5 rules and reasons why you must have a pre-event meeting with your venue

You have spent months curating your event and now it’s time to hand over the reins to the venue team for the operational delivery of the event. 

How are you going to ensure the operations are silky smooth? 

An effective pre-event meeting. 

Be sure to steal our Pre-Event Meeting Agenda at the end

Introductions to the team

Almost always, the person you have planned the event logistics with, is not the person who will be managing the operations of your event.

A pre-event meeting is your and the operations team opportunity to receive a first-person handover. Creating this opportunity to meet will ensure that when you arrive on the day of the event, all parties know what it takes to make the event successful.

To consider who is required and who is optional, think about your delegate profile, the program timings and the style of event you’re holding and this will help determine who are the most important people to have in the room for the meeting. 

As a guide, here are the key venue personnel we suggest including in your meeting:

Event Coordinator, Event Supervisor (Banquet/F&B Operations), Chef, Front Office Supervisor, Audio Visual Operator, Concierge Supervisor, Housekeeping Supervisor.

You may have noticed that we have not listed mid and top level managers as required attendees. This one might surprise you, surely it’s important to have the senior leadership present at the meeting? 

Not usually, a meet and greet is useful however the manager is unlikely to be your go-to person during the event.

So, who is? There are lots of different titles across venue types so it is best to ask; who are team members who will be on-call with you throughout the duration of the event? They are the people who should be considered as required to attend. 

You will need to prioritise and compromise on the actual attendees as venues will have other events and rosters to contend with. Be flexible and book the meeting well in advance for the day or two prior to the event and ensure an agenda is issued to all attendees (required and optional) in advance of the meeting. 

Provide a briefing about your delegate profile and expectations

Delegate Profile

While most conferences at their core (from a venue perspective) are all similar in structure, the biggest differences are in the people who are attending. 

Create a delegate profile for the venue to understand who is attending. What are the demographics of the group, what is their profession, how will they spend their leisure time, what are their likes and dislikes etc. 

Help the operations team prepare for the type of delegate they will be serving. 

For example, if the venue has been advised the delegation is predominantly female, travelling with family and who like to have early dinners (just us? surely not), the venue can review the restaurant opening hours and staffing to accommodate this. 

Service expectations

Set the service standards and expectations early. This is a question we actually encourage you to ask at the contracting stage (as it can be too late by the pre-event meeting).

Why is this important? Again, think about your delegate profile, the program timings and the style of event you’re planning. Will you need more staff on hand at certain times to help with tight stage set changes? Do your delegates expect full tray service? Are there times you don’t want staff in the room? Do you have dignatories or VVIPs in attendance that require special attention?

If yes, ask the venue what the staffing ratios are. If the staffing ratios are lower than you know you need, you can plan in advance to have volunteers fill the gap or negotiate with the venue to have more team members on the event as required.

Discuss your VIPs

Every delegate is a VIP. Although, we know there is always going to be a list of particular people who need a little more attention for a variety of reasons.  

When we create a VIP list that we share with venues, we include the VIP full name, headshot photo, professional title, company, arrival/departure information, accommodation confirmation number, why they are a VIP and how to address them (if they are dignitaries).

If needed, we also list our VIPs in ranking order. This is useful for a hotel team if they are providing room upgrades or personalised amenities for example. 

We read through our list of VIPs in the pre-event meeting and advise what our expectations are in terms of the experience with the venue. We want all team members to leave that meeting feeling educated and empowered to provide a 5-star experience for our VIP’s (and all delegates). 

Avoid reading the Event Order line-by-line

The hours you have spent explaining and planning your event with the coordinator are input into an Event Order and that document becomes the bible for the operations team. 

When it comes to delivering the conference set up and Food and Beverage experiences, great venue operations teams will have your Event Order memorised and ready for execution. 

Instead of reading the Event Order line by line in the meeting, the top items you should check are the timings, room and stage set (including changes) and confirmed numbers. 

Our only caveat to this rule is if you feel that your requirements have not been listed in detail or if there are items missing from your Event Order. 

If you feel you need to do a line-by-line read of the Event Order, ensure you have the right people in the room (refer to reason #1).

Ensure your delegates with dietary requirements have pre-planned alternatives and discuss how this will work

Dietary requirements are common however dietary lists are becoming larger and more complex. Chef’s are educated and sophisticated when writing menus to ensure that the majority of dietary restrictions are already met within the standard menus provided; however it is important to have pre-planned alternatives for dietaries not adequately covered.

It is also important to understand how the operations team will manage this and what they may need from you as the organiser to assist with identifying particular delegates. 

Each delegate who provides information about their requirements will expect that their needs will be met and that they will not have to search for their meals. 

What does this look like when it comes to food service? A simple option is a table designated for special diets that is labelled as such. You could email delegates with dietary requirements in advance of the event and advise them to approach a venue team member to identify themselves. You could have different colour lanyards for delegates with anaphylaxis or complex requirements so the food and beverage team can confidently approach those delegates directly. Regardless of what procedure agreed, ensure this is considered before the event. 

---

All events are different, thorough pre-planning and collaboration is what makes an event memorable (for good reasons).

---

PRE-EVENT MEETING ATTENDEES:

Required:

• Your team: Lead planners, onsite management team and key stakeholders
• Venue team: Event Coordinator, Event Supervisor (Banquet/F&B Operations), Chef, Front Office Supervisor, Audio Visual Operator, Concierge Supervisor, Housekeeping Supervisor, any team member directly managing the operations of the event. 

Optional: 

• Mid-Top level department managers

PRE-EVENT MEETING AGENDA TEMPLATE:

1. Personnel introductions:
   1. Your team
   2. Venue team
   3. Confirm:
      1. Who does what; 
      2. How to contact; 
      3. Who to contact for issues and changes on the day;
      4. Who to escalate issues to if needed.
2. Delegate Briefing;
3. VIP Briefing;
4. Top-level event order read through;
5. Dietary list management plan;
6. Emergency & Evacuation plans; and
7. Questions