Someone told me recently that apparently in 2023 it’s so easy to find a venue that venue finding professionals will soon be obsolete. I must admit I was taken by surprise. Apparently, the plethora of online venue directories, virtual tours and venue websites means that this will be one of the industry roles that tech, perhaps AI, would take over in a couple of years.
I disagree. From my recent experience I would argue the opposite.
Yes, many venue directories are out of date or simply don’t work properly. Yes, some enquiries placed via them are ignored.
Virtual tours give a feel of the space but for anything complex nothing trumps actually going to the venue. Some great venues have poor websites.. As an example, I recently went looking for a wedding venue (for myself, we definitely have no plans to branch out into the weddings market), I was astonished at the varying abilities of venues to publish even the most basic information about the events they can host.
Some are brilliant, but the majority lack basics such as capacities, floor plans, even decent images. Some even make it difficult for you to contact them. Just yesterday I spent 10 minutes browsing the website of a well-known UK hotel brand just to try to find a way to send an enquiry (in the end I spent even longer trying to find a phone number to confirm an email address for the right person.
I know when my Event Managers often wrangle with these basic challenges before the rest of the work of delivering an event can begin. That’s why I disagreed – association event professionals definitely need help.
Finding and selecting a venue takes over 35 hours
Despite the protestations of venue marketers, there’s no such thing as a perfect venue for every event. And if that’s true, surely there’s no such thing as a perfect venue-finder for every event and that having a specialism like us can really do wonders to provide a valuable service to clients.
My colleague Niamh recently spoke to our Brightelm event project managers to find out how long it really takes to secure a venue for a conference. No spoilers, but it’s way way way longer than you think. Aside to the challenges listed above shortlisting, comparing, negotiation, site inspection and contracting easily add up. If our directories and websites were as good as this person claimed, why does it still take so long from start to finish?
The hospitality skills gap is making response times longer
We are still in the throws of a perfect storm when it comes to employment issues in the hospitality industry. The combination of Brexit, post-covid and cost of living crisis has left a void of skills in the largest industry that supports us. This has contributed to longer response times and a loss of understanding and knowledge.
Responding to an enquiry requires experience and an understanding of all the moving parts of an event; it’s not just about knowing that your ballroom seats 400 theatre-style but also which spaces do and don’t work well together. More than that, its also about knowing how an organic event can live within the venue’s space. Much of the time spent is on chasing venues for responses; to unanswered questions, to inaccurate information, or even just pinning down basics like whether rates include VAT or not. The situation appears to be getting worse not better.
That said, there are many venues that respond brilliantly, first time, with the correct information (thank you!).
Enter Brightelm’s new Venue Sourcing Service
If you’ve followed me for some time you may remember that I wasn’t previously a fan of commission-based venue finding. To be fair and give context, when I wrote the article that ruffled feathers there were many venue finders that would just cream in the commission and do the minimum work possible; delivering merely a list of options to clients without really providing much value.
Post-pandemic I think a lot of that has changed. There are perhaps fewer venue finding agencies out there, and the overriding feedback that I’ve received from clients is that there is a real need for someone who understands what associations need in their events and from their venues in order to work as an intermediary.
Our experience and research indicated that there can be a real lack of understanding of what associations and membership organisations need from venues as opposed to corporates. Many venues have indicated to me that they find that they get enquiries from venue finding agents for work for associations, but they rarely confirm.
This can be for a number of reasons but typically the venue agent hasn’t done enough to understand what the needs of the association are, and if they doesn’t specialise in that marketplace it’s very difficult for them to find venues which match those objectives.
Associations typically need a number of rooms for a meeting, exhibition space and catering, and because delegates will normally pay for attendance of conferences or awards, associations tend to contract on allocations rather than groups.
So to answer the question why are we offering this service now? It’s because I believe our team can offer a smarter solution to this resource heavy challenge. We understand professional association events – from the inside out. We also know the needs of the people who work within them, and we can help lighten the load, take some legwork off their plate and be an extra pair of (intelligent) hands many overstretched association leaders and event managers are thirsty for right now.
Look out for Part 2 on Sunday: I answer why the demand for event spaces is up and how to get venue sourcing fee free – despite the amount of time it takes.