch | You want people to mix across teams | Short talk, seated meal, photo corner | Anything needing a dark room | Food service noise drowning the speaker |
| Half day at a venue | The theme deserves a workshop | Keynote, workshop, lunch, recognition | A panel and a keynote on one subject | Travel time nobody counted |
| Evening celebration | Partners are invited or it doubles as a party | Performance, dinner, music, awards | Long presentations after the food | People leaving before the closing segment |
| Hybrid across offices | Teams sit in more than one city | One streamed session, local activity at each site | Long question rounds on stream | Remote sites treated as an audience only |
A speaker fails at a corporate Women's Day for predictable reasons: the talk was written for a conference, not for your company; it ran twice its slot; or it was pitched at a general audience when the room was mostly engineers. Send the speaker your headcount, the mix of roles, the time of day, the exact length and the one thing you want the room to take away. Ask for a rehearsal call.
For a panel, the moderator matters more than the panellists. Agree the questions in advance, tell each panellist which ones are theirs, and give the moderator permission to cut in. Four accomplished people with no moderation will produce four introductions and no discussion.
Choose gifts your team would use rather than something symbolic. Ask a few colleagues before ordering, keep it consistent across levels, and make sure contract staff, housekeeping and security are included, because leaving them out is the detail everyone notices. Hand gifts out at seats or at a desk with two counters, not at the exit, where a queue turns the last memory of the event into waiting.
Two more things worth avoiding: a programme that is entirely about motherhood, which excludes a lot of the room, and leadership speeches that praise women in general rather than saying anything specific about this company. If you want the recognition part done properly, keep the citations short and name what the person actually did.
If you would rather hold this as an evening party with music, dinner and a venue away from the office, our corporate party planner page covers that side. To place Women's Day inside a calendar of activities across the year, see employee engagement events.
Can't find yours? Call or WhatsApp — a planner answers.
A corporate Women's Day event usually combines a speaker or panel, one participative activity, refreshments and a photo moment, held inside the working day. Some companies add recognition for women across teams, a health or skills session, or an evening celebration. The programme is short and specific rather than a long agenda of addresses, because attention is the scarce thing in March.
One hour is enough for most offices, and an extended lunch is the next step up. Teams on delivery schedules cannot leave the floor for half a day, so a tight hour reaches more people than a longer programme half of them skip. Keep half-day and evening formats for years when the theme genuinely needs a workshop or a celebration.
Headcount, whether you stay in the office or book a venue, the speaker you choose and what you gift. Food and gifting scale directly with numbers, while stage, sound and decor are closer to fixed. A cafeteria programme costs far less than a half day at a hotel. Share your headcount and format and we will itemise it.
Someone whose experience matches your audience, briefed properly on your company and time slot. An outside speaker brings a fresh voice; a senior woman from within the company brings credibility, because the room knows her work. Whoever you choose, send them the headcount, the role mix, the exact length and the one takeaway you want, and ask for a rehearsal call.
Anything people join rather than watch. Self-defence demonstrations, health screenings, short financial planning sessions, craft or pottery corners, a quiz and photo booths all work in an office setting. Pick one and run it well instead of three at once. The measure is whether people end up talking to colleagues they do not usually sit near.
Something people will actually use, chosen after asking a few colleagues rather than ordered on assumption. Keep it consistent across levels and include contract staff, housekeeping and security, because leaving them out is the detail everyone notices. Hand gifts out at seats or across two counters instead of at the exit, where a queue becomes the last memory of the event.
Yes. One main room is streamed to your other locations, with a local host, a local activity and refreshments at each site so nobody is only an audience. Keep the streamed portion short and put questions into a moderated channel. We handle the stream, the room setup at each site and the timing between them.
Pune · PCMC
Pune · PCMC
Conferences · Offsites · R&R nights · Dealer meetsTell us the hour, we will fill it properly
Share your headcount, the time you can spare and whether it is office or venue, and we will send a programme with an itemised proposal.