Your next company gathering doesn’t have to be in your offices or the boring hotel conference room down the street.
Northeast Ohio has plenty of interesting cultural spots that can also host your next event, whether it’s the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Pro Football Hall of Fame or the National Inventors Hall of Fame, to name a few.
“You do want to match the theme of the evening with the off-site location,” says Lise Fitzpatrick, senior meeting and event manager for Conferon. “Sometimes you get ideas for a theme from the site itself, and other times you may have a theme in mind, but you have to match up what is appropriate.”
Once you decide on a theme, make sure you have all the relevant information planners at the site may need, such as how many people will be attending and whether there will be a sit-down dinner or a walk-around reception. With that information in hand, visit all potential sites.
“You do a huge disservice by not sighting every venue and getting information,” says Fitzpatrick.
And just because you’ve been to a venue before as a visitor doesn’t mean you can skip the screening process. Different venues have different policies about where you can take food and beverages, what time you can get in to set up and how many people they can seat.
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can seat a lot of people as long as you don’t mind being broken up on different levels,” says Fitzpatrick. “The art museum and natural history museums have limitations on where you can do seating and where you can have food and beverages. In some cases, it creates logistics problems.
“How will you create an evening around one area? Will you offer food and beverages before touring the museum or afterward? Sighting the venue first will bring up a lot of issues, and some can be crossed off because it won’t work with your group.”
If you want alcohol served, find out if the facility has a liquor license; if not, make sure your caterer does.
“Also ask if they have their own exclusive caterer or if you can bring in anybody you want,” says Fitzpatrick. “If they have an exclusive caterer, then you will want to meet with them individually.”
Find out what the facility will provide and what the caterer will provide. Do they have the tables, chairs and staging equipment you need? Are there convenient places to park or have buses drop off your guests? Is valet parking available?
“A majority of these places, museums in particular, are used to doing these events,” says Fitzpatrick. “They often have their own event planners on staff. They are typically very well organized and well run. They usually have a professional packet of information available that outlines fees.”
Rental fees vary widely by venue, but most charge a flat fee for space rental. If it’s a corporate event, Fitzpatrick recommends asking if the payment can be made in the form of a donation to the museum or hall so that it can be used as a tax deduction.
“You also have to work around the museum’s schedule,” says Fitzpatrick. “You’d be surprised at how available they can be, but you are mostly looking at evenings after the venue closes to the public.”
While museums and the like can make great places for some events, they are not always the best choice.
“They are not really conducive to major presentations,” says Fitzpatrick. “You can’t usually gather everyone together at one spot and have good sight lines. If you need to do visuals or be at a podium for more than five minutes, they are usually not the best place to do that. They are great for taking people out of the office atmosphere so they can clear their heads and have some fun.”
How to reach: Conferon, www.conferon.com
