The benefits of planning ahead shouldn’t be overlooked. Outside of work, we tend to be more successful when it comes to setting out our long-term plans for major life events. It’s unlikely that any of us would turn up at the airport for our summer holiday with no flights or accommodation booked, or have no venue for their wedding 3 months out. Below we highlight why you should start your venue search for your events in 2024 now, rather than leave it until closer to the time.
It’s easy to put things off though, right? We’re all guilty of it and of thinking that we’re far too busy at work at the moment with lots of forthcoming deadlines to meet, so we’ll deal with that event later when we have time to think about it.
But later isn’t always beneficial. In fact, when it comes to securing your venue it’s quite the opposite, booking last minute is a huge hindrance.
I can’t stress the importance enough of starting your venue search early. The earlier you start the more availability there will be at venues. We all like diversity in choice in today’s world and want to have a selection of good venues to review. When booking last minute, you’re often left with what’s available rather than having the pick of the bunch. Booking early means you don’t have to compromise as much on your venue – something which often causes a huge amount of stress – and means you can book exactly what you want.
Recently we have found that First and Second Options are increasingly being replaced by Joint / Shared First Option due to high demand – a first come, first serve approach on short-lead events. This adds unnecessary pressure to you to make a quick decision, which could backfire. It also means you may miss out on the one venue that works for you. Getting in there early, securing a First Option, and being able to contract the right venue will reduce your stress levels by knowing that the venue is booked, even if you haven’t started planning it yet.
With that in mind the timespan from which you have to organise the event is much longer than if you were to book last minute. It allows more time for planning, therefore making the organising process smoother and less stressful and allows you time to negotiate and implement everything as necessary.
As a knock-on effect that also means it is a lot more cost effective to plan an event further in advance. There is often a premium for last minute events, particularly from a supplier point of view more than a venue. You have more time to negotiate and play one venue off against another, rather than appear desperate to book a venue at short notice at a set price.
It also means you can secure your preferred suppliers and ask them to keep the date free, even if you don’t send them details for another couple of months. The venue is often the most expensive line item on your budget, so once this is secured you then know your budget for the remaining other items. Suppliers, particularly AV, often can’t quote anyway until they know what venue you have and the access times to that venue.
You can then build your event around that venue as you know what you’re playing with. Everything is impacted by the venue selection – your suppliers, your costs, your logistics, your signage and even your attendees – so it allows you ample time to think about these elements. Your delegate communications can then start earlier, meaning you can send out the Save The Date’s further out from the event and maximise the attendance numbers.
Our diaries often tend to be packed for weeks in advance and site visits are therefore often hard to organise. By starting the venue process early, it allows you find a date and time to conduct a site visit a few weeks later without the risk of losing the venue, as opposed to a last-minute venue that you’re unable to see due to your workload.
More than anything though, 2024 is already looking very busy. We speak to countless venues every single day in our job (after all, we are Venue Finders!) and they all say the same thing; that they have loads of contracted business for 2024 already. For all the reasons mentioned above it’s important to start now.
Remember, Hippo Events are here to help you. Our free Global Venue Finding service quite literally saves you time and money – the former tending to be most important to clients in today’s face paced and overworked world. Give us a call and we’ll chat through your event brief, and then conduct all the relevant research on your behalf and pull together a tailored proposed for you to review. We’ll then organise your site visits, negotiate the contract and help you through the process of signing it. It’s minimal work for you and benefits your budget through our negotiated lower venue rates that we receive. Then if you’d like us to event project manage the event as well, we can of course do that for you too
Hippo offer Event Project Management and Global Venue Finding services. Contact us today on 01372 460 100 or events@hippoevents.co.uk to see how we can assist.