Finding & Creating The Perfect Venue
Published in
14 min readMar 6, 2015
Creative Spaces For Creative Thinking
To us creativity is the single biggest contributor to human progress, performance and achievement.
If you are receiving this document then it’s likely that between us we are searching for a venue to hold sessions where just such creativity is required.
Our sessions are a vital part of our overall assignments.
These days working as a team collaboratively are where all our earlier ‘readiness’ work and the future work will coincide.
It’s where the senior teams will meet and spend quality time together.
It’s where these dedicated and often rare resources get the chance to think, contribute, imagine, reflect, decide and excel — it’s where creativity and value emerge.
It’s an important component — it’s how we can create the right space for everyone’s minds — it will govern the frameworks we will make. And so it’s important to find the right place and space.
We are very keen to get the venue space that the team deserves.
This Way For More Background On Group Partners
Our Checklist & Key Principles For Great Venues
Room Service?
Nope.
It’s interesting but the classic Hotel meeting or conference venues are often not that easy to make work — especially if we were to apply all of the conditions we describe below.
See What An Ideal Room Looks Like Here
Not impossible but not easy.
For some bizarre reason hotels tend to ruin great walls with bizarre art work, cornice mouldings, and weird sculpture — or worse someone thought it would be great to fit seizure inducing carpets and curtains with a strange and unnamed canvas wall covering from the Red Planet.
We have widened our searches in many of the cities around the world to — Photographic studios, Art Galleries, Institutions and Academic institutions where classroooms can be found. Search Google for large white walls for hire.
There are also a growing number of dedictaed work spaces and venues catering specifically for inspiring and creative spaces. There are a growing number of venue finding companies too. Check them out.
The criteria below are hopefully helpful clues as to what constitutes a great space and place — and we can literally come across them anywhere.
Visit This Space To See Examples Of Great Rooms
We Arrive Prepared
We have been caught out by not having that small device for getting stones out of the hooves of the horse. Nothing sticky to stick things with or scredrivery to screw things with — and as a result we travel with stuff — magic tape, magic scalpels and magic Gaffa tape. It’s magic.
Did we say big flat white painted walls?
Flat Expanses of White Painted Wall
It’s almost non-negotiable but if all else fails we will bring in acres of 8x4x10mm lightweight panels and make our own walls.
Walls Can Be Made
10mm Foam Panels — are lightweight and can be delivered to most places in the world. But not all. 5mm Foamcore panels bend and are unworkable. We are building a wall that can be worked on so they need to have solid structure. 10mm is therefore the ideal and they look like this.
We Need Space
50–60 feet, not necessarily all in one sweep. So that means the space could be around three different walls, but all flat and painted. If at all possible. Rooms designed for 30–40 people are perfect for 15! We want people to move around. And yes sessions for 30 would work better in rooms designed for 50–60.
Air & Light — we love daylight but not at the expense of the big flat walls — that’s a challenge.
If the rooms don’t have daylight then they should have great artificial light — and that’s totally possible these days.
Comfortable Seating — people will be seated most of the day so we need to take care with that. making senior people sit on hard and uncomfortable chairs for hours on end is going to get some people’s backs up. That’s if they can ever stand again.
Wifi
We need to be online most of the time — we need to get access to our back office systems and tools and also because our clients like to stay in touch. In the breaks! Most places now have Wifi. But it’s good to check.
Liquid Refreshment
Let’s be sure there’s plenty of water and ideally there would be great coffee and tea nearby. By great coffee we mean probably not that stuff that sits in vacuum flasks all week long.
Solid Refreshment
The right catering is important and if possible we would suggest you bring in a balance of protein and carbohydrates. Well balanced meals and breaks are always important thought the days. (See menu suggestions here and more detail below)
Security
This is always confidential work so we want to be sure that the rooms and our kit are protected overnight and that the venue is aware of the confidential nature of what will be in that room.
Access
We arrive a full day ahead — we need to get in — and often that may be at a weekend. If we are building the walls we need at least two hours for that alone. So the walls will need to be delivered ahead of that. We try not to ruin people’s weekends. We are pretty self contained but sometimes the venue rules state that we may need to be chaperoned.
Power — access to power all around the room and cable covers if we are using adaptors and extension leads
Sound Friendly — big cavernous rooms make it hard to hear people — we can sometimes get round that with soft furnishings but better if we can avoid that.
Temperature Controllable
20–30 people make a lot of heat and cold spaces make it hard to work. It’s often the case that temperature control is someone else’s responsibility and a long time ahead is needed to change the temperature. Like a couple of days. Daft we know.
Freedom
Plenty of room for people to wander around and be inspired to think. We are very informal and we simply ask for people to stay tuned in. Rooms are a crucial part of that. large enough for people to wander off but not wander out.
