A business event lasting a few hours for a slightly too large group of customers. Or a spiritually tinged group meeting for a family constellation. A support group about depression. No matter what you think, the question arises: how do I find a location? One has a full purse, the other has little to spend. Some people are satisfied with a bare space where people bring their own lunch, others want a luxurious location complete with catering plus bells and whistles. The good news: today a lot, a lot is possible. Read on for cost estimates, tips, facts, trends and websites. The threshold for your own event or some form of group work is lower than ever. Organizing an event or meeting is no longer just about business heavyweights with a ditto trade fair. Self-publishing authors launch their own book with an event, self-employed people meet customers outside the home because the cat jumps on the customer’s lap at home, and people who cannot find a suitable group to discuss psychological complaints together and coach each other simply set up their own one on. A question that arises with all these wishes is: how do I find a location?
No more desperate searching: the location database
If it costs something, you have a wide choice of locations for your event. A newcomer in the field of location selection is ‘Inspiration on location.’ This organization offers people who are desperately looking for a special location for their event a kind of database from which you can select locations yourself. All this via the website www.inspiratieopruimte.nl . The idea is to bring special, original and, as the name suggests, inspiring locations within reach via the proverbial mouse click. Locations can be compared on several criteria. You can search by city or region, by price range, by type of location from castle to office, and by number of people. But you can also select based on a less tangible aspect, namely atmosphere. The site immediately shows the days on which the location is available.
,What a beautiful location, can we use it for a brainstorm?,
Source: Inspiration On Location press material
A useful feature of the site is that visitors can put together a quotation online, tailored to their own wishes. Because, do you want to rent a space bare, or is catering desired? Is equipment needed for a presentation, such as a projector or screen? And do you want to delight your guests with fun extras such as overnight accommodations or activities outside your program? Everything is possible. Barbara van der Giessen is co-founder of the existing ‘Loes op Location’, a location agency for photography, film and TV. Van de Giessen:: I was regularly approached by companies and event planners: What beautiful locations, we can’t have them Would you also like to use it for a meeting, brainstorming session or private dinner?The idea for Inspiration on Location was quickly born.
The price tag
That’s all well and good, but you pay a certain price for a truly special location. However, this may not be so bad, depending on your requirements. You can shop for bargains anytime, anywhere, and ‘location country’ is no exception. As an indication: on www.inspiratieoplocation.nl we can find the former station building of Bloemendaal from 1903 among the promotional rates, for example, where you can go from 170 euros. But also a coach house in the chic Ouderkerk aan de Amstel near Amsterdam, where the price starts at a multiple: 550 euros. An exclusive cooking studio in the Zaan region will even cost you 700 euros.
At a bargain… but without a party animal
Even then, these are prices that you will not easily pay for, for example, a weekly meeting of a small association or support group. In such a case, the good news is that many community centers make spaces available for a fraction of the prices mentioned. A room of a few tens of euros suitable for as many as eighty people is no exception! This also involves the fact that a community center is usually subsidized by the municipality, and therefore requires a certain municipal interest. Celebrations and parties are usually excluded from the options, but a course, lecture or certain form of group work is possible. Don’t be too quick to dismiss a community center as unprofessional: you can often obtain projectors or projection screens upon consultation, and even a catered but affordable lunch can be an option.
Intermediate forms
And then there are the intermediate forms. If you find a community center just not businesslike enough, but renting an ‘official’ location is a bit too expensive or laborious, you can contact various self-employed people. People who have a practice space, but do not use it continuously, often rent it out for a reasonable price because the space would otherwise be empty. The providers include both therapists and small entrepreneurs. Precisely because these self-employed people use a professional space, albeit one that is limited in size, you can work both professionally and affordably. So shed some light on your environment, even if people don’t advertise this option on a website or something similar. You are welcome to ask questions, and small entrepreneurs in particular are often quite interested in some extra income. In short: a more or less suitable or even ideal location always exists, for every plan or budget.
Purely business
Anyone looking for a purely business meeting place now has various options. The business rental market has become highly flexible, and it has now become clear that those who do business are not always willing or able to pay the top price. Organizations such as www.doc-work.nl offer the opportunity to arrange your space online, whether you need it for a day or an hour. A nice added bonus is that the local flexible workspace is adapted to mobile entrepreneurship and meetings: you can find them in various places in the country and often close to a station or highway. From 35 euros per hour at Doc Work you have a location with a business appearance and ditto facilities.
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