When organising any event a venue really can make or break it, so this week I’m giving you some simple tips to follow from the enquiry stage through to delivery.
Finding the venue which is perfect for your event can be a real challenge, it’s really important to identify your event objectives and ensure the venue fits around these. For example, many public sector events that Mosaic Events organises, one of the key factors that determines if we book a venue or not is based on whether or not delegates can access venues from public transport links. So venues connected to train stations are a good place to start.
After you have identified your venue choices you should follow some simple rules when you make an enquiry and completing any site visits:
1) Ensure that you speak to the right person from the outset and maintain the relationship on the run up to your event, if possible get a direct line telephone number for them (you wouldn’t believe how much time you can waste going through switchboards!).
2) Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials from the venue or if booking an awards dinner ask for a menu tasting session when you meet the chef who will be providing the food for your event.
3) Ask the venue to set the room up in the format you like before viewing the hotel sometimes venues will say a room can fit 100 cabaret style, but when you see it laid out you realise that some delegates would have restricted sight lines and it can only fit 85.
4) If you have a large event to book with accommodation, we recommend that if it is a hotel you consider staying overnight, so you get a real feel for the venue and service.
After completing your site visits and deciding on your perfect venue, it’s worthwhile considering:
1) Getting everything agreed and ensure this is documented in a contract with accompanying terms and conditions. Don’t be afraid to challenge these if they don’t suit your objectives. So if have agreed to a minimum of 100 bedrooms and your unsure that you will fill these, and don’t want to pay for them, agree a cut off date either three or four weeks before your event.
2) Apply the following rule: if your requirements are not included on a hotel/venue function sheet, then it won’t happen - you cannot go wrong! All venues use function sheets as a way of planning their daily operations, ask for a copy of this and ensure all of your requirements are listed no matter how small.
3) We always ask a venue to have the bill prepared when your event finishes, so you can check this before leaving the property. This ensures that you can check any extras that have been added to your bill and ask for proof; if you are unhappy about something it is easier to challenge it on site.
Once you have arranged everything at your venue, we suggest that you have a meeting with Duty Manager who will be managing your event, and have a full run through of the function sheet to ensure they understand all of your requirements. This will ultimately help you to establish a rapport. Most importantly ensure this person is contactable on a mobile or internal phone system.
Adopting some of the above can really help make your life easier, but also helps the venues you are dealing with to give you great service and guarantee total success of your event.
If you have examples of great service from venues recently I would love to hear about it. Drop me a line on sarah@mosaicevents.co.uk
Right on Sarah! Good events planning tips.
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