Cleaning Rooms
We love the carpets cleaned and the catering cleared out overnight but not our artwork on the walls. It’s happened. We need to know who we need to speak to to make sure that contractors know to leave the teams work up over night.
And Finally
Before we arrive it would be great to have the room free of everything — we mean everything. Especially if we have to build the wall. Arriving at the venue to be told that the 100 plus chairs, folding tables and conference fittings will need to be taken away before we can even start — not so good!
Good Environments
What Does 50–60Feet Of Great Flat Wall Look Like?
Working sessions are critically important for thinking.
These are rich conversations around important topics.
The conversations themelves are focussed — inform the frameworks and develop all specific outcomes we need. So we need big spaces upon which to have meaningful discussion.
Small space limits that.
So it’s important to realise just how essential getting the room right is to the effectiveness of a workshop.
Visit Here For What An Ideal Room Looks Like
The wrong environment can have a major impact on creativity — affecting people’s energy levels and therefore their ability to think innovatively.
Arrangements For The Sessions
We arrange the room in a horseshoe/arc shape as far as possible facing the longest expanse of white wall.
We don’t need (or want!) tables other than one computer station. We move around the room a lot and therefore chairs on wheels always helps. See below
The Right Mood
We look for workshop environments that are well lit and comfortable for a few days work.
We’ve explained that they should ideally have perfectly flat uninterrupted walls. That will enable us to immediately apply the electrostatic paper that creates a seamless canvas for the whole team to work with. (See the note above about wall construction 10mm x 8ft x 4ft Foam Board.)
That involves a minimum of 50–60ft of flat, painted, very smooth and obstruction free wall. The material we use is a very thin and very clingy electrostatic plastic paper, which is why the walls must be flat and smooth.
Glass works but isn’t ideal — it’s sometimes OK if it’s an inner wall, the natural light behind an outer wall will cause adhesion and visibility problems.
What Doesn’t Work?
If you jump to the end you will see the candidate for worst room ever and the biggest challenge we ever had.
We hate badly lit subterranean concrete bunkers. Rooms decked out for Christmas with ‘Flock’ wallpaper. Covered in hessian or sack cloth coverings — you know — those 70's textured surface — they do not work and it means we will have to build our own walls using pre-laminated chip or foamboard. That adds time and cost. And it’s not really necessary. If we can find the right venue.
Rooms that have big boardroom tables and more wiring than the local electricity substation holing up the underside. Spot lit coloured walls and impossible to move or fancy drinks cabinets.
Ideally the walls will not be interrupted by windows or doors, nor any other obstruction such as notice boards, pictures, stuffed mooses heads or air conditioning units.*
Did we say big flat painted white walls?
*Walls with mounted screens, lights, fire alarm fittings and air conditioning controls are also NOT good! They can be worked around but not if they sit right in the middle of the walls.
Electrostatic Paper Is Very Kind To Walls (And Us)
It Bends Around Corners & Everything
We always arrive with rolls and rolls of our own electrostatic paper and aim to cover every suitable flat surface with it to give us plenty of white space on which to think and develop the scenarios, journeys or frameworks.
And while the response in some venues is “AAAArgh, you cannot stick anything on our walls…” they soon relax when they understand that static electricity cannot do their walls any harm.
They then get excited and want to buy a load of it for themselves!
Natural Light
Being a visual process good light — and space — is very important. Workshops work best in a naturally lit environment where there’s plenty of room to move around freely.
Vitamin D.
Daylight is a real bonus. It’s hard on the eyes to work all day in artificial light and difficult for people to focus. If we know that light is going to be an issue, we try to get extra lighting equipment organised.
In Any Event
And Where Would We Be Without Gaffa Tape?
The precise origin of the name is unknown, one theory being that it is named after the gaffer (chief lighting technician) on a film crew.
When cables are taped down on a stage or other surface, either to prevent tripping hazards or conceal them from view of the audience or camera, they are said to be gaffed or gaffered.
If we are building walls (10mm x 8ft x 4ft Foam Board) or creating a backdrop we will use this special stuff. It’s very harmless to the venues surfaces and we are professionals at using it.
Don’t take it through Dubai Airport in your luggage though as they will confiscate it. Along with your Laser pen.
Power To The People
Wherever possible we avoid using any electricity points along the ‘visualisation’ wall so as not to cause a hazard for us to work at but also for the audience.
We therefore need access to other sockets for our computer stations and other power hungry devices.
People travelling will be sure to want to charge their phones and laptops. So we often ask for extension leads — and that can often be a bit of a challenge.
There’s Always A Man
In most cases we find the people who work at venues are very helpful indeed and able to help on most things.
