Venues & sourcing

To add a venue, choose Venues in the sidebar, then Add venue. Only Venue name is required: without one, Events shows "Give your venue a name first." and keeps the dialog open.

• Venue name: what the venue is called.
• Type: Indoor, Outdoor, Hybrid or Virtual. New venues are Indoor.
• City: optional.

Choose Add venue to save it. The venue joins the top of the list as Active, with its time zone set to London and no capacity yet. Click it to open the venue editor, where you add its address, capacity, amenities, contacts, photos, seat maps and exhibitor halls.

Venues belong to the project you're in, and your whole team sees the same venues there. By default, Venues appears in the sidebar for the Owner, Admin and Manager roles. To change who sees it, see Roles and permissions. Under Settings → Navigation, Venues can't be hidden while Venue Sourcing still shows in your sidebar, so hide Venue Sourcing first. See Sidebar navigation.

A venue is a reusable record of a place you hold events at: its address, map pin, capacity, amenities, contacts, photos and guidelines. A venue also holds seat maps (layouts of sections, rows and seats) and exhibitor halls (booth floor plans), built once and reused by every event held there.

An event uses a venue once you pick it in the event editor's Location & Time section. Part of the venue is copied into the event, and part is read from the venue every time:

• Copied when you pick it: the name, full address, city, time zone, map pin, parking and transit notes, and nearby places. Later changes to the venue don't reach events that already use it, and changing these fields on an event doesn't change the venue.
• Read from the venue: the venue details attendees open from the event page, the venue's dietary and accessibility guidelines, and the seat maps and exhibitor halls the event's Seating and Exhibitor Floor sections offer. Changes to these reach every event linked to the venue.

A venue's status (Active, Inactive or Archived) is a label for your own use: it filters the list and counts toward the figures at the top, and a venue of any status can be picked for an event. Its type is a label too, except that a Virtual venue has no map or pin.

The figures across the top of Venues count every venue in the project: Total venues (with how many are active), Total capacity, Active and Cities (distinct city names). A venue's capacity is the larger of its seated and standing capacity. Search and filters don't change the figures.

Venues are listed newest first, with their city, type, capacity and status. Narrow the list with All Statuses (Active, Inactive or Archived) and All Types (Indoor, Outdoor, Hybrid or Virtual), or type in Search venues, cities to match names, addresses, cities and regions. Click a venue to open it in the venue editor.

Each row's ⋯ menu has Edit, Duplicate and Delete.

• Duplicate adds a copy with "(copy)" after the name, and makes you its creator. The copy keeps the details, status, address, map pin, notes, capacity, amenities and contacts. It doesn't get the cover image, gallery, guidelines, nearby places, seat maps or exhibitor halls.
• Delete asks you to confirm first, and a deleted venue can't be restored from Events. Events already linked to it keep the details they copied. On their event pages, the venue details show only the name and address the event saved, and the venue's guidelines no longer appear.

Click a venue in Venues to open the venue editor. Its sections are listed on the right on a wide screen, and at the top on a narrow one: Details, Location, Capacity & amenities, Seat maps, Exhibitor halls, Contact, Dietary & Accessibility and Media. All venues at the top takes you back to the list.

How a change saves depends on where you make it:

• Save Changes, at the top, saves the fields in Details, Location, Capacity & amenities and Contact. Your edits stay while you move between sections, but leaving the editor without saving discards them, and Events doesn't warn you.
• Amenities save on their own two seconds after your last click, or when you leave the section. Uploading or removing images, and Nearby amenities in Location, save straight away. Each of these also saves every other change waiting in the editor.
• Dietary & Accessibility has its own Save guidelines button, and guidelines you haven't saved are lost when you switch sections.
• Seat maps and exhibitor halls save each change as you make it.

The venue editor's Details, Capacity & amenities and Contact sections hold the venue's basic facts. Choose Save Changes at the top to save them. Amenities are the exception: they save on their own.

• Venue name, Type (Indoor, Outdoor, Hybrid or Virtual) and Status (Active, Inactive or Archived).
• Description: a short summary of the space. Attendees see it in the venue details on the event page.
• Seated capacity and Standing capacity. The venue list uses the larger of the two, and the event page shows both when both are set.
• Spaces / rooms: how many rooms the venue has. New venues have 1.
• Amenities: click Wi-Fi, Parking, Wheelchair accessible, Catering, AV / Sound, Stage, Bar, Air conditioning or Outdoor space to turn it on or off. Attendees see the ones that are on in the venue details on the event page.
• Contact name, Website, Email and Phone. The event page shows the phone, email and website as links, and leaves out the contact name.

Capacity is information about the room. It doesn't limit how many tickets an event sells.

