Pain Points for Event Planners
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Rachel De Marte: Culinary Director of Venue One
It’s not often that you meet someone whose personality is as bright as her talent is impressive, but this is certainly the case when it comes to Rachel DeMarte. A go-to event planning, styling and catering expert, Rachel uses her reputation and successful years in the industry at her very own events company RachelDeMarte.com and as the Culinary Director of Chicago’s all-inclusive meetings, weddings and special events center Venue One.
Photo by Choking Sun on Flickr
Now is the optimum time to get your team together and plan for the New Year. Think about it. Before long, you'll be knee-deep in end-of-year strategies, fourth quarter planning and the run-up to Christmas (yikes). So before you and your team get snowed under, now's the time to arrange a re-grouping exercise. And the more interesting and inspirational the setting, the more likely you are to have a successful meeting that's memorable for all the right reasons.Depending on what type of event you are organising, small event spaces are a dime a dozen. But although small venues aren’t hard to find, how do you ensure you make the most of the space and choose the right one? To give you a head start, consider the following points when choosing your venue.
Unlike finding a venue for 1,000 people, organising an event for 25 to 50 people gives you a much larger range of venues and styles to choose from. It’s important to remember that when choosing your venue size, a small fluctuation in the number of guests, from 50 to 75 for example, could require a change of venue. For this reason it is best to go for a venue that has the capacity to deal with your highest estimate of potential attendees. Due to the small numbers of guests being dealt with, if you don’t hit your maximum number of guests, the space should still feel busy.
If you are hosting an event that encourages people to be sociable and network, try to choose a venue that has large windows with lots of natural lighting. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a small room which is poorly lit with unnatural lighting. A room with lots of natural light will create an open and more welcoming environment. Alternatively if you are hosting a party at night, when natural light won’t be important, go for mood lighting as apposed to overhead fluorescent lighting. This will improve almost any event space!
Make sure you remove unnecessary clutter from the room. It is important to have enough furniture available for the use of all your guests, but try not to supply more than is needed. You want to ensure there is still open space available and people are not struggling to move around. An excess of tables and chairs will create the impression of a small and overcrowded event space.
If you’re holding an event that will involve group work, networking sessions or tea and coffee breaks you may want to consider hiring more than one room to facilitate these sessions. Enabling people to get up, move about and experience a couple of different small spaces will keep the event fresh, especially if it’s an all day affair – people will appreciate new surroundings. This will also help you keep your main room clutter free which, as mentioned above, is vital for creating an open space.
If you want to create the illusion of an event space larger than you have available, while still ensuring it looks full with people, then mirrors are your friend! Strategically placing mirrors on the larger walls within your venue will open out the space and create a larger more airy feel, particularly if your venue is full of natural light.
Hopefully these tips will help you when you’re on the search for your next small event space, and ensure you get a venue that helps you host an event your guests will love!
About the Author: Jonathan Butler works for Virtual Venue Visit, an online venue finder that allows you to take virtual tours of a range of event spaces.