It’s often the case that there’s something not working, lights are broken, there’s no waste bins, the wrong door is open — there’s a cow on the runway. We always need to know who is the man or a woman.
The ‘man’ is also to be pivotal for getting us that extra lighting, that mobile air conditioning unit or heating rig, that file printed and that ‘other room’ that’s going to be required for all the luggage everyone’s going to bring and we wont have room for in the room.
Eating For Thinking
We are looking for alert minds. Filling everyone with acres of pizza or heavy sandwiches doesn’t make for valuable afternoons. If at all possible let’s make sure there’s healthy and energy creating foods at breaks and ensure that the results are far better all round.
A good article on this subject is right here
If you asked a nutritionalist for good food advice for such sessions it may look like this.
Small And Savoury
Nuts. Mini Carrots With Yoghurt / Curry Powder Dip. Cauliflower And Humus. Cherry Tomatoes With Goats Cheese. Mixed Seeds / Soya. Wasabi Peas. Pumpkin Seeds. Chicken Satay With Real Peanut Dip / Hot Or Cold. Prawns & Guacamole. Devilled Eggs in Lettuce Cups. Rolled Slices of Ham or Turkey or Chicken. Guacamole And Tomato Salsa With Mini Corn To Dip
Sweet And Stimulating
Ginger Flapjack Made With Honey. Small Fruit Slices. Grape And Cheese Sticks. Pistachio nuts. Melon Slices. Slices Of Apple
Drinks
Vegetable Juice. Peppermint And Green Ice Tea. Real Lemon/Lime And Ginger And Honey (Cold Or Hot). Mineral Water. Tea. Real Coffee. Ginger tea — compulsory!
NO FRUIT JUICE it gives a sugar rush — then SLEEP!
Lit For Success
Great Walls Brilliant Light — Very Rare Species Indeed
Human beings respond to sunlight. Like plants!
Sessions in dark rooms make us all tired. Less sunlight means that our brains produce more of a hormone called melatonin, which makes us sleepy.
The release of the sleep hormone melatonin is actually linked to light and dark, when the sun sets earlier your body also wants to go to bed earlier. Not ideal for sessions! If we can’t get the sun we certainly need the light!
Seating For Meeting
We’ve had some real horror stories.
School seats were never that comfortable but why venues buy chairs that leave you aching after a few hours is beyond us.
We need seats in the venues but they need to be as comfortable and as conducive as possible and probably on rollers as we scoot everyone around.
Standing For Winning
They say sitting down all day is the new cancer.
We’ve probably all heard of standing desks and we are now proponents of that ideal. Walking around in the rooms is encouraged and at break times a walk outside is highly recommended. It clears the mind and allows the brain to re-synch itself — fresh air is mandated.
It helps the brain function and that’s what we need.
A Full Day Of Preparation
We need to arrive a full day before the event in order to prepare the frameworks themselves.
Especially if we have to build walls.
We will also prepare any stimulus material and generally get ready. This also gives us time to sort any unforeseen issues, (build those walls) and organise the details and the seating arrangements — well ahead of time.
Points Of Contact
We also need a point of contact at the venue itself.
Their names and telephone numbers for many reasons of access and clearance and also in case we need to ship session materials prior to arriving and to ensure they are stored safely and that someone can find them easily when we arrive to set up.
If we bring walls then occasionally different access is required. 8ft x 4 feet Panels etc.
Getting Through The Doors
It’s often the case that we will need to gain security clearance in advance — including letting us know if we need to bring or have provided any forms of ID — passports and driving licenses for example.
We always ask for the telephone number for the person to contact should anything go awry and for us to be briefed on what process we may need to go through to gain access to the building and to the room itself.
Sessions Over Multiple Days
If the sessions are longer than a single day, and they usually are, it’s essential to be in the same room throughout as moving mid- session is both time-consuming and potentially disruptive to good thinking.
The room itself will need some form of overnight security as we will leave materials in it. It’s important too that the cleaning contractor understands not to (helpfully) clean the walls!
Less Suitable Rooms
If rooms are not ideal then we can build walls. Even some of those rooms are a challenge. As weve already said the room chosen for the event will have a major impact on creativity and innovative thinking.
Some rooms spark strong energy and positive feelings. Dark and restrictive spaces though tend to have a damaging effect on people’s ability to think and be energetic.
The real problem with the wrong room is that it severely limits the freedom of being able to break out of the framework and work in a different or more abstract way — temporarily on a different idea.
Examples Of Poor Rooms
And yes we did ask for big white painted flat walls…
We will spare the blushes of the following clients but these installations can add up to an extra day of our time spent with Gaffa tape and coffee overload.
I don’t know how we managed to pull this one off but we did..
OK That’s Enough…
