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The Practical Guide to Managing Event Venues

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DOI: 10.4324/9781351045599

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 The Practical Guide to Managing Event Venues

This is a short, accessible and practical guide to running venues which are in the
business of hosting events. Using honest guidance peppered with the author’s
real-life situational anecdotes to contextualise the topics, the book is logically
structured around the key stages of event management: pre-event, onsite and
post-event. Topics covered include developing the client relationship, marketing,
financial accountability, risk, interdepartmental communication, onsite proce-
dures and post-event evaluation. This is a fundamental resource for all event
management and hospitality students. It is also a book for anybody who man-
ages a venue or is a venue event manager. The Practical Guide to Managing Event
Venues makes the business of venue management appealing, understandable and
achievable.

Philip Berners has been the event manager at high-profile venues, including the
London Hippodrome, Camden Palace and Thorpe Park. He has also organised
events in a range of venues in the UK, Poland, Portugal and Italy. His knowl-
edge of using venues for events extends to public parks, royal parks, conference
centres, nightclubs, hotels, restaurants, sports centres, exhibition halls, country
houses and disused warehouses. He is currently lecturer and course coordinator
for the BA Hons Events Management programme at the Edge Hotel School, Uni-
versity of Essex, UK.
The Practical Guide to
Managing Event Venues

Philip Berners
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Philip Berners
Section 11.1 ‘Management of catering outlets’ © Jennifer Kaye
Chapter 13 (to end of section 13.4) © Adrian Martin
Case Study ‘A wedding in Tuscany’ © Dimitri Lera
The right of Philip Berners to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-48639-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-48640-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-04559-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Iowan Old Style
by codeMantra
Contents

List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements x

Part I
The management of event venues 1

1 What is a venue? 3
1.1  Definition of venue 3
1.2  Types of venue 3
1.3  The demand for unusual venues 7

2 The Berners hierarchy of event needs 8

3 Hotels as venues for events 11

3.1  How hotels can recapture events business 13

4 Venue reputation 18
4.1  History of a venue 20
4.2  Testimonials 20
4.3  Client portfolio 21
4.4  Online reviews 21
4.5  By types of events 22
4.6  Referrals by word of mouth 22
4.7  View the venue – meet the team 23
vi Contents

5 Events as a source of income 24

5.1  Venues with events as the primary source of income 24
5.2  Venues with events as their secondary source of income 25

6 Venue professionalism 29
6.1  What makes a ‘good’ venue 34
6.2  Venue show-round 38

7 The need to meet expectations 41

8 Venue culture change 43

8.1  The need for good communication 44
8.2  Interdepartmental communication 46
8.3  The communication process for venues 52

9 The Berners one-person management structure 55

9.1  Client relationship 57
9.2  Receiving information 58
9.3  Disseminating information 58
9.4  Onsite event management 58

10 The role of the venue 63

11 Procuring external services 74

11.1  Management of catering outlets 77
11.2  Guiding the client 87

12 Winning business and retaining clients 91

12.1  Reactive marketing 91
12.2  Proactive marketing 96
12.3  Winning events business 98
12.4  Tendering 99
12.5  Pitching 100
12.6  Repeat business 102

13 Budgeting for events 105

13.1  Where budgets come from 106
13.2  How to create a budget 109
13.3  How budgets are developed 112
13.4  Return on investment (ROI) 114
13.5  Venue hire fee 118
 Contents  vii

14 Guests at venues 120

14.1  Personal safety of guests 120
14.2  Risk management 122
14.3  Common mistakes of venues 124

PART II
Event procedures for venues 133

15 Enquiry handling 135

15.1  Receiving the enquiry 138
15.2  Date conflict 138
15.3  Enquiry file procedure 140

16 Show-round procedure 142

17 Confirmation and contract procedure 146

17.1  Venue contract (Appendix II) 146

18 Lead-in procedure 154

19 Client file procedure 158

20 Client relationship procedures 160

21 Event schedule/function sheet (Appendix III) 163

22 Operational procedures 167

23 Get-in and set-up procedure 171

23.1  Set-up 172

24 Rehearsal procedure 173

25 During-event procedures 175

25.1  Security briefing 176
25.2  Final walk-round 176
25.3  Opening the doors 178
25.4  Checking 179
25.5  Catering 180
25.6  Closing 181

