Yesterday I wrote about finding unusual event venues – which made me think about the many venues that I’ve had to find over the years for clients. Unless you are using an event management company or venue finding agency to look for your venues you might want to think about the following key points:
1) How many people is your event for – and will the venue hold that many people?
You might be surprised to learn how many people look at venues that are far too large or far too small for their event. This isn’t just in terms of each of the main spaces you will be using, but also how long it takes people to get from one part of the event to another – if you only have ten minutes between sessions starting and finishing, make sure people can get from the room they are in to their next location without being late.
2) Where are your audience?
Look at your customer/ client/ audience database and see where they live. If 80% of your potential event audience live in London then don’t chose a venue in Scotland – make it easy for your event customers – put your event close to where they are coming from.
3) How do your audience travel?
If your audience travel by train then a city centre venue will be best – however if they drive then a venue out-of-town could be an option. How do you know what transport your customers use? Ask them! OK, so you won’t know for the first event but make sure you collect data from your event attendees and use it. Find out as much as you can about your customers or potential customers and use this to determine where your event should be.
4) Accommodation
If your event is longer than one day is there somewhere on site or nearby that people can stay? Are there a range of options to suit all budgets? If you choose a venue that doesn’t have any accommodation nearby then can you organise transport between the two?
5) Timings
Don’t forget when booking the venue to allow enough time for your event production company to load in the lighting, staging and other audio visual equipment. The venue will need time to lay furniture as well so it might mean that you have to book the venue for longer than your event timings to have enough time to get everything done.
Can you think of anything? Comment below!