When planning this short piece our intention was to focus on how to negotiate and work with a venue such as The Eastside Rooms to ensure the perfect contract. However, now it comes to putting the proverbial pen to paper we have realised that it really all comes down to relationships.
Rather than worry about the minutiae of attrition, cancellation and final number clauses we thought a different approach was needed (pause to listen to a collective sigh of relief from the readers).
The most successful events are those that are organised in collaboration with all the key stakeholders. That includes the end client, the individual organisers, our team, outside / additional suppliers and anyone else, who might walk in off the street with some tenuous link to the event’s success..
From the beginning it is vital that everyone knows and understands the objectives of the event, what matters and what doesn’t. Through mutual understanding you achieve a situation where everyone is working towards the same goals. As partners in the success of an event everyone can deliver more, the more they know. As an aside, it is vital here that the internal client team also agree on the outcomes of the event. You would be surprised at the number of events where the client’s marketing, HR, sales and executive teams all have different and even competing goals. Watching the poor event team deal with such internal wrangling can be a soap opera that makes Eastenders look like a comedy.
Asking specific questions and not being afraid to ask the “stupid questions” are key to success. If you don’t know something, ask – we certainly train our team to do so to ensure they know as much as they possibly can on any given subject.
Building these relationships through open and regular communication from an early time in the planning process ensures collaborative working, and with collaboration comes success. Negotiation, whether it is about specific terms, prices or additional value is a part of the process. If we all know what matters, then we can all understand where to focus our time and energy. Why waste time discussing the individual price of something on a menu, when in reality the real risk is the potential for cancellations for example.
Many of our clients are repeat customers, they come to us because we have developed trust, they know we will provide what they need when they need it. When we first met them, they were the client and we were the supplier. However, in the best examples that relationship has changed, we are now their event partners, their work colleagues and friends. When you achieve that, there is no such thing as a negotiation – you are simply agreeing the details in a robust manner over several cups of coffee and potentially a glass of wine.