26 De-rig procedure 183

viii Contents

PART III
Post-event procedures 185

27 Post-event procedures 187

27.1  Debriefs 189
27.2  Guest satisfaction evaluation 192
27.3  Problem solving 194
27.4  Final report (Appendix IV) 198

28 Case studies 201

Case study 1  by Philip Berners: the London Hippodrome 201
Case study 2  by Philip Berners: Thorpe Park 203
Case study 3  by Dimitri Lera: a wedding in Tuscany 205

Appendix
I Event forecast 209
II Venue contract 211
III Function sheet/event schedule 222
IV Final report 224

Glossary 227
Index 229
Contributors

Jennifer Kaye has been working in higher education since 2010 and is currently a
hotel and events lecturer at the Edge Hotel School in Essex. Jenny taught a range
of hospitality, business and management subjects in her previous employment as
Programme Leader at University Centre Colchester and graduated with an MBA
in 2017. With over 22 years of industry experience, Jenny has worked within a
number of roles in the hospitality and events industries including leading hotel
chains, within contract events and sports stadia, and she continues to work in the
sector to ensure that her subject knowledge is current.

Dimitri Lera is an alumnus of the École Hôtelière de Lausanne and began his in-
ternational managerial career at the age of 20 as a restaurant manager in Bourne-
mouth. At 27 he was put in charge of the opening of the first ever river cruise
ship operating in Italy. By 30 he was Deputy Hotel Director on the Silver Sea,
achieving the award of ‘most luxurious ship’ by Condé. In recent years, and after
managing one of London’s best established Italian restaurants in Chelsea, Dim-
itri’s ambition to teach and his passion for hospitality led him to the position of
lecturer at the Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex. Dimitri is also pas-
sionate about languages, capable of conversing in seven languages, and holds an
MFL PGCE and is close to completion of his MA.

Adrian Martin  graduated with a Degree and Master’s in Hotel and Catering
Management from Manchester University before working for Thistle Hotels in
London, Bath, Bristol and Bedford. At just 24, he became General Manager of
a hotel in Bournemouth and managed to save it from bankruptcy to run it for
a further six years. His ambition to teach meant he left the trade and taught at
Bournemouth College, before being promoted to Head of School. In 2014 he took
what he describes as ‘the opportunity of a lifetime’ to become Vice Principal of
the Edge Hotel School, the UK’s first Hotel School, where degree students work
in an operational 4* hotel on campus as part of their course.
Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Olaf Olenski for support with compiling this second book in the
series. I also extend my gratitude to Jenny Kaye, Dimitri Lera and Adrian Martin
for contributing to this book.

Philip Berners
2018
Part I
The management of
event venues
 Chapter
1
What is a venue?

1.1  Definition of venue

In my first book of this series, The Practical Guide to Organising Events, I defined an
event as any live happening.

A venue is where a live happening takes place.

If the live happening is not an accident or incident, but is planned (events man-
agement is the planning of live happenings), then the venue is an event venue –
even if it is used for a one-off event.

1.2  Types of venue

Now we understand what a venue is, we can identify various types of venue where
events take place.

1.2.1  Dedicated venues

A dedicated venue is a place constructed for the purpose of staging or hosting
events – we may call this type of venue a purpose-built venue.

This type of venue would usually be built specifically for a certain type of event,
such as a conference centre for hosting conferences, or a sports stadium for host-
ing sporting events.
4  The management of event venues

Being a venue built for purpose, the architect would design the facility specifically
for the needs of that type of event. For example:

Type of venue Design features

Conference centre Large foyers for delegate registration

Main conference hall
Breakout meeting rooms
Stage
Sound, lighting and projection facilities
Translation booths
Multiple bars
Buffet/dining areas

Otherwise, it could be a purpose-built multi-purpose venue, such as modern-day

sports stadia which are now designed to facilitate the business of all events, not
just sporting. Nowadays, a sports stadium will incorporate conference facilities,
banqueting suites and nightclubs.

1.2.2  Non-dedicated venues

This type of venue is not built for the purpose of events. This could be an art
gallery, nightclub, museum, library or any other building that could host an event
due to its size, location, facilities or interesting architecture, but the primary pur-
pose of the building is not events.

Venues that are not built for the purpose of events will most often have a core
business that is not events driven. In such venues, their events business is sec-
ondary. These are ‘part-time’ event venues, then.

