Venue Sourcing: Benefits of Utilizing Specialists for Your Events

Venue sourcing can be fun and even exciting. Visiting different venues and finding one that is best for your event can be rewarding. It can even make you feel glamorous as you walk along city streets, popping in and out of various new places. However, after visiting countless properties and multiple spaces, do they all begin to merge into one? Do your feet hurt from all of the walking (or running)? And what about ongoing stress of wondering whether you have allocated yourself enough time to make it to the next venue? For all the fun and glamour, venue sourcing can also be trying.

In this article, we’re explaining why leaving venue sourcing responsibilities to trained specialists can benefit your time, business and budget.

Why use an agency for venue sourcing?

They’re the experts

If you work with reputable full-time venue sourcing consultants, they should be targeted on the number of venues they see each month. If one person hasn’t been to a venue, then the likelihood is that one of their venue sourcing colleagues sitting next to them has. You can also expect them to have non biased feedback from other clients who have previously used the venue.

They use a strategic approach

Venue sourcing is more than simply seeing a venue in person. First, there’s the negotiation process. It’s not as if you’re in a local market haggling over fresh fruit or fabrics. You’re trying to negotiate on better rates, lower minimum numbers, risk-mitigating cancellation terms and added value concessions. That’s a lot to handle, and do you even have anything to benchmark these against? Perhaps it’s the same event you held last year, but were the rates and terms you were given even the best that you could have received at the time?

When venue sourcing through an agency, you are working with trained negotiators who do this work day in and day out. They also have some of the best visibility out there, working with a multitude of different companies from many different sectors. This also means that they can leverage that total venue spend and negotiate the best rates and terms for you. Put simply, they have the buying power to get you the best deal.

They save you time and money

Calls, emails, calls, emails… don’t you receive enough of these in your day? A good agency will cut out the pestering from venues checking if you’ve been able to decide yet on the proposal they sent you 10 minutes ago.

Perhaps more importantly, they can also support you on last minute cancellations. One of the worst things to deal with is cancelling an event with short notice. You’ve already signed the contract and are bound to pay 100% of the cancellation terms. How likely is it that you can find someone else in your business to use that space? Not very likely. But an agency of a decent size will have lots of contacts and clients that they can place in its spot. They have a much higher chance of being able to resell the space for you, or use that buying power to negotiate moving the booking to later in the year – giving you space and time to use it.

They go the extra mile

So far, this is what an agency should do, but they can always do more. A good agency will always keep you informed of the latest news and venue openings around the world. They are often some of the first people to get inside the new venues and can often invite you too. And everyone likes to be the first to see new venues, right?

Although venue sourcing consultants work for you, they should feel like an extension of your team. After working with you for a short while they will have a good understanding of your company, culture, preferences and so on, and can help you ensure that due process is followed throughout your business. The epitome of this scenario is having a dedicated venue sourcing consultant implanted into your office, and we’ve seen many success stories with this approach.

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They’re budget-friendly

Lastly, let’s not forget the biggest advantage of using an agency for venue sourcing: it’s free! It doesn’t cost you anything and you reap all the benefits we’ve discussed above. If you want to make sure you are saving yourself time and effort; holding your meetings and events at the right venue, with the best negotiated rates and terms, as well as ensuring your companies processes are being followed, then venue sourcing through an agency is for you.