Room Capacities vs Room Layout

Help your venue give you the best service available.

We’ve all been there. We do a site visit, the room looks perfect, we ask how many people room holds and we generally get the following description;

• Theatre style = x
• Banquet style = x
• Cabaret style = x
• Cocktail = x

Someone in the group might ask “what about classroom style” and typically the venue will have answers for all of the above. Just don’t take for granted they are in the set up that you are envisaging.

What do I mean by that?

Well, venue need to maximise space and they think that “bigger is better” so they will typically give you the MAXIMUM capacity of the room. That can mean though, wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder and no space in between. It can also mean 11 place settings on a larger round, not the typical 8 or 10. Or maybe with classroom style, they’re thinking 4 people per trestle table because everyone loves to get cosy working that close together all day.

But there’s nothing wrong with telling you the maximum capacity, what I am encouring you to do is to know in what context, you are asking that question. Give the venue sales agent a bit more clarity around your question, consider asking questions such as;

• If I want to allow for a dance floor and stage for my gala, how many banquet tables can we fit in this room if 8 people were to sit at each table?
• Here’s a tip to remember the difference between banquet and cabaret. If you’re having a banquet, you’re typically sitting at a round table all facing each other – think Chinese restaurant style. But if you’re watching a cabaret then typically there’s a spare spot at the head of the table for everyone to be able to see through at the stage.
• Let’s say you want to know how many fit in the room classroom style. You need to advise how much space you want between guests. If it’s an all day workshop and the guest has a workbook, laptop and notebook, then you’re not going to fit as many people to each table. Think about the guest’s comfort, space they need to work efficiently and don’t forget to think about the space between rows as well. Halth and safety should be remembered, making sure you have enough gaps in the set up to ensure a safe exit in case of an emergency.
• Theatre style typically allows for 1m2 per person, but make sure that your audience fits into that size space. If you’re bringing a group of big burly road workers into workshop health and safety for the day, 1m2 probably isn’t go to be too comfortable. They might need a bit more space. And again, make sure there’s gaps in the aisles and adequate space between rows.
• Cocktail is my favourite because again, a general rule of thumb is 1m2 per person. So in a room that is 200m2 you should be able to fit 200 people, but that’s about the size of a large house. For relativity’s sake, a basketball court is around 850m2. Can you imagine 850 people on a basketball court? My advice is to consider the length of time you are expecting people to stand in this space and if it’s longer than 45 minutes then you probably need to allow about 2m2 per person so there is room to move. You also need to make sure the waiters can get around the room and again, everyone can exit safely if need be.

So as you can see, it really does matter that you inform the venue of what you propose to do in the space, so they can give you an accurate representation of the maximum capacity. Following the discussion, ask them to send you a floor plan of the space set out in the layout you have requested so again, you can see what that might look like.

Remember to advise whether you need space for other elements such as staging, props, promotional items (think motor vehicles), an auction area, red carpet, dance floor, awards table, sound desk, and remember to consider the room for accessibility.

The venue staff are there to ensure your guests have the best experience possible and they can only do that if you give them the full story. Do your best to be clear in your communications so that you avoid costly and/or disruptive changes on your event day.

Venue and site design is covered in our 1 day workshop. The next 1 in Brisbane is coming up shortly. Head over to the workshops page to find out more.