W42 Events Guide to……Finding the perfect venue

Mar 8, 2017
2 min read

There are lots of things to consider when looking for a venue, including:

Get a clear brief

Establish the meeting objectives, who is attending and what are the key criteria. This is particularly important if you are not the final decision-maker as a lot of your time could be wasted if the requirements change. Find out what the parameters are and what flexibility your client has.

Location

Where are the attendees coming from and how are they travelling? Would the event be better held in a city or in the country? Will delegates travel by car and is there plenty of parking? Consider the access by rail, air and bus. Does the venue have any transfer coaches or are taxis required? Travel is key and you’ll be off to a good start if everyone has an easy journey.

Style of Venue

There is a huge variety of venues available: hotels, conference centres, management training centres, castles, museums, racecourses. What would best suit your event? Is the venue the standard your attendees would expect? Do you need accommodation? If so onsite or nearby? Do you need outside space for team-building? If the meeting is held over several days, what additional facilities are available to entertain the delegates? Are there industry compliancy issues to consider?

Budget

Generally a daily or 24-hour delegate rate will offer better value than paying for room hire, catering and accommodation separately. Check the difference especially if you don’t require everything that’s included in the 24-hour rate. Work out how much you have to spend and be clear how you’re going to manage it. Do you have a fixed date, as you may be able to negotiate a better deal on a less popular day of the week or time of the year? Get your cost estimates in writing and create a spreadsheet to keep track of them. There are not only the venue costs to consider but promotional material, production equipment, speakers, transport and printing of documentation. Include a contingency budget, as something always pops up at the last minute.

The meeting room

How many people are attending and what layout will work best? Do you need break-out rooms and how should these be laid out? Will you need to set up the day before, consider rehearsals and the production requirements?

Arrange a site visit

Before you book the venue you need to understand how your event will work there and the only way to do so is to see it for yourself. But also think about which venues have been used before, what was good about them and what you would change. W42 Events can arrange your site visit to ensure perfect venue selection.

Take advice

As an experienced event management and venue finding agency, W42 Events have first hand experience of hundreds of venues worldwide. Consult with us to find what would work for you and what has worked or not worked for other people.

Remember - events are not all about the venue. Good people make good events. Coimmunication is the key to your success.

The key to a perfect event is planning - the more you do before, the better everything will run on the day.