When you're planning your next live event - you need to consider how you'll set up your room

You need to think carefully about what you want to achieve, what your business objectives are, and how best to achieve it. Your room setup isn't an arbitrary determination. The optimal room setup should be based on how you want your attendees to perceive your event, and how you want to interact with your attendees.

Four main types of room setups can help you achieve different goals.

Theater-Style Setup

Theater-style setup is when you have rows of seating, with no tables, much like a theater. This is a optimal setup when you're trying to get many people in a room. A theater-style setup is appropriate when you plan to speak to your attendees like an audience. Theater-style setups are optimal for presentation-style events and lectures.

Event Planning: selecting the right venue

When selecting a venue for a business event, you may look at a venue and decide immediately whether it can host the size of the event you're considering. But some elements of selecting the right venue aren't so obvious. For example, does the venue offer appropriate dining options? Does it meet the needs of your clients? You must think about the attendees you're trying to reach, and determine whether the venue is appropriate for their needs, too; not just your own.

Consider Your Audience

When you're planning an event, you have to consider your audience and evaluate their needs in order to select an appropriate venue. It's not just a matter of matching the venue to the event. Even if the venue is ideally suited to the event, but doesn't meet your attendees' needs, you might have to find a new venue. Put yourself in your attendees' shoes. What sort of things are your attendees likely to want to do while at your venue? This is always a consideration, but is particularly noteworthy if you're running an all-day or multi-day event.

The price of your event and your venue are inextricably linked

Your event must have a high-enough price to cover the costs of your event, as well as to provide you a revenue stream, if you're expecting to make a profit from the event attendance itself. As the venue itself is probably the single most expensive aspect of your event, the price you charge is directly related to what venue you select. Make sure you price a ticket to your event accordingly to correspond with your venue.

When Pricing Your Event, Consider Your Target Audience

First and foremost, you must price an event for your target audience. If you're charging $1,000 for a local business to attend a one-day event, you might be charging too much. Conversely, if you're only charging $150 for a three-day business conference, your price is too low and businesses won't take you seriously.

One important aspect of planning a live event is deciding whether you'll serve meal and refreshments

If you're planning an all-day live event, will you provide a meal and refreshments, or send people off-site for lunch? For a residential event, will you host meals on-site? Even on a half-day event, do you intend to provide refreshments? Meals can eat up a substantial portion of your revenue, so consider your meal options when selecting a venue.

Refreshments during a Live Event

A typical live event might feature coffee when people arrive, a mid-morning break for refreshments, lunch and a mid-afternoon refreshment break. These refreshment options add up. If you're giving coffee to people three times during an event; morning, mid-morning and mid-afternoon; you'll need substantially more refreshments than by providing one simple refreshment break. Likewise, refreshments may also include things like assorted pastries, fruit and other snacks.