Make the Most of Your On-site Resources

By Kristjan Gavin, CMP

In today's economic climate, clients are mindful of their meeting and event budgets: They're looking to make concessions that will impact their bottom line without sacrificing the quality of their events. Clients are looking to us, as their event planners, to provide counsel on how to reduce costs and still host a successful, impactful event. That's why, more than ever, it's become imperative to work with resources already available on-site.

One of the most impactful ways you can utilize your on-site resources is to use the furniture at the hotel or conference center in a meaningful way. Most venues have plenty of comfortable couches and chairs in fairly neutral, mix-and-match colors that can be grouped together to create sitting areas for breaks and “birds-of-a-feather” sessions. To create several groups, use large potted greenery already on-site to break up two or more sections of couches, tables and chairs.

When doing your initial site inspection, be sure to note what kind of color palette is already in place and then select your color schemes accordingly. Better yet, bring your digital camera and take pictures so you can be sure that the colors and patterns all blend together. If the couches and chairs don't exactly match your event color scheme, simply drape the tables between them in linens that do match. In any case, you have to make sure the furniture, accessories and table linens all work together to achieve aesthetic harmony and don't compete with one another. And speaking of linens, you can always choose linens that will “punch up” the look and feel of the on-site furniture. It's much less costly than bringing in rented furniture.

One thing you can do to bring down costs without making an impact on quality is to forego having many small, costly floral arrangements scattered around the main meeting room and instead use one big impact piece in the center of the room. Get creative and use something already on-site. This will create a focal point in the center of the room and serves two important purposes. First, having a place to focus visually helps break up the size of the room and makes it look much less intimidating; second, it gives attendees something to talk about — an icebreaker, if you will.

Another way to make a big impact on the look and feel of a room without adding cost is to change the lighting. During meeting sessions, you'll want to be sure that the speaker stage is the focus point, and the house lights are dimmed but still up enough so that attendees can see. Between sessions, chances are the house lights will be nearly all the way up. It's during the evening events that you'll have the opportunity to make the biggest impact with lighting.

You can make a meeting room look completely different for evening events just by getting creative with the lighting. Attendees won't even recognize the same room they've been sitting in all day long — if you do it correctly. One trick that makes a big impact is to turn off the perimeter lights around the room. Dim the rest of the house lights except those over the big impact piece in the center of the room. Use something already on-site (potted trees, etc.) to string lights and place them just inside the dark portion of the room. This will pull the room in, creating a much more intimate feel. This lighting trick can be particularly helpful when the room is considerable larger than needed for the number of event attendees.

By working with the resources available on-site, you can help your clients cut their costs while still hosting a quality, memorable meeting or event.

Name: Kristjan Gavin, CMP

Company: In Good Company Meetings & Events

Address: 111 Deerwood Road, Suite 200
San Ramon, CA 94583 USA

Phone: 925/855-3255

E-mail: kgavin@ingoodco.com

Website: http://ingoodco.com

Next Page: Why Do the ISES Esprit Awards Matter?