Venue Selection: Creating Spaces for the Entire Community
Venue Selection: Creating Spaces for the Entire Community
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Michelle Huston, Chief Production Officer
As event professionals who are constantly working in the weeds, we need to remember to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Choosing a venue is an extremely important task that impacts almost every part of your event. You likely know the standard considerations when choosing a venue, yet so often opportunities are missed in the early stages of an event planning cycle because production partners are left out of the process. Where can looping in your production partner early help with venue selection? How might your choice of a host city and venue impact your attendees? And what might you consider beyond the basic questions we all grapple with during pre-production?
Looping in your production partner can offer a production-focused lens to help you review the contract and suggest ideas for negotiation before you proceed with signing. Some key areas they can offer guidance on are:
Networking: Knowing your bandwidth requirements—streaming, remote presenters—and having internet needs and redundancy plans reviewed by your production partner is critical and should be negotiated BEFORE signing your contract.
Rigging: Make sure you receive current technical floor plans from your venue with detailed information about your rigging points. Again, it’s crucial to have your production partner review this info as rigging point fees can add up quickly and are a negotiable item in your contract.
Vendors: Many venues have a clause that requires you to use their production services. Sometimes that makes sense, but there are very good reasons to negotiate the option to bring in outside production partners and A/V vendors. The best time to have that conversation is before you sign your contract.
As event professionals who are constantly working in the weeds, we need to remember to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Choosing a venue is an extremely important task that impacts almost every part of your event. You likely know the standard considerations when choosing a venue, yet so often opportunities are missed in the early stages of an event planning cycle because production partners are left out of the process. Where can looping in your production partner early help with venue selection? How might your choice of a host city and venue impact your attendees? And what might you consider beyond the basic questions we all grapple with during pre-production?
Looping in your production partner can offer a production-focused lens to help you review the contract and suggest ideas for negotiation before you proceed with signing. Some key areas they can offer guidance on are:
Networking: Knowing your bandwidth requirements—streaming, remote presenters—and having internet needs and redundancy plans reviewed by your production partner is critical and should be negotiated BEFORE signing your contract.
Rigging: Make sure you receive current technical floor plans from your venue with detailed information about your rigging points. Again, it’s crucial to have your production partner review this info as rigging point fees can add up quickly and are a negotiable item in your contract.
Vendors: Many venues have a clause that requires you to use their production services. Sometimes that makes sense, but there are very good reasons to negotiate the option to bring in outside production partners and A/V vendors. The best time to have that conversation is before you sign your contract.
Considering the Entire Community
Increasingly, there are other considerations to keep in mind when picking a venue and host city that might not be as obvious but can have a huge impact on the success of an event.
Sustainability: Sustainability practices are essential and complex, but most venues these days have done the due diligence. Partnering with the venue on a Sustainability Plan is critical. Does the venue have an infrastructure to handle recycling event graphics and other materials? Do they have partnerships with local non-profits who will receive donations and a method/support for moving donations out of the venue? Does their F&B program have reuse and recycling as an embedded component to their service? Asking the right questions puts you on a partnership path with the venue which is where you want to be.
Safety: The city and location of your venue is an important consideration, especially when it comes to the safety and well-being of marginalized communities in attendance. We always want our audiences to feel safe and welcome at our events. The wider area around the venue is no exception. Choosing a location where everyone can feel safe means all attendees will have more energy to focus and engage.
Inclusion: Inclusivity, accessibility and a sense of belonging for all attendees is key to creating an experience that stays with your audience far after the event concludes. Have you included space for things like a Mother’s Room or a Quiet Room? When considering the entire community in your planning, you’ll maintain or increase your ROI, and reinforce the brand you have worked so hard to create.
Some additional steps towards creating a sense of camaraderie and safety:
• Establish, publish, and actively support inclusive codes of conduct.
• Ensure that any community-based guiding committees include representatives from a wide variety of attendee backgrounds.
Considering the Entire Community
Increasingly, there are other considerations to keep in mind when picking a venue and host city that might not be as obvious but can have a huge impact on the success of an event.
Sustainability: Sustainability practices are essential and complex, but most venues these days have done the due diligence. Partnering with the venue on a Sustainability Plan is critical. Does the venue have an infrastructure to handle recycling event graphics and other materials? Do they have partnerships with local non-profits who will receive donations and a method/support for moving donations out of the venue? Does their F&B program have reuse and recycling as an embedded component to their service? Asking the right questions puts you on a partnership path with the venue which is where you want to be.
Safety: The city and location of your venue is an important consideration, especially when it comes to the safety and well-being of marginalized communities in attendance. We always want our audiences to feel safe and welcome at our events. The wider area around the venue is no exception. Choosing a location where everyone can feel safe means all attendees will have more energy to focus and engage.
Inclusion: Inclusivity, accessibility and a sense of belonging for all attendees is key to creating an experience that stays with your audience far after the event concludes. Have you included space for things like a Mother’s Room or a Quiet Room? When considering the entire community in your planning, you’ll maintain or increase your ROI, and reinforce the brand you have worked so hard to create.
Some additional steps towards creating a sense of camaraderie and safety:
• Establish, publish, and actively support inclusive codes of conduct.
• Ensure that any community-based guiding committees include representatives from a wide variety of attendee backgrounds.
The venue selection process is a complex one, but one that affects every aspect of your event. Knowing the questions to ask and who to include in the conversations is key, and will save you time, money, and effort in the long run. But crafting a program that creates communities in spaces where an event’s messaging can be clearly and fully heard—that’s the differentiator between a good event and an exceptional one. We want to ensure that all attendees can focus on the message and not have to choose between personal safety and true participation.
The venue selection process is a complex one, but one that affects every aspect of your event. Knowing the questions to ask and who to include in the conversations is key, and will save you time, money, and effort in the long run. But crafting a program that creates communities in spaces where an event’s messaging can be clearly and fully heard—that’s the differentiator between a good event and an exceptional one. We want to ensure that all attendees can focus on the message and not have to choose between personal safety and true participation.
by Michelle Huston, President & Chief Production Officer
Co-authored by Kristin Zavorska, Sr. Dir. Production