How to Book a Venue for an Event: 7 Top Tips

Even the best-conceived and well-planned event will go badly if the venue is not up to scratch or has the wrong ambience. Not only does the venue have to be the right size, have the right facilities and suit the purpose but it also has to look and feel right.

Attendee experience is incredibly vital. Therefore, the challenge lies in enhancing this experience to ensure events remain impactful and memorable, even when faced with logistical challenges.

Tips for Booking an Event Venue

By following these seven tips for booking an event venue, you’ll stand the best chance of ensuring that your event goes off without a hitch.

1. Match the venue to the event

Before considering any venue, you must first decide the type of event you want to hold, you’ll need to have an accurate estimate of numbers expected to attend and you’ll need to know what you have to spend. Venue size is crucial: too small and the participants will feel uncomfortable, too big and it will feel empty unless you are prepared to decorate the premises to disguise the unused space. You may also need to have rooms available for small group meetings.

You’ll also want the venue to be appropriate for your event. For example, if you’re a promoting a hi-tech business you’ll probably want a to be in modern surroundings rather than an ancient hall. For the best outcome, the event has to be in a location that has, or can be adapted to create, the atmosphere that you want.

2. Accomodation

When planning an event, ensuring the venue’s accommodation aligns with your needs is essential. Collaborate with the venue manager to address the following:

• Guest Requirements: Does the venue require any pre-arrival documentation or forms from attendees?
• Peak Time Management: How does the venue handle busy periods, such as check-ins, meal times, or group activities, to ensure a smooth flow of guests?
• Contingency Planning: Is there a designated area or process for assisting guests who may require support during their stay?
• Setup and Access: What are the access times for setting up and breaking down your event, and are there restrictions on equipment or materials?
• Promotions and Displays: What promotional activities and displays are allowed in shared spaces, and are there any specific guidelines to follow?
• Safety and Staffing: Are adequate staffing and security measures provided to ensure guest comfort and event success?

Thoroughly reviewing these details with the venue will help ensure the accommodation supports a seamless and professional event experience for all attendees.

3. Create an Unforgettable Experience

Naturally visiting the venue in person is the best way to judge the suitability of an event. You’ll be able to check the size and layout of the rooms, the type of lighting available and the acoustics and to check the décor and cleanliness.

As you begin to visit venues or use their online digital experience to assess their suitability, it’s important to consider the attendee experience that you want to create. It’s likely your attendees will be cautious at first in attending events in this new normal, so you’ll want to create an awe factor which will ensure the content delivered lingers long in the memory. In short, as soon as they arrive at the venue you’ll want them to feel at ease and relaxed, ready for an invigorating day ahead.

A site visit will allow you to assess potential problems - if kitchen noise or traffic noise is likely to be an issue, for example. Or, if others are using the venue you’ll need to establish if there is any possibility of a clash or interference.

Just as important as the venue itself is the location and surroundings. You’ll need to make sure that it is easily accessible and that there is adequate parking or suitable public transport options for guests.

4. Modified layouts provide opportunities

Talk to the venue manager on how best to structure the room layout to allow for social distancing. While seating is an obvious pre-requisite, think about how you can use the one-way systems and traffic flow within the venue to enhance the experience. This can everything from floral decorations and company branding to digital touchpoints accessed via QR codes. This is the perfect excuse to get creative!

5. Check audio-visual facilities

With this point we again come back to that phrase, ‘the attendee experience’. Depending on your event, you’ll almost certainly need audio-visual facilities. You should therefore check what microphone systems the venue has (and test them for clarity and effectiveness) and establish if it has projection facilities, screens, monitors and so on. If Internet access is important, then you’ll also need to make sure that it is available and meets your requirements.

It's likely you’ll want to record the sessions during the day to create a highlights package to send to attendees post event. Or, you may need to live stream the event to those who are unable to attend. Therefore you’ll want to know where the recording equipment can be set up, how it’ll look on screen and deliver a digital experience which makes the attendee feel like they were in the seats.

6. Catering options

Social distancing regulations may give event organisers an opportunity to provide more structured networking catering breaks into the agenda. This is something to raise with your venue manager, but again we’ll stress the opportunity to do something creative and different to elevate the attendee experience. Can you create a personalised food menu experience for the delegates? Is there a theme you can match to the day? Are you making sure you’re catering for all diets? And finally, is the food menu conducive for a productive day or will it leave your attendees in a post 2pm slumber?

7. Budget

To end of course is the budget. We all know budgeting for an event can be tricky and there are multiple costs to consider, including;

• Hiring of the venue.
• Equipment rental.
• Advertising and promotion, including giveaways.
• Extra facilities – WiFi, office services and so on.
• Guest speakers .
• Catering.

When the budget starts to grow beyond it’s limits, that is your moment to shine. Think creatively. What can be stripped back? What won’t an attendee notice? And what is imperative to ensure the content and messages delivered live long in the memory post event?

For further information or to book one of our speakers, call us on +44 (0)20 7607 7070  or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk .

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