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11 TOP TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL EVENT
Putting on an event can be frustrating experience heres 11 top tips so that you can avoid the pitfalls and have a successful event for you and your guests.
1. BUDGET – Always get a clear budget in mind for your event and shop around for quotes. Cheapest is not always the greatest. A decent Audio Visual company should explain what you would get and what service they provide for the amount of money specified. A good company always offers different options when possible.
2. FINDING A VENUE – Any good event organiser can recommend venues for you to view and some offer a free venue finding service which will cost you nothing and give you a number of venues to choose from that will fit your criteria. Give as much information as possible in terms of what you expect from a venue so that you get the best choice of options.
3. ACCESS TO VENUE – Make sure that it has plenty of car parking and has excellent links to public transport, rail or taxi ranks. There is nothing worse than picking a venue that is out in the middle of nowhere and cannot accommodate for the amount of attendees with their vehicles. If access is also poor to the room you will find that AV companies will charge you more for this.
4. SIZE OF VENUE – Always check the capacities and seating arrangements to see if it fits within your remit. You don’t want to order a huge stage and sound system to find that once it is setup you cannot fit all your guests in the room. Any good AV company should be able to look at the venue with you or at least look at the floor plans of the room to see what is achievable.
5. IN HOUSE SOUND SYSTEM – If the venue says that it has an in house sound system then it is always a good idea to have a professional look at it first as many venues have a different understanding of a sound system. Many venues have small speakers built into a ceiling that have 1 or 2 microphones that are fixed to the system. This is fine for announcements or after dinner speaking but if you want to run sound from a laptop presentation or DVD or need a range of microphones you won’t be able to plug any of these in and therefore will need to hire a sound system. Any good audio visual hire company will come in and do a site visit and can let you know if what the venue is providing is suitable for your needs. Please note that some companies do charge for this consultation.
6. EVENT TIMES - Make sure you set your times carefully as you have to consider the following factors:
• The venue staff need to prepare the room
• Any entertainment needs time to be setup and need to be ready before the guests arrive.
• Audio Visual companies need time to setup any equipment and either sound check or have a run through if time allows.
• Always allow enough time for your guests to arrive at an event. If you outline to your guests 7pm for 7.30pm for example you will find more people will arrive earlier than later
• If food and drinks are being served give enough time for people to eat before commencing the main part of the event.
• Always make sure you know what time your event has to finish and allow time for people to pack down and leave because if the venue has another event on and you don’t allocate enough time this will cause chaos
• Don’t overrun if you tell people it’s a 6pm finish that’s what they are expecting.
By overrunning you will annoy your audience who may start to leave if they have to be somewhere else, you will annoy any entertainers or companies that are providing you with sound or lighting and they may charge you if you overrun and also the venue may charge you more if you overrun especially if they have another event scheduled for later on and need to do a quick turn around of the room.
7. GUEST SPEAKERS - If you have any guests who are nervous about speaking or making a speech then make sure that you allow time for them to have a sound check / practice. This means they will know exactly what is expected of them and will make them feel at ease when its there time to talk. Any good AV company would help you with this aspect. Does your AV company have contacts with professional speakers who they can recommend for your event?
8. LARGE ROOMS - With large events such as conferences make sure that the AV Company sets up the sound equipment so that it is evenly spread across the room so that everybody can hear it clearly. There are 2 reasons for this.
1. If you put all the sound equipment at the front the people in the front row will get the full force of the system and they may complain that it is far too loud
2. If you don't have an even spread of sound then people sitting either halfway or near the back will not be able to hear the event and lose interest on the event this will leave a negative impression on your event with those guests
9. POWERPOINT - If you are using PowerPoint for your presentations when applicable try to use back projection as this allows you to walk across the front of the stage without your shadow appearing on the screen or the text disappearing. This gives a more professional look and allows you to be able to move around the stage area more freely.
10. MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN SEE - When using a large venue for your event. On average events with 200 people or more need either video walls or video screens for people who are sitting near the back of the room to be able to see clearly. Ideally 2 either side of the stage area so that your audience have a perfect view. If you don't use video screens people who have difficult seeing either the band or guest speaker will generally lose interest and this will have an overall negative effect on your event.
11. ADD VALUE TO YOUR EVENT - And finally having your event filmed or sound recorded can add massive value to your guests as you can upload this on to your website for people to see and hear whether they are attending or even missed the event or turn it into a product as you can then sell this and add massive value to your future events.
12. ALWAYS OVER DELIVER ON YOUR SERVICE!
If your current events provider does not help you with any of the above then contact us because this is what we do everyday for all our clients.
WWW.LNPSOUND.COM – 0121 556 1391