The venue editor's Location section sets where the venue is. Set the address and pin with one of the three tabs at the top:

• Search: type an address and pick a result. It fills in the address and drops the pin.
• Drop a pin: click the map to drop a pin, then drag it to fine-tune. Events fills in the address from the pin.
• Coordinates: type the Latitude and Longitude.

Under Address, fill in City, Region / state, Postcode, Country and Timezone. The time zone is London (GMT+1), the default, New York (GMT-4), Los Angeles (GMT-7), Berlin (GMT+2) or Singapore (GMT+8).

In Map & directions, choose Nearby amenities to look up the full address, move the pin to it, and list what's within 800 meters, closest first: public transport, parking, cycling, taxis, EV charging, hotels, and food and drink. It needs an address, saves straight away, and replaces the pin and the previous list. Parking notes and Transit notes are free text, for permits, nearby stations or step-free access.

Everything else in Location needs Save Changes. An event copies the pin, notes and nearby places when you pick the venue, so set them before you use the venue on events. A Virtual venue has no pin, map or directions, only the address fields.

A venue's guidelines are notes for attendees, such as a step-free entrance or an allergen policy, shown on the event page of every event linked to the venue. To add one, open Dietary & Accessibility in the venue editor and choose Add guideline.

• Category: Dietary (the default) or Accessibility.
• Guideline: the note itself. A guideline left empty doesn't appear on the event page.
• The box underneath holds optional detail, shown beneath the guideline.

Use the arrows beside a guideline to move it up or down, and the trash icon to remove it. Choose Save guidelines to save the list. Save Changes doesn't save guidelines, and changes you haven't saved are lost when you switch sections.

On the event page, the venue's guidelines appear on the Dietary & Accessibility card, before the event's own guidelines. They're read from the venue each time the page opens, so a change here reaches every linked event.

The venue editor's Media section holds the venue's photos. Choose Upload a cover image for the main image, or Add photos to add one or more photos to the gallery. Only image files upload, and Events shrinks images over 500 KB before uploading them.

Uploads save straight away. Once a cover is set, Replace swaps it and Remove clears it. To remove a gallery photo, hover over it and click the trash icon. Removing happens straight away, without asking.

Only the teammate who created a venue can upload its images, including the floor plan images of its exhibitor halls. For everyone else the cover and gallery buttons are disabled. Duplicating a venue makes you the creator of the copy, which starts without photos.

Attendees see the cover image at the top of the venue details on the event page. The event page doesn't show the gallery.

A seat map configuration is one layout of a venue's room, such as an end-stage concert or banquet rounds, made of sections, rows and seats. A venue can have several, and an event's Seating section sells from one of them. To create one, open Seat maps in the venue editor and choose New configuration.

• Name: required. Without one, Events shows "Give the configuration a name first."
• Status: Draft (the default), Active or Archived.

Choose Create, and the configuration opens in its floor editor, with a stage across the top and no sections yet. All configurations takes you back to the list.

Configurations are listed newest first. Click one to open it. Its ⋯ menu has Open Editor, Mark draft, Mark active or Mark archived (whichever it isn't already), and Delete, which removes the configuration straight away, without asking. A deleted configuration is no longer offered in events' Seating sections.

The status is a label: an event's Seating section offers every configuration on its venue, whatever its status. For choosing a configuration, pricing its sections and holding seats on an event, see Tickets.

In a seat map's floor editor, choose Add section to add a block of seats. It starts as a seated section named Section 1, Section 2 and so on, with 8 rows of 12 seats. Drag a section to move it, and drag the handle at its bottom-right corner to resize it. Events lays its chairs out again to fit.

Click a section to edit it in the panel beside the floor, and click an empty part of the floor to go back to the floor settings. Every change saves on its own:

• Name, and Type: Seated (individual chairs) or General admission zone. A GA zone has a Capacity instead of chairs.
• Facing: the section's rotation in degrees clockwise. 0 faces up.
• Rows, Seats per row, Row labels (A, B, C… or 1, 2, 3…) and First row, the label to start from.
• Seat numbering: Continental (1 → N across), or Odd / even from centre, with odd numbers on one side and even on the other, counting out from the middle.
• Curve (0 to 90 degrees of bow), Rake (0 to 100, more space between rows toward the back) and Aisles after seat (seat numbers separated by commas, like 4, 8).

Rows, seats, first row, curve, rake, aisles and facing apply when you click away from the field, and Row labels and Seat numbering apply the moment you pick one. Events then rebuilds the section's chairs. The trash icon at the top of the panel deletes the section and its seats straight away, without asking.

With a section selected, its chairs show on the floor. Click a chair to change its type: standard, wheelchair, companion, obstructed, house, then back to standard. The figures at the top show Seats, GA capacity, Accessible (wheelchair and companion seats) and Total capacity. When buyers choose seats, their Accessible filter shows only wheelchair and companion seats.

