How to find the perfect venue for your event

How to find the perfect venue for your event

Plan­ning an event? One of the first things to con­sid­er in the long list of things to do is find­ing a venue! As a cen­tral com­po­nent of your event, the choice of venue should be made with your goals, your vision, the num­ber of guests, and the type of event in mind. Here are some key things to con­sid­er when choos­ing your per­fect venue.

If you are expecting few guests.

If your event is designed for a small audi­ence, it is eas­i­er to find a venue with a warm, quirky or unique atmosphere.

The type of event as well as its time are the first rel­e­vant ele­ments that will help you choose your venue. The venue will cer­tain­ly not be the same for a morn­ing event or an evening event: For a day event, con­sid­er a cafe, a loft, a meet­ing room, or an art gallery while an evening event can be held at a bar, a club, a music venue, etc. Make your choice in accor­dance with your cho­sen atmos­phere, the set­ting you wish to be in and the type of event you’re plan­ning (e.g. con­cert, office par­ty, par­ty with friends, work­shop, etc.).

Access to the venue and set-up of the space also mat­ter. Some­times, it’s use­ful to have sev­er­al rooms or a space that will meet the require­ments of the event’s pro­gramme. For a pre­sen­ta­tion, it is gen­er­al­ly advised to pro­vide seats for your guests, or enough space to move around eas­i­ly, while a cock­tail par­ty will require a space allow­ing peo­ple to stand around with­out being too crowd­ed. The fur­ni­ture on-site can also be impor­tant. In most cas­es it’s eas­i­er to use the fur­ni­ture already on loca­tion. Depend­ing on the time of the year, you may want to use an out­door space, enjoy the warm weath­er, allow for a smok­ing area, etc.

The ques­tion that aris­es then is the fol­low­ing: should you pri­va­tise the entire space or part of it? Think about defin­ing the time frame of your event, includ­ing set-up and disassembly.

Here are some oth­er ques­tions you should think about: How many peo­ple will there be? Would you like to include enter­tain­ment? What kind of equip­ment will be nec­es­sary? Should you plan for food and/or drinks? So many ele­ments to list in order to get an accu­rate quote from a venue hire or a venue manager.

Keep up with the trends, if you are look­ing for a unique or unex­pect­ed venue. For instance, we see an increas­ing num­ber of pop-up venues. Now, there are also “co-meet­ing spaces”, and lofts and flats can be rent­ed for a spe­cial event.

If you are expecting many guests.

Whether you are plan­ning a con­fer­ence, a large stu­dent event or a con­cert, look­ing for a venue is just as impor­tant and can even be made more com­pli­cat­ed by the num­ber of guests. You will need to find a venue large enough to wel­come all your guests. An out­door space — depend­ing on the weath­er — can be a good option. Oth­er­wise, you can look into pub­lic spaces in your city, for instance you can check with your city hall or local art venues, con­fer­ence rooms, exhi­bi­tion cen­ters, etc. Be care­ful not to hire too big a space so as not to cre­ate an impres­sion of empti­ness when all your guests are here.

Access to your venue is impor­tant. You should choose your venue based on cri­te­ria defined ahead of time: park­ing spaces, dis­abled access, sev­er­al entrances, fire exits, etc. Your guests have trav­elled from far away? Don’t for­get the sur­round­ing areas. It is good to opt for a loca­tion close to train sta­tions, air­ports and pub­lic trans­ports to make it eas­i­er to reach you. For any large par­ty, such as a cor­po­rate event, think about a loca­tion that makes it quick and easy for your guests to get home.

These are ser­vices you can include in your online tick­et­ing or reg­is­tra­tion plat­form. Atten­dees can pur­chase their tick­et then add a trans­port option for instance, or choose a spe­cial price that includes entrance and transportation.

In any case, what­ev­er the size of your event, it is crit­i­cal to think ahead. Make a list of your require­ments ahead of time, take the time to vis­it the venues, com­pare them and define the num­ber of guests you expect, the pur­pose of your event and how you want the event to be remem­bered. Plan you bud­get care­ful­ly and think of a plan B! No one is immune to some­thing going wrong, a can­cel­la­tion, a change of date or poor weath­er on the day.

Once you have found your venue, send your invites, sell your tick­ets, man­age your reg­is­tra­tions, com­mu­ni­cate and wel­come your guests!

 

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