The 8Ps of Event Planning – Part 3

In the previous section, we learned that setting a budget would be helpful to avoid any unforeseen expenses. In this part, we will look at the importance of place.

4. Place

The financial and calculations are finally done, let’s discuss the next part: the place. Where will the event take place? How far would it take for participants to get there? Is it within our budget? With no doubt, the venue where the event will be held is one of the key factors. Without a location, how on earth will you even have your event?! Oftentimes this could lead to an event being canceled if the room or location was not secured in time. This is what we want to try avoiding because cancellation can lead to a bad reputation and loss of potential revenue. Things to consider when booking a location/venue:

• Where is it situated? Is it somewhere convenient?
• Is it easily reach?
• Accessible by Public Transportation?
• Is the equipment or lighting provided?
• Is there furniture already installed?
• Alcohol licensing provided?
• Is there parking available?
• What is the capacity of the room?
• What services or special amenities are offered?
• How flexible are the venue providers on cost and flexibility of time?

Example

• Where is it situated? Is it somewhere convenient? Is it easily reach? The bowling alley is two blocks away from the main university campus.
• Accessible by Public Transportation? Easily reached by walking and public transportation
• Is the equipment or lighting provided? Bowling alley facilities provide all the bowling balls and shoes within the ticket price
• Alcohol licensing provided? There is a bar in the bowling alley
• Is there parking available? Yes
• What is the capacity of the room? There are 20 bowling lanes available and up to 10 participants can go in the lane.
• What services or special amenities are offered? An arcade is also available.
• How flexible are the venue providers on cost and flexibility of time? Since it is a school event, discount price is given on the venue.

Once you have listed what you deemed important, the venue is within your budget range and they provide all the necessities for your event, time to sign the contract! But, before you do so, always remember to read their terms and conditions, more importantly, if food or alcohol is being served. There are cases where outside food might not be allowed and that might lead to unnecessary catering fees. In addition to this, as mentioned earlier, try to negotiate the price. Be ready with a proposal and keep following-up with the deal. This leads to the next point don’t try booking the venue at the last minute, as the event date approaches, the price will hike up. The last tip when it comes to the venue is when you are booking the time slots, make sure that there is enough setup and clean up time allocated. Without properly allocating those times, the event can get delayed and causing frustration to the attendees or the venue staff.