4 Things to Consider When Choosing your Event Venue
Planning any event takes a lot of time, a lot of work and extremely good organisation skills. It also involves countless decisions, and perhaps the most important one of all is settling on where your gathering will take place.
So, how do you find a venue for an event?
Well, first you need to work out the basics. Mainly what kind of event you’re throwing, what your budget is and the number of attendees.
Once you’ve got these vital elements settled, you can start to dig a bit deeper and consider some, or all, of the following factors…
What to think about when searching for the perfect event venue
1) Layout
Make a list of what kind of activities will be happening at your event, what amenities you’ll require (refreshments, bathrooms etc), and what both your team and your attendees will want from the venue.
For instance, if your event involves a speaker or some kind of live performance, you’ll need a stage and a large area where people can either sit or stand to watch. If it’s a dinner, you’ll need room for tables and for conferences or talks, it’s also a good idea to consider where you’ll position high-traffic areas such as the registration desk.
At Yas Creative Hub on Yas Island, every little detail of the layout has been carefully designed and thought out. As the proud new home for twofour54, the media and entertainment complex includes:
- Comfortable lounge areas for collaborations and interactions
- Numerous quality F&B outlets
- A huge external amphitheatre with an enormous screen
- Picturesque outdoor areas
- A spacious film studio
- State of the art editing labs
- State of the art sound labs
When considering your event venue options, ask each possible location to send you a floor plan, or even better go and visit them all and do a walk through in person.
2) Amenities
For the world’s food connoisseurs (and most individuals really), the catering at an event is what mainly decides whether it is a success or failure.
Some venues will have a kitchen where you and your team are welcome to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in making your own refreshments, some will have fixed partnerships with designated food vendors, and some will allow you to bring in beverages and dishes from outside catering providers.
Yas Creative Hub is home to a number of premium food outlets, offering a vast array of delicious breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee break and beverage options. The many onsite outlets include a homegrown café that specialises in artisan coffees, an authentic Asian restaurant and an iconic European coffee shop that boasts an amazing location up on the picturesque roof garden of the complex.
Depending on what is happening at your event, you might also need to look into whether your venue has tables and chairs available to rent, if hiring the venue comes complete with a dedicated setup and clean-up crew, and if it has audio-visual equipment available to use.
As mentioned above, Yas Creative Hub provides cutting-edge recording, performance and broadcasting equipment that’s regularly used by the region’s biggest names in the media and entertainment sector. If it works for them, it might just bring something special to your event, too.
3) Location
If lots of your guests are coming from out of town, consider hosting your event at a place near to the airport or transport hub, or if they’re all coming from one particular community then it makes sense if you stick to an event venue that’s near to all your attendee’s homes.
When it comes to event venues in Abu Dhabi, the ones in the city are great for people who live or work Downtown, however Yas Creative Hub is just an hour’s drive from Dubai and twenty minutes from Abu Dhabi airport. So, if you know that some of your target audience will be coming from neighbouring emirates, abroad or even from the outskirts of the city, then it offers a number of benefits as an event venue.
An awkward location has the ability to put people off attending your event, while a convenient location will help ensure you hit the numbers you desire.
4) Physical or virtual
Of course, there’s no hard and fast rule that says your event has to take place at a physical venue.
Even now that the world is recovering from the pandemic, travel is still complicated at times and some people remain nervous about going to busy and crowded places.
Virtual events offer a safe and accessible alternative that ensures that everyone feels comfortable, and they also provide the option for people to attend from anywhere in the world.
Indeed, now that we’ve spent almost two years adjusting to the ‘new normal’ and living increasingly in the online world, virtual event companies across the globe (including twofour54), have worked hard to develop loads of cool techniques and ways of making virtual events more entertaining, engaging and exciting than ever before.
Yas Creative Hub contains all the production facilities you need to host a brilliant virtual event, and the twofour54 team has heaps of experience in producing online gatherings of all different sizes, and for a vast variety of businesses and societies.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when choosing an event venue. However, Abu Dhabi is home to countless different beautiful event settings that come in all shapes and sizes, and we’re sure you’ll find one that fits your needs perfectly.
