The meeting.pl Event Checklist – 9 questions to ask a venue
The most common problem arising during every project execution, including an event one, is communication – regardless of whether it is a project team, a subcontractor, a venue or a customer. An organiser’s duty is to have knowledge about any essential details associated with a given subcontractor. So-called Event Checklists are useful here.
Today we are presenting the first one, which includes selected questions to ask a venue before executing an event.
1. Are there any limitations?
Depending on a venue location, infrastructure and interior arrangement, an organiser may meet some limitations, such as quiet hours, no possibility to display a car or other big elements inside a venue, historical floor or the ban on red wine.
2. What additional charges should an organiser take into account?
Space rental fee is often not the only one an organiser has to pay. It is worth asking whether there are some additional charges, e.g. a resort fee, an electrician or technician labour hours, assembly and disassembly charges (hourly rates), car parking charges for guests and organisers, toilet attendants or cloakroom Staff.
3. What are safety requirements?
Guest safety is one of the most important factors during an event, which is why one should be certain that all activities are safe and pursuant to the law. A venue should provide us with such important information as e.g. the number of people allowed to stay in a room, fire emergency procedures and whether it is allowed to drink or sell alcohol.
4. Have the staff handled such events yet? How big were they?
Every target group is different. Various types of people turn up at events. They have specific expectations towards standards, e.g. the ones regarding service. An organiser may find it valuable to know what type of events have been held in a given venue before. This way, if the venue has some recommendations after previous events and our guests are at the similar social or business level, we know there is a high chance that the venue will manage to satisfy customer expectations.
5. What do rental formalities look like?
To avoid misunderstanding during a project, when implementing changes into arrangements or into the issue associated with payment for services – it is worth establishing rules at the very beginning. Such elements include booking terms, free of charge cancellation, tolerance for changes and its time schedule, an advance payment and due date, an event supervisor or the possibility to brief the staff.
6. Is there any space for organisers’ technical resources?
Organisers or their customers often need some space during an event which functions as “the command centre of the event universe” or a place where all materials associated with the event or technical equipment are stored. Not specifying such a requirement at the very beginning may contribute to limited possibilities of putting essential things in one convenient place.
7. Is it possible to work with one’s own subcontractors?
Every organiser’s value are his/her contacts and proven subcontractors, who guarantee specific quality of a given service. If an organiser rents a venue for an event and would like to work with his/her subcontractors, he/she should discuss this issue with a venue manager. This concerns mainly such subcontractors as a catering company, security, a cleaning company, cloakroom staff or a company dealing with stagecraft or translation.
8. What events are held simultaneously in other rooms?
This issue concerns mainly venues with a big number of rooms and the ones which have not been rented on an exclusive basis by an organiser. One can imagine a very grand award ceremony, accompanied by loud music, held during our important conference a few rooms further. Venues generally try to separate companies operating in the same branch. Nevertheless, it is worth asking whether our competition does not organise its event at the same time.
9. How much time does an organiser have for assembly and disassembly?
Assembly schedules developed by an organiser consist in planning arrivals of particular subcontractors and determining the time required to assembly their equipment. Capacity of technical entries or lifts is a very important aspect. Therefore, one of organisers’ tasks is to effectively plan the assembly. The plan should be approved by a given venue not to collide with other events held before or immediately after ours.
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