Before you choose, ensure your location is fun, safe, convenient, and “event ready,” with the infrastructure necessary to make your event successful.
More than any other factor, your corporate event location can make or break your event. After all, the city sets the stage (no pun!) for the entire audience experience. For that reason, it’s important to choose a location that makes attendees feel it was worth the time spent, travel endured, and cost incurred.
Beyond ensuring a great audience experience, the weather is nice, the hotel is world-class, and there’s decent transportation nearby, what else should event planners consider when deciding where to host their event? To ensure your team is making a strategic choice about event location, here are six tips to help you narrow the field.
#1: Make sure your location supports your event's theme.
The event site is a critical part of your event brand. Think about what you’re trying to communicate, what you want your attendees to feel, and what you want your audience to remember. No matter what message you are trying to convey to your audience members, your event location should be a reflection of that message. For instance, if you’re pushing your attendees to make bold moves, consider a city like Las Vegas, where it's always showtime. Want to bring your team “back to basics”? You could hold the event where your company was founded—and take a field trip to the original headquarters.
If you’re pushing your attendees to make bold moves, consider a city like Las Vegas, where it's always showtime.
#2: Link corporate objectives into your location selection.
Take a broader look at what your company hopes to achieve this year. Your event is an opportunity to support these wider corporate initiatives. For instance, an external-facing conference can be a test balloon if you’re looking to address new markets. By hosting the conference in a city that’s a candidate for expansion, or where you may want to launch new products or services, you’ll get great data points from attendees that can inform your decision.
#3: Use your location to attract key talent and speakers
Who do you want to see on stage? Is there a keynote you know would bring your audience to their feet? Consider bringing your event to your must-have speaker’s doorstep. Popular, hard-to-get speakers are more likely to say “yes” to your request if you’ve made it easy for them to attend. And if you can’t hold your event in their city, pick a place they’d like to visit. Some speakers will even waive fees if you pay for their travel and expenses to a beautiful locale.
Consider bringing your event to your must-have speaker’s doorstep. Popular, hard-to-get speakers are more likely to say “yes” to your request if you’ve made it easy for them to attend.
#4: Select a locale that's worth exploring.
With so much information and inspiration to impart, it’s easy to overschedule your event with meetings, sessions, and breakouts to try to ensure audience members “get the message.” But time outside the conference center can make your event and message more memorable—and leave attendees feeling eager to return. Choose a location that is safe and easy for attendees to enjoy, and then give them the bandwidth to explore, process, discuss what they’ve learned, and have some fun. To be extra helpful, guide attendees on what to do and see on your event app.
#5: Choose a location that's "event ready."
Not every city or town is ready to support a large event and an influx of hundreds of people. Before you choose a location, make sure it offers adequate capacity, good connectivity, and a network of experienced event vendors—including videographers, caterers, and entertainers—who will help make your event a success. A global event production company like Stagedge provides services such as scouting and venue location suggestions, as well as a throrough evaluation of the vendor and event services in the region.
#6: When in doubt, don't be afraid to repeat.
While there’s an understandable desire to “shake things up,” you can keep your event fresh and memorable without constantly changing your location. If you’ve found a great city that works for your event, there’s no need to look elsewhere. Repeating a location allows you to build a stronger relationship with the venue and local event vendors. These onsite partners will help you keep your event fresh, and together, you’ll discover new ways to incorporate local culture and talent into your event each year.
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Choosing a location for your event can be laborious. It isn’t easy to make a choice that’s both convenient and exotic, original and a safe bet. While event location is often the first decision event planners make, in many cases, they do so without a clear vision for the overall event and without the support of experienced event production partners.
As a global event production company, we’re here to help. We’ve produced top-level events throughout the world and value the opportunity to help our clients vet potential locations for their events. Our knowledge of “event-ready” cities empowers clients to get creative, consider new options, and work backward from their objectives to find the perfect venue.
Interested in learning more about Stagedge’s work abroad? Read our recent blog, 5 Best Practices for International Event Production.