My Dream Venues
When asked about our dream venues, the team always laughs – because we all use different criteria to assess a venue and also, because there is no single thing that defines ‘the’ perfect venue. There is however, a perfect venue for a type of event, or brand, or launch.
The Venue for the Product
As an example, if we were to host an iphone launch, we would consider a range of options. Would we want a high tech venue at the cutting edge of technology like Jodrell Bank, with their huge satellite dishes? Or would we want to look for a venue that is sterile and stylish, as Nissan did for their launch recently – in a large room, with white voiles draped around the walls, to enable the attendees to focus on the vehicle? This would then provide the opportunity to look at stimulating other senses including smell – by pumping different smells of the seasons, be they the fresh spring smell, summer meadows, crisp autumn etc from under their chairs
What we wouldn’t do, is think of a venue along the lines of the ‘Natural History Museum’. We want to see the presenter on stage – showing the iphone – with the audience not being distracted by the environment around them.
The Venue for the Audience
It’s also important to consider the audience – if you’re doing a government training session for borough council, to showcase the differences between two photocopiers – models 8 and 9, it’s fine to shake it up, make it stand out because the colour saturation in the new model is amazing. This is where it’s a good idea to change the lighting to become ultraviolet, to use uv costumes and entertainment as a powerful message. It would not however, be appropriate to have acrobats coming through the ceiling when there’s a council audience as this would be overtly excessive and an inappropriate way to get the message over.
An Evolving Venue
And finally, my own idea of what constitutes an idea venue is constantly evolving. Something recently reminded me of this.
I was at a venue recently – the Hamyard Hotel in between Soho and Mayfair in London. It is stunning and well designed throughout. It is 5 star from start to finish, has excellent breakout rooms and a private screening cinema for 100 guests as well as it’s own bowling alley. We’ve seen clients use it and it’s been effective. We’re plotting ways to use it again during the run up to Christmas and will let you know when we can share these plans with you. The reason why I’ve mentioned it though, is because it’s something that’s relatively new to us and as such, is great. We don’t expect to have a roster of venues that we stick to. We expect to discover new, interesting, quirky, useful locations and are always open to exploring and finding new places that will be of use to our clients.
Maybe there is one ideal, perfect venue, for everyone out there? We’ve not found it yet. When we do, we’ll let you know.