This is a guest post from Joanne Egan, Director at venue finding agency Hotel Desk. You can follow them on twitter @hoteldeskuk and Facebook.
Key to almost every business strategy is growth.
From a bedroom startup to a global multinational enterprise – every business wants to grow more. Of course, when growth success is actually achieved, business resources have to upscale to provide the necessary services, support and assurances required at that next level.
Venues for meetings, events and conferences are no exception.
Whether it is down to event promotion techniques, as described in early Eventbrite posts, or overall business success – it is all too easy to find event requirements are no longer met by previously used venues and it becomes time to look elsewhere.
Related: Free e-book and online course: how to run successful business events
Starting off small and watching every penny
A startup enterprise may be happy to hold a client, supplier or staff meetings in the corner of a local pub, or if they are lucky, have a table in a restaurant’s private room. However, once you are involving more than 10 people then this becomes much more difficult. You will probably need a venue for longer, have more individual requirements to consider and catering for a group becomes more challenging for a smaller venue to get right.
Invariably though, as businesses grow they need to upscale their venue requirements to meet their growing needs. Business owners or managers need to know that any venues they use have the required elements to deliver the expectations for each individual meeting or event. It’s not just about room facilities, but also many other venue factors such as location, availability, exclusivity, security, catering requirements, technical equipment, access, contract terms and service levels. The list can be endless.
The next step up: Standard packages at hotels and venues with meetings rooms
Once you’ve outgrown the informal ‘backroom’ meeting space, it’s time to make the jump to using venues which provide ‘meetings & events’ packages such as those offered by hotel or conference venues who specialise in providing all of these elements for all different sized groups and types of events.
These do come with a price tag, but it is a question of negotiating a value for money package that meets the important criteria for every individual event and there is a wide spectrum of standards on the market, from budget no-frills packages through to the full five-star experiences with wow factor in every detail.
Hotels, conference centres and all types of unusual venues offer a wide range of meeting space for groups from five or six to several hundred. Rooms can be radically changed and configured, from a conservative daytime meeting layout, to be transformed with interconnecting rooms to a creatively themed space for an evening event complete with backdrops, staging, sets, lighting etc.
Many hotels and conference venues can provide some of these facilities in-house and are open to you bringing in external suppliers, but there may be some restrictions as to what you can do and you are highly likely to need to deploy some event management services and other 3rd party suppliers.
Related: 8 questions you must ask an event venue before signing
Venues for larger groups: Dedicated exhibition and convention centres
When it comes to finding venues to accommodate groups of more than several hundred attendees in any layout, or a large number of exhibitors, then hotels and conference centres often become restricted.
There are some hotels that specialise in accommodating groups larger than this but choice and availability is significantly restricted at this size and scale. The next level up is to consider dedicated exhibition and convention centres.
These don’t tend to have the coziness and character of some hotels but provide a purpose-built blank canvas that you can design to meet your specific requirements and can accommodate events for hundreds and thousands.
Usually they are in city centre locations and can be perfect for exhibitions, large conferences, concerts, shows or events that combine all these elements in one place.
They don’t tend to provide accommodation on-site but will have allocation arrangements with hotels nearby.
Be warned though, whilst these ‘blank canvas’ venues provide you with creative freedom to build whatever you like, they are therefore often just a shell space. So whilst their in-house operational departments are usually excellent at assisting you through the event design process, every graphic, wall, light bulb and electric socket will need to be specified in the production design and priced for. This requires specialist and experienced production and event management skills.
Related: 7 questions to ask when hiring an event planner
Conclusion
With so many different types of venues on the market, where do you start?
Well, a reputable venue finding agency (consult the HBAA for a list) will search for available venues that meet your specification free of charge and act as a venue broker to negotiate on the rate and contract terms to ensure you obtain a favourable deal.
Typically they are paid a commission from the venues they book on your behalf so they are able to provide these services to you free of charge, saving you a lot of time and hassle going back and forth to numerous venues.
Remember that the larger the event, attendees, budget and creative input then additional event management services and external suppliers will also be required which will come at a fee.
Have you recently increased (or decreased) your venue size to better accommodate your needs? We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!