To lay out a whole room at once, choose Generate bowl in a seat map's floor editor. Pick a Shape, set its sizes, check the preview and the count of sections and seats, then choose Generate. On a map that already has sections, generating replaces all of them, and the dialog warns you first.

• Oval stadium, Rectangular arena and Theatre horseshoe ring the central feature with sections. Set Tiers, Per side, Tier depth %, Rows per section and Seats per row. Sections are numbered by tier: 101, 102 and on in the first, 201 and on in the second. The horseshoe leaves the top open for the stage.
• Banquet rounds sets out Tables in a grid around the central floor, named Table 1, Table 2 and on, each with Seats per table.

A box in the dialog places a central feature that suits the shape, such as a pitch for an oval stadium. It's selected for you when the current feature leaves no room for the shape. When fewer tiers fit than you asked for, the dialog says how many and suggests a smaller tier depth.

To bring in real row and seat labels, choose Import CSV and paste a CSV whose header row has section, row and seat columns. An optional kind column marks wheelchair, companion, obstructed or house seats. Events adds a section for each section name, stacked down the floor, and places the seats. Existing sections stay. Lines missing a value, and repeated seats, are skipped, and without all three columns nothing imports.

Rebuild seats lays every seated section's chairs out again from its position and layout. Once a section has seats sold, comped or held off sale on an event, Events doesn't rebuild its chairs: changes to its layout, facing or position, Rebuild seats and Generate bowl stop with a message to release those seats from the event's box office first.

An exhibitor hall is a booth floor plan of a venue, such as one hall or two halls combined. An event's Exhibitor Floor section sells booths from one of them. To create one, open Exhibitor halls in the venue editor and choose New hall. Only the Name is required, and the Status is Draft (the default), Active or Archived. Choose Create to open the hall's floor editor.

Halls are listed newest first. Each one's ⋯ menu has Open editor, options to mark it draft, active or archived, and Delete, which removes it straight away, without asking. The status is a label: an event's Exhibitor Floor section offers every hall on its venue.

In the floor editor, choose Add booth to place a booth, coded B1, B2 and so on. Drag a booth to move it, and drag its bottom-right handle to resize it. Click a booth to edit it. Every change saves on its own:

• Type: Booth (sellable), Zone, or Feature (entrance, cafe…). Zones and features mark the floor and never sell.
• Code, Hall / zone and Name. Each code can be used once in a hall.
• Size class (Standard, Large, Premium, Island or Corner) and Price, for booths. An event uses the price when its Exhibitor Floor is set to each booth's own price.
• Facing: rotation in degrees clockwise.
• On the floor: Visible or Hidden. Hidden booths are neither shown nor sold.

The trash icon deletes the booth straight away, without asking. The figures at the top count visible sellable Booths, Halls (distinct hall or zone names), their Floor value if every booth sells, and Furniture (zones and features). For selling booths on an event, see Sponsors & Expo.

To lay out rows of identical booths at once, choose Add block in an exhibitor hall's floor editor. Set up the block, check the number of booths and their total value at the bottom, then choose the button that adds them, such as Add 24 booths.

• Rows and Columns: 4 and 6 to start with.
• Code prefix and Numbers start at: codes run A1, A2, A3 and on, along each row and then down. To continue an earlier block, start the numbers where it left off.
• Size, Price and Hall / zone: set on every booth in the block.
• Width % and Height %: each booth's size, 8 and 6 to start with.
• Aisle X % and Aisle Y %: the gaps between columns and between rows, 3 and 4 to start with.

The block lands near the top-left corner of the floor. Drag booths afterwards to match the real hall. Codes must be unique within a hall: if any code in the block is already used, Events adds none of the booths and asks you to check the codes.

To hold an event at a saved venue, open the event in the event editor, open Location & Time, and choose the venue under Saved venue. That card appears once the project has a venue, and lists every venue in the project. Events saves the choice straight away and copies the venue's details into the event:

• The venue's name, full address, city and time zone.
• Its map pin, nearby places, and parking and transit notes, which fill the event's Map & Directions section. The transit notes become Extra transport notes.

Change any copied field to override it for this event only. Choosing Detach, or typing a different Venue name, unlinks the venue and keeps the copied details. Copied fields don't follow later changes to the venue. To copy its current details, choose Detach, then pick the venue again.

While the event is linked to the venue, its Seating section offers the venue's seat maps and its Exhibitor Floor section offers the venue's exhibitor halls. Without a linked venue, both sections ask you to pick one first. For selling seats see Tickets, for selling booths see Sponsors & Expo, and for the rest of Location & Time see Events.

