Top tips when sourcing a venue for your next event.

Your choice in venue is essential to the success of any event, bearing this in mind there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration, these may include suitability, cost, location, convenience, size, parking among others these will be major contributing factors when you decide which venue to choose and working this out can be a bit of a conundrum if you have no idea where to start. These will be major decision making factors and to ensure your decision is the right one, we have a couple of tips for you/

1.Start with your type of event, for example are you looking to hold a gala dinner, company launch, conference, cocktail evening or a small meeting, in addition, will the event be themed, what type of venue would suit your event best? i.e. Unique, Conference Centre, Hotel, restaurant, a quirky venue, castle museum, or a 5 start hotel?

2.  What specific requirements will have, this will depend a lot on the type of event you are holding, you may require parking for 200 vehicles, wheelchair access, a large load in area into the main room for AV equipment, possibly outdoor space or an area for you to hold an exhibition alongside your event?

3. Consider your dates, venues in the UK room hire rates vary greatly from month to month and day to day, in addition attendees may be less likely to attend an event on a Monday evening as opposed to a Thursday, think about your target audience when would suit them best and what day and month of the year would suit your budget? Always check to make sure your date does not conflict with any major events in your city, will this cause an issue with delegates or attendees getting to the event or maybe not attending at all? For example a large FA Cup match is on Depending on your attendees would they attend or rather be sat watching the footie?

4. Cost versus quality, sometimes the rates offered can be too good to be true if this is the case do some research ensure the hotel has good customer feedback, check there trip advisor rating, if it is too good to be true is normally is but in some cases it may just be a great offer?

 5. Site visits, once you have a venue you feel may be the best match for your event set up a site visit, make a list of everything you need to check once you get there for example celling heights, accessibility, location within the venue, exhibition or catering area if separate from the main room, if you have guests or delegates staying overnight check out the bedrooms, always ask to see two or three as most times the venue will show you the best of the bunch!

6. Timings, these always need to be taken into consideration when you are planning an event, what would suit your delegates or guests, are they likely to stay out till 11pm on a school night or would they more likely attend if it was a breakfast meeting? Venues across the UK close at different times so bare this in mind, if you book an event for 7.30pm and the venue closes at 10pm, this may not be a suitable venue for you. Make sure before you enquire that you have a clear idea of your requirements and timings.

7. Services required this could be anything from full three course dinner to reception drinks to bar food; will you want a gourmet three course dinner with petit fours, themed or a simple buffet? If so what type of food will be required, do you have any dietary requirements that you may need to included? Would you like the food silver served or plated and served? All of these things need to be taken into consideration and checked before booking your venue.

8. Cost, once you have collated all of the information and been provided a quote, check and double check that you have not omitted anything, small oversights can be costly, always ensure you look at corkage charges, minimum numbers,  if applicable, are the menus and drinks process competitive within the market,  is the room size small in comparison to the price? Agree on minimum numbers with the venue as sometimes this can be overlooked and then become an issue later in the process! Always underestimate your attendees to be on the safe side.

9. To conclude, consider how much time you have, will you be able to dedicate enough time to sourcing a venue? It can be a very time consuming process, special if you do not know what questions to ask. Are you well versed enough with the industry to be able to ensure you ask all the right questions and get the best possible rates?

Whilst the above list is not exhaustive, it will assist you in sourcing venues nationally and internationally.We hope you find out tips useful.