Everyone knows the importance of knowing where good venues are but few people know all of the details you should gather about each venue.
As an event planner, you should have 3 – 5 venues you are familiar with at all times.
Sometimes you’ll meet prospects through conversation, introduction or a meeting and by knowing details about good local venues you will appear to be the go-to expert.
There are also times your main venue will not be available on the date you need it so having a backup is very important.
Since we already know that relationships with vendors and venues are important, the more events you do you should try distributing the venues you use across the ones you like. This way you will be building good relationships with those venues and in the future they will accommodate you more including getting you better rates.
Finding Great Local Venues
So how do you find great local venues to build relationships with?
Do a Google search for five local venues you like and begin making a venue database. This database can be kept in a word document, excel sheet or even by hand in your planning notebook.
You can also ask other planners or people who are in-the-know about where the good venues are but taking action on calling them, introducing yourself and getting the answers to the bullet points below are the important things to do.
Assignment to Think About:
Find and reach out to 5 venues local to your area. Create a venue database (either in word, excel, powerpoint, or notebook) with the following information inputted:
- Venue Name
- Address
- Point of contact
- Website Link
- Capacity
- Square Footage
- Hour limitations for events
- Catering information
- Parking Information
- Load-in information (freight elevator onsite? Loading dock?)
- Standard pricing for a 1 day event
- AV/lighting information (in-house)
- Photographs
- Floor-plan
After you have completed this list, you will now have a list of venues with the necessary information compiled.
When you get approached to do your next event, you now have several venue options ready to present to your client!
You can continue to add to your database and even consider reaching out to other cities that you could potentially incorporate.
