Parking for your event
One area that I wanted to address this month was parking for your event. This is something that I feel is sometimes overlooked, or paid very little attention to. Getting to the event is your patrons first impression. Eliminating stress not only makes room for them to enjoy the experience, but puts you in a great state of mind knowing that you have provided great customer service.
How do my guests arrive?
The first question you want to ask is how my attendees arriving. Is it by public transportation, car, or just plain walking? When doing a site visit to your venue, it is imperative that you plan for this to ensure your patrons are not surprised when they arrive. Some venues have parking on-site while others do not. Make sure and check with the venue management and find out how they have accommodated events in the past. Some folks I know had to rent a shuttle for the day to ferry guests form one parking lot to the main doors. Others have struck up really great relationships with garages close by and will validate parking. I think that’s a great idea! It saves your guests guesswork, some money, and provides the neighbor garage with additional income.
Do I need security?
Parking attendants may also be required as well as security. Many large events draw some interesting folks to parking areas. You know what I mean. You just had an amazing experience with your favorite band, are ready to head home for the night, but some guy selling tee shirts is giving you a really hard time and all you want to do is get to your car. We also want to make sure that these areas are brightly lit as well, especially if your audience is departing rather late at night.
Where do I go?
Signs also are a great way to direct foot traffic and let everyone know how you would like them to enter and exit. Think about how crowd traffic will flow in and out of the venue, and what would happen if there was an emergency. All States have egress laws to provide for safe evacuation of public assembly. You need to know these laws and understand how things would work in the event you would need to empty the venue. Here is the NYC building code bulitain that will go into much great er detail. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/code_notes_place-of-assembly.pdf
That’s just a few suggestions on how to make our patrons overall experience so much better! For a more in-depth look, check out National Event Pros very informative one sheet here: https://nationaleventpros.com/event-parking-101/. Thanks for reading! Park Safe! And check out another great read from me on “how loud is too loud” https://davidproductionsnyc.com/2019/07/31/how-loud-is-too-loud/