Event Essentials: Location
Today, I am launching a series of posts on Event Essentials. These are items that apply to most any event that you are hosting. These are items that are a must do in order to have a successful event. While the focus is corporate events, many of these ideas can apply to social events as well.
Location is the focus of this blog post. You have heard it before, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Yes, it matters. In terms of events, people usually have to take time out of their day or week to come to your event. One of the first items they consider is the location. Here are some of the questions your attendees ask themselves:
How long will it take me to get there?
How will I get there?
What are the obstacles to getting there in time?
Is it worth the effort to get there?
You want to make the location of your event relatively easy to get to for your attendees. You want them to want to put in the effort to make it to your event. Some things to keep in mind when selecting your location:
How long will the event be? A multi-day conference requires a different process than a local breakfast meeting of prospects in your local market.
How will your attendees get there? If it is your annual conference and attendees are coming from all over the country, you are best to pick a location that has more direct flights. If it is local, attendees will most likely drive or take public transportation.
What are the traffic patterns of the location? If you are having a regional or local event, understanding the patterns of traffic is crucial. For example, in the Washington, DC Metro Area rush hour is from 6:00 am to approximately 10:00 am and sometimes traffic could be even worse. Also, Virginians and Marylanders will rarely want to go a morning event in the other state due to the infamous daily crush of traffic on the American Legion Bridge.
What public transportation options are available? Many larger cities have subway or metro systems that have great meeting venues along their lines. Make sure to be aware of any work that your system may be running in order to ensure that your attendees can use the system easily.
On the way Understanding the traffic patterns of the city will help you determine where your audience may be coming from. If they are driving to your event, make the event more centrally located.
These are just a few ideas to take into consideration when deciding on a location for an event. Got more ideas? Leave me a note in the comments section, I would love to hear from you.
