Why incorporating site visits into your event plan is a MUST…

SPACE

Site visits are so important when we you are looking at how a venue can fit the forecasted number of attendees. Number of toilets or the space available for coaches are factors that can be easily overlooked and without checking, can lead to major problems that impact your entire event. Seeing a space in person can help you determine whether the venue is suitable should your numbers fluctuate up or down. Site visits also enable you to get a sense of the flow of a room, how it works and the overall size. The interactive tours presented on a venue website give you a good indication of the space but aren’t perfect indicators of size. We were recently looking at a venue in Oxford and told that we would be able to sit down the forecasted number of attendees. Seeing the space in person and envisioning the event, our Event Manager realised that you couldn’t fit everyone in – not comfortably. The group would have had to be split between indoor and outdoor areas, with the outdoor space not fully covered. Relying on the weather in England being dry and warm, even during July, is temperamental and therefore not suitable. These are all factors that simply couldn’t be discovered or solved without a site visit.

The location of the venue is also important and is something you can’t really gauge without a site visit. During a recent site visit in Bangkok, we discovered that there was building work taking place next to the entrance area of the hotel. We loved the hotel and the client wanted to use it, therefore we needed to find an alternative walk through to the reception that wouldn’t go past the building site and create a messy experience for the delegates.

QUESTIONS

Site visits are important as they enable you to meet in-person and get in front of your stakeholders to ask all the questions you have and get answers in real-time. Seeing a site in-person also sparks creativity and will get you thinking ‘what about this’, ‘what additional branding could be used’, and ‘where could it be put?’ Asking questions outside of the official site visit spreadsheet enables you to get answers you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of or have been able to get answered without the visit. For example, with our event in Auckland, due to the time difference, we often have to wait ages to get responses to our emails. Having a dedicated time to speak to suppliers and venues in person can help you get answers quickly and efficiently.

CLIENTS VALUES

Site visits are essential for ensuring your event details are in line with either yours or your companies’ values. For example, when viewing multiple hotels in Bangkok, the 5-star hotel in the area provided instant coffee sachets in the rooms, whereas other hotels provided proper coffee machines. Our client felt that although this was a minor thing, it was the deciding factor which fuelled their decision not to go with that hotel. Clients are also becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental impact when it comes to their events and therefore often no longer wish to use venues with single use plastics such as coffee sachets or plastic water bottles. This illustrates that every little detail is key and that it is important to put yourself in your clients’ shoes, get to know them and think ‘what do they want’ – in this case a good coffee in the morning before a day of conferences – relatable! A site visit also enables you to align the brand values and style with the venue, for example selecting more contemporary venues for certain clients to align with their strategic plans as opposed to traditional looking venues. For example, in Vienna, our original idea was to select a well-known traditional Viennese style hotel. However, after viewing all the suitable hotels in the area, we were actually able to select one which was modern and therefore in line with their strategy and ‘moving forward’ event tagline. It still represented the local history but through a less classical style.

RELATIONSHIPS

Site visits are important for building relationships with your external team; people representing hotels, venues, other suppliers whom you would be working closely with for an extended period of time. Visits enable you to have a less formal chat, brainstorm ideas and pre-negotiate terms. Building relationships and networking are some of the main reasons our clients have their events, so the same principle applies to us and our suppliers. For example, with our event in May, our site visits have enabled us to build a fantastic relationship with the hotel we are using. The staff now recognise the event team at the door, and we feel reassured that they will be there to help with any concerns or changes on-site during the event. This positive relationship also means that we are more likely to get our emails answered and concerns replied to quickly and efficiently. Going on-site without having met who you’re working with in terms of caterers or venues can be daunting, allowing a lot of reliance on emails and room for error or miscommunication.