Questions to ask a venue?

limerickman95

I'm currently putting together a business plan for a small film festival.

I have a venue in mind and i need to arrange a meeting with the director of the venue.

But i need to ask him questions applicable to the event.

So i would love it if people on here can give me some ideas of questions that are important to ask in order to maximize my meeting and get the most information possible.

So here is my rough list off the top of my head:

1 Cost of the Venue
(I) What's included in the hire of the venue(i.e staff and equipment)
(II) Is there any type of discount for booking the venue for a week straight

2 Does the Venue have the correct equipment(i.e Screen, Projector and DVD Player)

3 Where does the venue hire in its DVD's

4 Does the Venue charge an additional commission on tickets and programmes on top of the venue hire

Ok that's all I have at the moment so any additional questions would be fantastic

kenbrady

http://keynoteresource.com/Appendix10.html

Write down your list of questions and bring them with you to the meeting and tick each one off, ask every question no matter how small or stupid you think it might be.
A huge amount of work goes into event planning, might seem simple if you are just attending an event but it's a stressful job organising it.

Gerry81

limerickman95 wrote: »

I'm currently putting together a business plan for a small film festival.

I have a venue in mind and i need to arrange a meeting with the director of the venue.

But i need to ask him questions applicable to the event.

So i would love it if people on here can give me some ideas of questions that are important to ask in order to maximize my meeting and get the most information possible.

So here is my rough list off the top of my head:

1 Cost of the Venue
(I) What's included in the hire of the venue(i.e staff and equipment)
(II) Is there any type of discount for booking the venue for a week straight

2 Does the Venue have the correct equipment(i.e Screen, Projector and DVD Player)

3 Where does the venue hire in its DVD's

4 Does the Venue charge an additional commission on tickets and programmes on top of the venue hire

Ok that's all I have at the moment so any additional questions would be fantastic

Access times to venue for setup de-rig etc.
Does the venue take a cut of the door/ticket sales on top of hire fee.
What time can the venue stay open until?
does the venue run late night events or is it used for other purposes during the day that would necessitate you de-rig after each day and setup again the next.
What staff they provide and does it include all technical staff?
Do you need your own insurance?
Equipment provided, as you said screen, projector, dvd player/reel to reel projector, PA including speakers, amps, mixing desk, all cables and stands, power supply, power distro.
does the venue provide seating.

not sure if I get your question on tickets and programmes, do you mean to print them for you or sell them for you?

limerickman95

my point on the tickets and programmes was does the venue take a percentage of the sales of tickets and programmes

Gerry81

depends on the venue and its something you'ld want to be absolutely clear on.

From my point of view if you hire a venue for an event and pay that venue a fee I wouldn't be willing to give them another penny. Take a music gig situation, you hire the venue, pay for the act, pay for the promotion, fill their venue and they make a fortune on the bar and still want a cut of the door, forget it.

a lot of venues don't have a box office facility to sell presale tickets for events but if they do they'll certainly add a booking fee. you could use an online service like tickets.ie to sell your tickets who I believe are quite cheap.

If you're just selling tickets n the door on the night of the event you may need to povide somebody to man the door and sell the tickets. The same with programmes.

All venues will have different procedures so as kenbrady mentioned above before you approach the venue think of as many questions and possibilities as you can and just ask.

The only major reason I can think of for the venue to want a percentage of your ticket sales is if say the it usually operates as a bar/club then most of their profit will be from bar sales and althugh I've never attended a film festival I could imagine the bar sales would be down on that of a regular bar/club night.

Also, I understand I may be rambling but I hope some of that makes sense.

limerickman95

cheers guys really helpful.

also does anyone know any companys that rent dvds for commercial use.

Gerry81

try these http://www.accesscinema.ie/ , I'll be expecting some free tickets!:P

edit. also try the IFI,http://www.irishfilm.ie/ not sure if they can license films but they should be some help.