Corporate summer events can be memorable, engaging experiences that bring your team together and foster stronger relationships. Planning a successful event starts with one thing – a suitable venue. Finding the right summer event venue can be a challenge if you don’t know where to start.
Our guide helps point you in the right direction, providing insight into how to choose a venue for your next event.
1. Define the Purpose of Your Event
Knowing the purpose of your event is key to planning a day or night out that your employees will get the most enjoyment out of. Some of the most common types of summer events include the following:
- Team-building activities: These events are designed to bring teams together, helping to build strong relationships between coworkers that are highly beneficial in the workplace
- Celebrations and rewards: These events recognise and celebrate your employees, providing a reward for success, such as hitting targets or achieving sales goals
- Networking: These events provide professionals with a way to network with people inside their business and also within the wider industry, forming new connections
Each type of event has very different requirements from a venue. Beyond this, events can be either formal or informal, with different venues better suiting a laid-back festival vs a black-tie dinner.
2. Consider Your Guest List & Capacity
As with any gathering, the number of attendees is an important consideration when choosing your summer event venue. Venues have an upper limit for capacity for the amount of people that can safely occupy their space, making it vital to know exactly how many people will be in your headcount.
Beyond the practical logistics of ensuring your venue can fit all the people you have invited, it’s also important from an activity standpoint to ensure there’s room to do everything you want to do. For example, installations, machinery and even tables and chairs will take up important space. You don’t want to end up with a cramped venue that’s difficult to move around.
On the other hand, you also don’t want your venue to feel empty. Hiring a venue that fits 1,000 people and bringing 50 to a corporate summer party will leave you rattling around the space.
3. Think About Indoor vs Outdoor
Once you have an idea of headcount, the next step is determining whether you’d like to plan your event for indoors or outdoors. There are benefits and challenges to both, so here are a few factors to consider:
- Weather unpredictability: Rain is a fact of life in the UK, but at the other end of the scale, too much heat and sunshine can also cause problems with events held exclusively at outdoor venues
- Backup plans: Outdoor events will typically require a backup plan, whether that’s hiring shelters or having an indoor venue available if you need to switch it up at the last minute
- Suitability of activities: Your choice of activities makes a big difference to your choice of venue. A boat race would be impossible to hold inside, for example, while a casino evening would be challenging to hold outdoors.
If you want to get the best of both worlds, opting for a hybrid venue could be a good choice. These locations have both indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing you to maximise your activity choices without the need for a backup event space.
H2: 4. Consider Location And Accessibility
Choosing a venue that suits the needs of your employees or guests is important – especially when people will be travelling in from further afield. Ideally, you want a venue that’s readily accessible from many locations, making it easy for everyone to get to you. Some of the factors to consider include:
- Commute time: How long will it take your employees to reach your venue?
- Transport links: Is there public transport to your venue? Is it near a motorway?
- Parking: Is parking available on-site for your attendees, or are there parking options nearby?
- Transportation: Will you provide transportation to guests, such as a minibus or a coach?
When considering central vs destination venues, it’s worth considering all of the above before making your decision. For example, a city venue may tick all the boxes but have no parking for your team, while a country venue may take longer to get to but has ample free parking.
5. Amenities And Facilities
You’ll also want to consider what amenities and facilities are important to have on-site for your summer corporate event. At minimum, you’ll likely want access to some kind of shelter from the sun, wind or rain and toilets that are available for your event attendees.
Other amenities to think about include food and drink – will you supply items, or would you prefer to hire a catering company? If you want to create a festival vibe in outdoor spaces or enhance indoor venues, AV equipment is also an important aspect to take into account, from large screens to high-fidelity audio.
If you are hosting a networking event, you’ll also likely want access to good-quality Wi-Fi, enabling guests to connect with each other easily.
6. Understanding Your Budget And Potential Hidden Costs
Having a budget is a good start, but sticking to it when planning your summer corporate event can be a challenge all of its own. The cost of hiring a venue can vary greatly based on many factors, including whether you’re choosing the venue alone or a full-package service. Some of the other costs you’ll want to keep in mind include:
- Staffing
- Equipment hire
- Insurance
- Catering or food purchase
- Cost of activities
Working with an end-to-end event management company can provide you with full transparency on the cost of your event, ensuring you remain within budget.
7. Flexibility, Customisation And Potential Vendor Restrictions
The ability to customise your space to your particular event requirements is a valuable way to make the most of your chosen venue. However, not all venues will allow you to make layout changes or personalise the space to meet your needs, which may make them unsuitable for specific types of activities.
In addition, certain vendors may have restrictions in place for the services you can bring into their venue. Confirm whether your venue has preferred suppliers or an open policy. If they have preferred suppliers, these may cost more than you expected to budget, while also limiting you to specific food, drinks and entertainment.
8. Checking Out Reviews and Reputation
Looking up existing reviews and past experiences at different venues can be an excellent deciding factor if you’re struggling to choose between two options. Starting with online reviews, such as Google reviews, can give you an unbiased idea of the reputation of venues and may highlight any issues you hadn’t thought about.
Alongside reviews, you can also see if your potential venues have case studies and testimonials on their website. This proves they have a history of running successful events like yours and may contain information about what is and isn’t permitted at the venue before you need to contact them directly.
Trying To Find The Perfect Venue for Your Corporate Summer Event? Contact Our Team Today
If the process of sourcing a venue for your summer corporate event is a daunting task, why not leave the work in the hands of the experts? Our skilled event architects have extensive experience in pairing businesses with the best venues. We can arrange all aspects of your corporate summer event, from planning and venue sourcing to execution and on-the-day management.
Whether you’re considering a family fun day or themed party, we can connect you with the best venue for your vision. Call us on 0800 068 5707, email us or fill out our contact form to discuss your goals today. We’re ready to find the perfect summer corporate event venues for you.
