Things to consider when picking an experiential venue for your event

It takes creativity and vision to match the event objective to the perfect facility. Most events take place at hotel banquets leaving very little room for experiential elements to be incorporated. Besides, how does one differentiate their event from the one happening at the next banquet? Clearly, finding the right destination to suit an event’s USP can seem like a daunting task.

Karan Madan, Client Servicing Director, Encompass Events feels choosing what to do with an event is like shopping for clothes, you would go for something that looks good, fits well and is comfortable, in style or with the times or suits your individual taste and also falls within your budget. Similar principal applies when choosing a venue.

The most important thing one needs to know before selecting a venue is the purpose of the event, the number and type of guests involved, is it an evening or morning affair, what will be the tonality of the event, will it be a formal affair or something more casual with some entertainment thrown in, the biggest factor at times is the budget and how that fits into the whole scheme if things. Apart from this we always look at the feasibility of the venue vis a vis the décor, stage, lights and ancillary fixtures.

Some of the common challenges one can encounter are usually in terms of the clear height of the hall if its indoors, is the hall pillar less, this is important to maintain a clear line of sight for the audience during the show and also plays a big part during the setup and design planning phase. For outdoor venues, we look at the venue surface, accessibility, ideally should not be close to an airport as that poses a challenge with too much ambient sound during take-off and landing.

Some of my favourite venues are- (Indoor) Taj Palace, Durbar Hall, Marriott aero city, Kempinski ambience & Hyatt, Manesar, and (Outdoor)- Leisure valley- Gurgaon.

Major areas of concerns and factors that influence the choice of venue for Mr. Raj Batra, Director Mosaic Events are the size ratios (length to breadth), height of the ceiling if it’s a banquet, over all layouts if it’s an open lawn. However once you have shortlisted a couple of venues the decision is made depending upon the flexibility a particular venue offers in terms of monopoly vendors, menu selections, allowing of various SFX and value ads.

The major challenges we face are in terms of the various vendors, certain venues restrict in terms of décor, AV etc. However these days most of the venues across the country offer a panel and are flexible when it comes to organized national players like us.

We work all across the country and some of my favourite venues are YMCA banquets in Ahmedabad, Taj Coromandel in Chennai and JW Marriot in Pune. In terms of outdoor venues I like Jagmandir Palace in Udaipur, Andaz party lawns in Ahmedabad.

If the chosen venue doesn't support your event you can lose half of your impact on the public. The venue or location needs to strengthen your message and make the whole experience inclusive.