Event planning can be an arduous and messy process. Whether you are planning an event for thousands of people or a small gathering of family and friends, it can turn upside down if the right steps are not followed.
Bringing together an event is a time-consuming process involving many elements. So, it is easy to understand if you want to postpone the pre-event walkthrough before the event starts. It can be a whirlwind affair getting everyone together for the event since everyone has a busy schedule.
However, postponing or not conducting a walkthrough must be avoided at all costs. An experienced event planner would do everything to conduct a pre-event venue walkthrough with the client. This will give them insight into client expectations and the areas that need to be focussed on in arranging a spectacular event.
A pre-event venue walkthrough also helps the event management agency to understand the reasons behind hosting this event. This clarity is crucial for corporate event management agencies and all other event planners to work towards the client’s objectives, required themes, and expectations.
The Importance of A Pre-Event Planning Meeting
The Pre-Event Planning Meeting, also known as PREP, is conducted to assist the client in organising a successful event. While a PREP meeting is not mandatory, it is deemed necessary to host one if any one of the following circumstances arises:
- There were major concerns or issues with the client’s past event
- It is a large-scale event of a complex nature that would require professional help from event managers and thorough planning and communication between the event planners and the host.
- This is the first time the client is organising an event, or it is the first time they have outsourced the responsibility of event organisation to another management company.
- The client is using a different venue for the first time and needs guidance and help from corporate event management companies.
- The organisation has a new leadership or management.
Why Is It Important to Conduct a Pre-Event Venue Walkthrough?
Organising a magnificent event can take months of hard work and dedication, regardless of size. To ensure everything goes smoothly, the event planners and organisers categorise and compartmentalise tasks as much as possible. This ensures that every person involved in the event’s planning knows their job role and leaves no stone unturned in fulfilling their duties. So, everything from getting sponsorships to arranging for coffee for the guests is looked after for smoothie sailing during the event.
However, all this hard work can go down the drain with one tiny mistake overlooked in the absence of a pre-event walkthrough.
Here are some reasons why carrying out a pre-event walkthrough is essential.
Size Limitations
When it comes to set design and production for an event, it is essential to lock down a venue that is large enough to accommodate the sound and light settings along with stage decoration. This makes even more sense for venues where the event planner has yet to work.
Every planner in the event management industry has faced a situation where they planned on “setting up the light here” or placing the “speakers there”. But at the end moment, when the instruments and equipment arrive to be placed in their designated positions, you see the pieces do not fit.
A pre-event venue walkthrough is carried out to prevent such circumstances from cropping up at the last minute. Always carry a tape measure to create a set design that fits perfectly without blocking doorways, running into walls, or scraping the ceiling during the walkthrough.
Utilising Creative Ideas
When you walk around the venue before arranging for the event, you might get instantaneous creative ideas to make your event stand out from a host of similar affairs.
A pre-event venue walkthrough will help you gauge the size of the place, establish proper traffic flow, and utilise creative, out-of-the-box ideas to transform the venue into what the client has asked for. Moreover, seeing the venue beforehand gives an idea of the upsides and downsides of the location that can be taken into account while creating the set design.
Traffic Flow
This is vital for large-scale events, where hundreds and thousands of people are invited. If a proper traffic flow is not established beforehand, it can result in serious mismanagement and physical injuries.
Traffic mismanagement can affect the hotspots scattered all over the venue and hamper the cable lines running throughout the venue. Too much crowd at main moving points can lead to trip and fall injuries that will be detrimental to the event.
To remedy such situations it is best to create marketing automation platforms lookinglion.net designated pathways to guide people to the various hotspots of the event to avoid crowding in one place. This can, however, be only achieved by conducting a proper pre-event venue walkthrough.
For instance, there will always be crowds at the stage, food stalls, bars, and other sociable areas. Walking around these hotspots, you get a firsthand idea of how big these areas are and how wide pathways you need to install to maintain proper traffic flow.
Once you establish the foot traffic designs and how they will move around the venue, you can take proper steps to avoid tripping hazards and other bodily harm. Once the basic pathways are developed, you can either broaden or constrict the pathways for smooth crowd management before, during, and after the event.
Seeing the Venue From the Attendee’s Perspective
Lastly, doing the walkthrough will help you see the venue from the attendee’s perspective. This helps focus on matters that might look trivial to the planner but might help the attendees.
For instance, is the main stage quite far marketing automation platforms lookinglion.net from the parking area? Can you create a shortcut pathway for the guests to arrive? Are there toilet and restroom guiding signs around the hotspots of the venue?
Walking through the venue beforehand will highlight these concerns, help the planner list them, and remedy them one at a time to eliminate them before the final event.
In Conclusion
All great events start with the corporate event management company conducting a proper pre-event venue walkthrough with the clients. This helps them familiarise themselves with the place and understand how to use the space to its maximum potential.
Following your understanding of the numerous benefits of a pre-event walkthrough, you can confidently move forward with your event planning, knowing that all attendees will have a great time.
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