New York Meetings and Events

Every planner knows that a site survey is absolutely essential when it comes to narrowing down venue options and making the final selection. Price, timing, and a million other variables come into play as well, but, in the heat of the site survey moment, we sometimes forget to ask about a few small but essential details while we're on-site.

Seeing for yourself is usually the best way to judge a space, so next time don't forget to ask about the basics and you'll save yourself a few phone calls and emails in the process! A few of our must-inquire-about details:

1. Check-in area.
What's the flow like? Will people be piling up at the door if there's a rush? Can people move through the check-in easily to get to coat check and the event space? If the answer is "No" to any of these, you're going to need to figure out how to work around any obstacles to the flow -- nothing irritates guests more right out of the box than a slow or disorganized check-in process.

2. Coat check.
Where is it? Can they handle large surges of guests? Is there plenty of staff? Is it well-organized? Is it well located or hidden at the back of the venue or worse, down flights of stairs (not an ideal set-up if guests have been drinking). Depending on the set-up, you may have to work around coat check issues as well. We've all been to events where we've decided not to check coats because you know it will take too long to reclaim your possessions at the end of the event.

3. Ladies room.
Are there enough stalls? How often are they serviced? Is there an in-room attendant? In our book, you can never have enough ladies rooms for the simple fact of biology -- women need them more often. We won't go into the technical aspects here, but safe to say, if the venue has three stalls in the ladies room and you're expecting 500 people for a seminar, the wait for at half of your guests will be significant -- and a major irritation for the ladies.

4. Handicapped access.
Technically, most venues are required to have handicapped access, but in reality, is the venue you're interested in really accessible? Very likely it's not -- and if the venue you select is skirting the law, you and/or the sponsor of the event can be put in a very awkward situation. On your walk-through, put the venue to the test and literally make them walk you through the experience of someone who might be pushing a wheel-chair or driving a self-powered wheel-chair to see how easy or difficult the process is.

5. Elevators.
A few years back I was responsible for an event so well-attended that the venue's elevators overheated, temporarily knocking out one of the hotel's only two elevators. Granted, the city was in the middle of a brutal heat wave and the hotel's AC was anemic at best, but safe to say the hotel held me personally responsible for the overheated elevator that led to the arrival of  the NY Fire Department. Regardless a good time was had by all (and the guests were delighted to see the very handsome fire fighters tromping into the room), but bottom line: if you're doing a penthouse event, check on the number of elevators available, and discuss how problems like the one I had might be avoided!