When deciding whether to use a blank canvas or ready made venue you’ll realise that a lot of imagination and confidence will go a long way to reaching your decision.
What experience tells us
Generally people who are less able to think beyond the four blank walls will go for a ‘ready-made’ themed venue which already has a certain look and feel that you can either leave ‘as is’ or build upon. By contrast those with more experience and who are not averse to a bit of risk taking will be more likely to opt for the blank canvas space.
In general, more people will lean towards the ready-made venues and packages, often to save themselves time (and possibly money). But there is no doubt that events made from scratch in blank canvas venues are more likely to provide a bigger wow factor when done really well, especially if the guests know what the raw venue looks like.
Those going for blank canvas venues
Clients with more vision and who are prepared to create from scratch tend to be in the fashion industry (where it’s crucial to create your own brand style/ image for events) and media industries where they want their events to showcase their creative and imaginative flair.
Blank canvas venues can range from empty warehouses to white walled film studios with lots of in between venues like town halls, music halls, marquees and production spaces.
You’ll need to give more attention to some than others. For example, an empty warehouse may not have running water, heating or a good electric supply, whereas a film studio will have all of these things. Clean white spaces are probably the best blank canvases as you don’t need to devote so much time to preparation.
If you prefer themed venues
Clients are always looking for new exciting spaces. Therefore, it’s important for us to keep up to date with news of new and interesting venues and we make it our mission to seek them out.
Themed venues can take away a lot of your organising time and of course are likely to save you money on things like heating, carpet, furniture etc. And if you find something that particularly suits your plans then that’s great. However, it will more than likely have been used before by many others. As a result, you need to think about whether your guests may have already attended an event there. How you could make your event different? Examples of themed venues are museums, themed restaurants, and venues that have been restored to reflect their previous life as a prison, a courthouse, a sorting office etc.
Budget is a real consideration. Creating your event in a blank canvas venue is likely to cost more money than a ready themed venue. You literally have to bring everything in yourself. With ready themed venues, however, you could find yourself somewhat limited by their choice of furniture, their in-house catering or the choice of props etc.! That’s not to say that these things can’t be changed or moved around. After all, nothing is impossible!
Then it’s all about the venue itself
There are so many venues to choose from both themed and blank canvas. Just start looking for interesting venues with an open mind. Sometimes, just the layout or the shape of the venue, the location, the view or purely the entranceway will be a big deciding factor – especially if you’re going for a big wow factor. Can you make a grand entrance for your guests? Will they find it easily? Are they likely to have been there before?
When clients ask for our help to find suitable venues for their events, we will always ask lots of questions to narrow down the choice for them. We then proceed to speak to lots of venues; we ask lots of questions about access, availability, restrictions, services as well as costs of course; and then we put together a selection of venues that fit their brief.
The great thing is that there’s a huge choice of wonderful venues to choose from and there is always somewhere that’s just perfect for each and every client brief.
