3 Steps To A Successful Event Walk-Through

Rare is the event that runs perfectly without a hitch. A great event planner distinguishes him or herself by being able to anticipate any and all mishaps.

Organizing a proper venue walk-through can prevent a lot of this stress and cut down on those last minute mistakes. zkipster held a product launch for our picturing sourcing add-on, that was a lot of fun for everyone involved, and while everything went smoothly, the lead up involved a lot of work and a lot of pieces to assemble. One of the most important pieces to the successful event puzzle was the venue walk-through. For the walk-through, we assembled of our main event planning players; it was not unlike a strategy meeting commanders of an army hold before a big battle.Here are some things to watch out for that we find are sure to make your walk-though a successful one.

1. Assemble all your big players

Get all the people crucial to the event's execution in one room. For our walk-through, at Maison O, we made sure the event space's GM was on hand, as well as, their A/V guy, our event team, and our PR team. The GM was able to answer our questions about finding staff for the event, the A/V guy cleared up our questions on tech setup and because all of our team members were in the space we were better able to envision a theme for our launch. The space had a few separate rooms, one of which was styled to look like a Japanese classroom, so we all agreed, "Class in Session" was the way to go, but this idea only came about after a round of collaborative thinking inspired by the venue itself.

2. Put yourself in your guests' shoes

We began our walk-through, at the beginning. We picked which entrance guests would walk through, so that we could have the most efficient guest check in, deciding finally on a side entrance, so that regular dinner flow for the restaurant was not disrupted, and so there would be smooth event check in.I encourage you to walk through the space from beginning to the end as though you were a guest arriving. Visualize where they will go, what they will do. Ask, where will guests arrive? How is the flow of the room? And most importantly, where will there be bottlenecks and how can you keep them to a minimum? For example, we thought that because there was a bar right at the foot of the stairs leading to the space, guests would crowd in the entrance waiting for a drink. So, we made sure there was a staff member on the other side of the room encouraging guests to come to her for a specialty drink.

3. Know your venue

Now is the time to ask all the nittygritty detail questions. Our venue came with its own look and layout, not all of which was to our liking. One main concern was there were too many chairs and that would make the space feel too crowded. We asked the GM and she said she would be able to find an area to store the excess furniture. Some venues are capable of this and some are not. Find out if and where there is extra space to store items, or, as in our case, any extra furniture. Also, inquire if there is an event after yours that would require you to leave immediately after, or can guests meander around once eveything is technically finished. Does the venue offer setup and take down of the event? Can you hang things on the walls? How are phone signals? Is there wifi available? There wasn't good signal for us, so we requested that the venue setup wifi and they obliged!After you have walked through the entire space, it never hurts to ask ask yourself once more, what is the goal of this event? For us the goal was to showcase our product and educate our clients on our new add-on zFace. So, is what you're planning satisfing your purpose? It may seem like an easy question, but it's always good to re-focus oneself.Good luck on your walk-throughs.

Please share with us any other things you look out for! And if you feel like checking out how our Launch went there's a short video here! Photos from top to bottom: Pictures 1 & 2 - zkipster co-Founder David Becker with Maison O's GM during our walk-through, Maison O's Stradust Lounge Tokyo Subway Room, Stardust Lounge Japanese Classroom