Within this category, could also be included pubs, bars and restaurants because
their main purpose of business is that of retailing food and drink. Yet, most pubs
host social events, such as quiz nights, live music, and New Year’s Eve parties,
and most restaurants host parties, wedding banquets and private dining rooms.
Even so, this does not make them dedicated event venues.

An example of this type of venue would be the Natural History Museum in L ­ ondon –
which, although was not constructed for the purpose of hosting events, but for
housing and displaying museum exhibits – does host an extraordinary number of
corporate parties, weddings, conferences, fashion shows, and filming. Its primary
role as a museum means that this particular venue is open to the public every day
from 10:00 until 17:30. Thus, the Natural History Museum hosts events as a second-
ary contribution to its core business. As with most such venues, the Natural History
Museum splits its role to accommodate events outside its usual operating hours.
 What is a venue?  5

Even if a palace, castle or historic house were now purpose-run for events –
as many are these days for weddings, team-building activities, small
­conferences – and events have become the primary income, it would be wrong
to categorise  this venue as being dedicated because it cannot be assumed
that all palaces, castles and historic houses are run solely for the purpose of
events. Besides, a palace, castle or historic house was not built for the purpose
of events.

A non-dedicated event venue may also be a ‘green-field’ site, such as a public park
hosting an open-air concert, funfair or festival.

Note: A ‘green-field’ site is not necessarily a parkland or grassy area, but is the
generic term applied to a venue where limited or no facilities exist. Green-field
sites can be empty buildings, disused factories, warehouses, car parks or any-
where where no facilities or services exist in situ. Indeed, in many cases, green-
field sites do not have electricity, water, drainage or toilet facilities.

Where there are basic facilities, the venue would be termed as a ‘brown-field’
site.

Examples of dedicated and non-dedicated venues

Dedicated Non-dedicated

Hotels Green-field sites

Conference centres Historic houses

Sports stadia Museums

Banqueting halls Public libraries

Exhibition halls Castles

Palaces

Pubs, bars, restaurants

Nightclubs

Theatres

Country house hotels

6  The management of event venues

Examples of popular events held at non-dedicated

venues

Chelsea Flower Show held at The Royal Hospital Chelsea

Hampton Court Flower Show held at Hampton Court Palace

The Route of Kings Concerts held at Hyde Park

The BAFTA Awards held at The Royal Opera House

The Hay Literary Festival held at marquees at Hay on Wye

Glastonbury Festival held at a working dairy farm

1.2.3  Unusual venues

There are certain venues that fall into the unusual venue category (otherwise
referred to as special venues). These are places that can already be identified as
non-dedicated venues, but also they would rarely host events or may never have
hosted an event.

So, whereas the Natural History Museum in London is non-dedicated for events,
it has become adept at hosting many events and has an events team; it has
well-practiced events procedures; and it has a portfolio of trusted suppliers, such
as technical providers and event catering companies. It is important to note here
that an events team in a venue such as this would be experienced in client han-
dling and events management.

The difference which makes an unusual venue, is a non-dedicated venue that does
not have an events team because the premises are not usually used for events.
Therefore, none of the staff would have events experience, the venue is not prac-
ticed in managing and handling events, and there would be no chain of trusted
events suppliers.

The question may arise as to why a client would seek an unusual venue. It would
be because the client wants somewhere unusual – somewhere that is unique, and
where no other client has yet held an event.
 What is a venue?  7

Such unusual venues may be country houses, warehouses, private estates, dis-
used buildings, barns, or any place of architectural interest.

1.3  The demand for unusual venues

In simple economic terms, demand drives need. Creativity is the new need. So,
event clients have learnt to search for more exciting, more innovative and more
interesting venues.

And, it is an upward spiral: the more adventurous a client is with choosing a

venue one year, so their need is to be even more adventurous the following year.

This does not mean that if a venue is traditional or is a dedicated events venue
it will lose out to unusual or non-dedicated venues. What it does mean is that
all venues need to provide their clients and guests with a top-quality event ex-
perience. Otherwise, the venue – dedicated or otherwise – will lose business to
its competitors. In today’s event marketplace, where all buildings are potential
venues, all other buildings are competitors.

So, achieving bookings through events is ever more an aggressive and increas-
ingly competitive market. Venues have to try harder. They need to create their
reputation for good event handling, and protect it. They require knowledgeable
and trained events staff to attract and retain events business… And, so the events
industry is self-regulating. It is evolving and getting better at it. There are quali-
fications in events management now – it has become a career!

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