Site visit

The pre-event inspection of a space with the venue contact, also called a walkthrough. The discipline is in the details: go on the same weekday and at the same hour your event will run, so you meet the real traffic, the real light, and the real noise from whatever is next door. Bring a written checklist rather than an impression. Sit in the back row and try to read a slide, stand at the entrance and walk the path an attendee takes from the parking or the transit stop to the check-in table, find the emergency exits and check that they are clear, and ask where things plug in. Photograph everything and take one slow video pan of each room, because footage settles arguments that memory cannot.

Bring the person who will actually run the floor on the day. They ask the question you forgot. Every answer you get on a site visit should end up as a line on the venue scorecard, and anything that costs money should end up on paper.

Source: Standard event practice, listed in published event glossaries as venue walkthrough or site visit. The checklist approach is documented in the TEDx Organizer Guide’s “Select a venue” section (projection, stage, food and beverage setup location, bathrooms, exhibit space, sight lines) and in the DevOpsDays organizing guide’s venue considerations (seating, break-out and hangout space, sponsor tables, transit and parking, catering rules, wifi capacity).

First used in: 1.6 · The venue: selection to BEO.