Meeting Professionals International, a leading association for the Meetings and Events industry, has
completed a comprehensive survey on the state of the industry for 2023. One thing stands out for
certain – the demand for in-person meetings has increased significantly compared to the previous year.
While this is great news for the industry, it also presents a few challenges, particularly finding available
space for an event.
MPI has noted the difficultly facing meeting planners and sometimes having to accept any available
space as many are sold out and unavailable. Working with your event production partner can help
determine if the space will work for your event, and ways to adapt to the space available as needed.
TRG creates custom room diagrams for each event. The diagram determines the total capacity of
attendees using appropriate spacing for all A/V, staging and egress. Working with a diagram will ensure
that the space selected will work for your important gathering.
Alternative seating plans, using extraneous spaces or adjusting programming to fit in the space are all
options that TRG can help work through to capture the overall vision of the event using the available
space.
In addition to working through the available space, other items to keep in mind are contract details
affecting the Audio-Visual services and timing of setup and breakdown. Contracts may stipulate certain
items, such as breakouts or wireless, must be provided by the in-house A/V. These items may be
negotiated out of the contract, so it is important to be aware of what may be in the terms, Every venue
varies and the terms of their agreements vary, but TRG can help navigate the terms as they affect the
overall production of the event.
TRG created the Event Planning Venue Assessment guide to provide information and a checklist to help
assess the venue for your particular event and to help TRG create the diagrams for your event. The
guide can be downloaded from the TRG website at - TRG Event Planning Venue Assessment Guide.