ABCey Presents: How to Conduct a Site Selection

Location, location, location! A HUGE factor in organizing a successful event is finding the perfect venue. However, the hunt for an event space can actually be a long and exhaustive process. ABCey is here to help with ideas on how you can conduct a site selection for your next event!

1. Needs Assessment

The first step in selecting a venue for your upcoming event is to develop an exhaustive list of selection criteria. You should always start with creating an overall estimated budget for your event that identifies all expenses and offsets. It’s important to know your overall budget BEFORE selecting a venue. Thus, it’s extremely crucial to communicate with your clients and figure out what they need in terms of location, cost, capacity, and so on.

2. Get Organized!

After figuring out what your client wants, it’s time to develop a list of potential venues. You can come up with a list of up to 10 event spaces (anything more than that will be overwhelming), and eventually narrow it down to 3. We suggest creating a google spreadsheet to keep your ideas organized, or any event software of your choice! Make sure to include important details such as location, pricing, capacity, and contact information, and pros and cons!

Many important details such as contact number and pricing can be found on the venue website. Other than that, Google Maps and Yelp are great tools to see the site and acquire information such as location and venue ratings.

3. Create a Visual Presentation

After organizing your spreadsheet, make a visual presentation for each event space. You can put up a few images and talk about why a particular venue is a good fit. You can then go ahead and present the powerpoint to your client and wait for them to narrow down the list for you.

4. Plan Site Visits

Once you have presented your Powerpoint or other presentation to your client, you will then need to go visit the venues. Seeing them in person is much different than anything you can find online. You should offer for your client to join along, but if they can’t you will need to visit them on your own. Be sure to take lots of pics and vids!

5. Time to Make A Final Decision

After visiting all of the venues, you should have a great idea of each event space and be able to picture if your event theme works within the parameters of the space. You can then talk to your clients and show them pictures and videos of each venue to help them make a final decision!

Have you ever conducted a site selection? Is there anything we missed? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

If you’re interested in learning more about events we’ve done for otherSan Francisco startups or other fortune 500 companies, click here.

ABCey’s Startup Monday: Oh My Green

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that showcases some of the most innovative San Francisco startups! These are often selected from a list of companies that we LOVE or have worked with in the past. This week, we are putting the spotlight on Oh My Green. A startup dedicated to deliver healthy and natural foods to companies.

What is Oh My Green?

Founded in 2014, Oh My Green is a California based healthy food and wellness services provider that aims to make healthy eating and good nutrition easy. Oh My Green offers a custom, nutritious office food program for your organization. The company delivers healthy office snacks, kitchen design, and stocking services, to catering, cafe management, and wellness programming.

How it Works?

Regardless of your company size and budget, Oh My Green brings delicious snacks and drinks to your workplace. Its monthly snack box subscription is perfect for offices with 50 or less. All you need to do is sign up and fill out your company’s information and note dietary preferences. Oh My Green also provides a variety of office catering options for corporate events. Its tech-enabled service, which relies on machine learning can give you personalized recommendations for meals and snacks.

Why Do We Love it?

We love Oh My Green because they truly care about people and their health and well-being. Whether you’re vegan or have food allergies, Oh My Green can customize a menu for your company’s needs. When it comes to catering, Oh My Green always sources ingredients from local farms to maximize freshness and nutritional value of the food. Its advanced technology also allows you to manage orders, track your consumption, control your budget and so much more!

Have you heard of Oh My Green? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

ABCey Presents: 5 Ways to Use Instagram Stories for Your Next Event

Instagram Stories has opened the door to a new range of possibilities for both users and marketers, making it a great space to promote events. Thus, ABCey has created a list of our top 5 ways that you can use Instagram Stories for your next event!

1. Instagram Live Video

Record and show in real-time! You can shoot live video using Instagram Stories before, during, and after your event. This way, you can showcase your venue and promote event transparency. Backstage content is a great way to drive viewership and keep your audience interested. Filming behind the scenes will give users a sense of involvement/understanding of how event planning actaully works.

2. Q&As

Having a Q&A session is a good way to engage your audience. Your followers might have common questions about your event or are interested in knowing more about the event planning process. In this case, you can collect the most popular questions and answer them in a picture or video format on your stories.

3. Advertisement

There are so many ways you can advertise your event using Instagram Stories. You can promote your brand or upcoming event using appropriate hashtags; you can also place your event page link in your stories. There’s also Instagram Stories ads, which allow you to insert a short advert in between users stories. You can target your ads by reach, video views, traffic, conversions, app installs, and brand awareness.

4. Start A Poll

The good thing about Instagram Stories is that it lets you run quick surveys and take your audience’s pulse. Thus, if you have a dilemma while in the midst of planning an event, you can always ask your audience for their thoughts. This is a nice way to engage with your followers and make them feel that you value their opinion!

5. Influencer Takeover

It’s always good to change things up. Consider letting your event speaker, a performer, a sponsor or an influencer take over your account and engage with your audience. By providing a platform for others to push some of their own content, you’ll also be able to leverage the speaker’s own audience and marketing power, and drive impressions for your event.

What do you think of these ideas? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

If you’re interested in learning more about events we’ve done for other San Francisco startups or Fortune 500 companies, click here.