It’s not just the activities you plan or the way in which you interact with your attendees that creates an experiential event. Choosing the right event venue is one crucial factor that will go on to have a huge impact on your attendee’s entire event experience. It’s smart (and imperative) to choose the location early on, rather than make it a last minute decision.
Below, we list down factors that will help you to zero in on an appropriate location/venue for your event.
Location/Area
Choose a location/area which will be easily accessible by your target attendees. If your attendees have to struggle to reach the venue, chances are they will be discouraged to do the same; this will heavily impact the success of your event.
Select a venue location that is within the proximity of where your target attendees live or work. If, for whatever reason, that’s not possible then choose a location that is is the vicinity of public transport – bus stop, train station. In case of big events, where the majority of the attendees will be travelling, try to book a venue that is close to the airport or their hotel.
The above pointers appear very basic when one goes over them, but they tend to get looked over or ignored when one has to look over multiple macro/micro event details.
Ambience
If you are planning a celebratory event, then it will surely call for a different venue than what you would select for a corporate event. And no matter what the budget is, building an ambience to go with the theme of the event is essential.
Study the decor and structure of the venue. Evaluate whether it is apt for your event. The lesser the venue meets the event theme, the more time, energy and money you will have to put in “decorating” it. If that’s the case, feasibility comes into the picture – something that you need to closely gauge. Simply put, in order to deliver the experience that you aim for, you need to create an atmosphere that exudes that experiential connect.
Know Your Audience
It is crucial to know the demographics of your audience before going venue hunting. This will aid you in selecting the location keeping in mind the likes, dislikes of your attendees. For example, your attendees consist of junior employees then their tastes & preferences & expectations will be different from that of CEO’s and just accordingly your venue short-lists will alter.
Capacity
Imagine 7 people travelling in a car with a capacity of 4 people. Just how uncomfortable and unpleasant that experience that will be! Same is the case with event venues. To avoid cramped and over-crowded space, always select the venue that can accommodate a few more attendees than the estimated number.
Finding the right event venue is not an easy task but, with the right expertise, an apt venue can definitely be sought. At Shobiz, we place emphasis on every minute and major detail of the event. When it comes to the location, we give consideration to the above areas and also place emphasis of ideal stage / set-up design and beyond.