Photo By: Unique Hotels, on Flickr

How to Prepare a Venue

By: Maca T.

We have already talked a lot about workshops; what should they have to make them great, and help you as a speaker get more engagement from your audience. It’s a good idea to also talk about what you need in your choice of venue to welcome all your attendees and let them feel like they had a great experience and that they can leave without any complaints of what they have learned.

After designing your workshop, understanding who your audience is and gaining an idea of the number of attendees, it’s crucial to have a venue that fits all the above. Consider the space of the venue and how it’s filled. The place shouldn’t be too big, as people may feel intimidated and won’t talk or participate right away, also, it shouldn’t be too small, in that case, everyone may feel uncomfortable with the distances between things. The place that you choose should adjust in the best possible way to your needs. For instance, if workshop will have a presentation, then you will have to be sure the venue includes additional equipment, such as a projector, so if you arrive you won’t need to buy one at last moment because you didn’t know they weren’t covering it. The same goes for the sound system, for example, the microphone. You should know before hand what they are giving you, or if you should pay an extra fee to have them.

An overlooked part of the workshops is the food. Don’t underestimate it, because it’s an important role in setting participants up to focus on learning and bonding with their fellow attendees. Provide tea and coffee; that will help keep people awake.

Make sure you know when people are arriving and communicate to them about what support you can provide, and where to go when they arrive. It will be very helpful for your attendees if you tell them specifically the best ways to get to the venue by public transport.

A starter kit is everything you provide your attendees the first moment they register. Standard components to include are, a notepad with a pen, but adding something extra can help your event be more memorable. For example, if it’s a 2-3 day workshop, provide a map of the city marked with cool places to hang out at after the long day of work, so they can relax and have some time to talk. Include a schedule of what they should be expecting during the following days, highlighting any special speakers coming in, along with the time everything is taking place.

The venue’s WiFi is something really important. You can’t have an event where the WiFi is not working or having troubleshoot problems. You know that everyone is going to complain, so you better be prepared for this. Have a plan B, like adding extra routers to the venues room where you are having the event, or have someone from a company the specialized in WiFi setups, to help you if anything comes up.

These are some ideas for you to plan ahead, and not just focus on the content of the workshop, which of course, we understand is the most important thing! But it’s also good to pay attention to these little extra details.

How do you feel about this? Do you have any other ideas?