Unlock Your Event’s Potential: The Power of a Strategic Floor Plan
Last month’s blog detailed ways to think through choosing decor for your venue. But once the decor for your event has been ordered, it’s important to think through the layout of your space and how your floor plan contributes to the event’s functionality. Floor plans are another element easily overlooked until the day of your event, often leaving you scrambling to place furniture just before doors open. Let’s pull back another layer this month and explore how your guests’ experience can be enhanced by the layout of your space.
Why It Matters
Imagine setting up an intricate watering system for your home garden only to realize that some of the pipes or tubes you set up are clogged, and not every part of the garden is being watered. If there are kinks in your floor plan, your guests can end up bottlenecked into some areas while not fully being able to experience others. You could also end up with a key moment of the event sitting right next to the entrance to the bathroom, or have refreshment lines cutting through all of the action. Just as much as furniture and lighting should subconsciously set the scene for your guests, so too should your space layout. Always remember that every touchpoint - even those that are not overtly perceived - contribute to the mental story your guests are forming in their head about the event.
So, how can you avoid these pitfalls and create a seamless experience for your guests? Let's explore some key considerations for your floor plan.
Top Tips
There are a few key things to consider that can set you well on your way to a floor plan that supports your event’s end goal and messaging, all while passing the vibe check. First, identify zones. Where will people eat? Whether it’s a photo backdrop, a gifting station, or simply a table with a guest book to sign, where will your main attraction go? While it’s important for the guests’ eye to wander to get them excited, creating zones can help with wayfinding and quell potential feelings of chaos or overwhelm. You can achieve this by thinking about what it would be like to be the first person to arrive. When you’re fashionably late, the hot spots in the venue have already revealed themselves - you can quickly spot where people are spending the most time, and where you can go for a reprieve from the crowd. By thinking like the first person to arrive, you can think about where the eye goes naturally and whether you naturally feel inclined to walk through the space without feeling obstructed.
Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Another thing to make sure your layout addresses is controlling the flow of traffic. As I touched on earlier, try to avoid creating bottlenecks or areas where the line for one thing is slicing through your venue. Not only is it annoying to have people constantly cutting through a line you’re standing in, it’s equally annoying to not know what’s on the other side of the venue simply because there’s a wall of people blocking your view. Something to note here is the concept of the invariant right - a sociology phenomenon in which people naturally veer right when entering an establishment. Retail stores and grocery stores alike employ this thinking successfully, often placing high value items or things most likely to catch a consumer’s eye toward the right of the entrance.
Finally, always draw out your rough floor plan! Don’t wait until you’ve arrived on the day of to determine where your decor should go for the greatest impact. There are platforms like Allseated or even simple tools like Lucidchart that allow you to create a floor plan digitally, or you could simply draw it out on a piece of paper as long as your measurements are correct. That said, remain flexible and know that when you arrive in person, things may not always look or feel the way you had anticipated, and you should be prepared to pivot quickly without derailing your timeline. Have a few backup solutions up your sleeve for the unexpected, and give yourself ample styling time ahead of doors opening.
Final Thoughts
The best brand messaging happens in the subtleties that resonate just below the surface of consciousness. Even in something as simple as the floor plan, always ask yourself how you can drive the messaging home without knocking people over the head with it. If you have bees in your branding, maybe your venue is laid out in hexagonal sections, or has zones named in punny ways (I.e. the hive vs the comb). Perhaps there are breakout rooms that represent different departments or aspects of the company or the idea. Whether you're planning a bustling trade show or an intimate dinner, these principles remain key. Whatever you choose to do, optimize for ease of navigation, and allow the story to unfold one square foot at a time.
Happy planning!