I’ve come to a realization. Hotels/convention centers can be misleading when it comes to the measurements of their rooms. I know, shocker, right? But surprisingly, some meeting planners are unaware of this. When a meeting planner walks into a potential property for an upcoming program, the property is not going to lose business over something as trivial as not being able to fit all of the attendees into a specific room. When a property explains that they can fit a certain number of people in a room, they usually don’t take into account the space needed for staging/production. So add that to most hotels’ “less than accurate” measurements, and there could be the potential for disaster.
Sure, we can fit all of your attendees in this room. No problem!
There is no substitute for having your production company come in early in the site selection process. I can’t tell you how many times we have produced a program without a site visit only to walk into a room of which the chandelier is 6’ off the ground, or a column is right in the middle of where the stage should be, or an air wall is paper thin, or huge windows are overlooking the surface of the sun, and on and on and on we go. Online diagrams and dimensions just don’t cut it. They don’t paint the real picture.
So how can a meeting planner be sure that they are getting the straight facts when they are on a site visit? Easy, bring a representative from the production company. Not only will your production company be able to gauge the size of a room but also many other potential challenges. At DBG, we make our own measurements to make sure we have the correct measurements. This aids us in creating a spot on diagram which is an integral part of the whole production process.
A common argument is that there isn’t enough money in the budget to fly an A/V geek around the country. The flipside to this type of thought process is that being prepared beforehand will eliminate on-site adds which means keeping non-budgeted revenue in your wallet.
Hey, I’m fine with taking one for the team and sitting on someone’s lap during the general session, but something tells me not all your attendees will be so accommodating.
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