When an event is linked to a saved venue, the venue name beside the date and time at the top of its event page is a link. Clicking it opens the venue's details, read from the venue each time it opens:

• The name, type, and city with region or country.
• The cover image and description.
• The address, city, postcode and country.
• The capacity: seated and standing separately when both are set, otherwise the larger one.
• The amenities that are turned on.
• The transit notes, under Getting there, and the parking notes.
• The phone, email and website, as links.
• Get directions, which opens Google Maps at the venue's pin, or at its address when it has no pin.

These details come from the venue, so an address you changed on the event itself doesn't show here. The venue's dietary and accessibility guidelines appear on the event page's Dietary & Accessibility card, before the event's own. An event that isn't linked to a venue shows its venue name as plain text, with no details to open.

To find new venues, choose Sourcing → Venue Sourcing in the sidebar. On the Discover tab, type a city or area, pick a type and a distance, and choose Search. Before your first search, buttons search London, Amsterdam, New York, Austin, Berlin or Paris in one click.

• Types: All Venue Types (the default), Conference & convention, Hotel & resort, Theatre & arts, Stadium & arena, Community & hall or Restaurant & banquet.
• Distance: within 2 km, 5 km (the default), 10 km or 25 km of the place you searched.

Results come from OpenStreetMap, up to 40 at a time, listed beside a map with their category, address, phone and website where OpenStreetMap has them. Hover over a result to highlight its pin, or click a pin to highlight its result. Shortlist saves a venue's name and city as a lead on the Pipeline tab, with the Shortlisted status. Events doesn't check for leads you already have, so shortlisting a place again in a later visit adds a second lead.

The Pipeline lists leads newest first, with figures for Leads, Shortlisted, Booked and Avg quote. Add venue lead adds one by hand. Click a lead to edit its Status (Shortlisted, Contacted, Quoted, Booked or Rejected), City, Capacity, Quoted price, Rating (1 to 5), contact and notes, then choose Save Changes. Each row's ⋯ menu has Edit, Duplicate and Delete, and Events asks before deleting.

The pipeline is a record for your team. Events doesn't contact or book venues, and a lead never becomes a venue in Venues, even once it's Booked: add it there yourself. By default, Sourcing appears in the sidebar for the Owner, Admin and Manager roles. To change who sees it, see Roles and permissions.

To find places for attendees to stay, choose Sourcing → Housing & Travel in the sidebar. On the Discover tab, type a city or area, pick a type and a distance, and choose Search.

• Types: All Stays (the default), Hotels & Motels, Hostels & Guesthouses, Apartments & chalets, Airports or Rail stations. Airport searches reach at least 120 km, and rail station searches at least 20 km.
• Distance: within 2 km, 5 km (the default), 10 km, 25 km or 50 km.

Results come from OpenStreetMap, up to 60 at a time, listed beside a map with their address, star rating, airport code, phone and website where OpenStreetMap has them. Shortlist saves a result as an option on the Pipeline tab, with the Available status and its website, or its OpenStreetMap page, as the booking link.

The Pipeline lists options newest first. Add option adds one by hand. Click an option to edit its Type (Hotel, Apartment or Transport), Status (Available, Booked or Full), City, Address, Rate / night, Rooms blocked, Rooms booked, Booking link and Notes, then choose Save Changes. Filter by status or type, and use each row's ⋯ menu to edit, duplicate or delete an option. Events asks before deleting.

The figures at the top add up Rooms blocked and Rooms booked across all options, and Occupancy is booked rooms as a share of blocked ones. Every figure is one you type: Events doesn't book rooms, update the counts or show options to attendees. By default, Sourcing appears in the sidebar for the Owner, Admin and Manager roles. To change who sees it, see Roles and permissions.

The seat map and exhibitor hall floor editors share their floor settings. They show in the panel beside the floor when nothing is selected, as Floor for a seat map and Hall floor for a hall. Each change saves straight away.

• Canvas shape: Wide (16:10), Widescreen (16:9), Classic (4:3), Square or Portrait. Match the real room so the plan isn't distorted. Seat maps start Wide and halls start Classic.
• Central feature: Stage, Pitch, Court, Rink, Ring, Runway, Open floor or None, with a Label and its Left %, Top %, Width % and Height %. Seat maps start with a stage across the top, and halls with none.
• Floor plan image: upload the venue's own plan. In an exhibitor hall, it's drawn under the booths so you can place them on top, and Plan opacity fades it from 5% to 100% (60% to start with). The trash icon beside it removes it.

To move around the floor, drag an empty area to pan, and scroll or pinch to zoom. The buttons in the bottom-right corner zoom in, zoom out and fit the whole floor back in view. A section is at least 4% of the floor wide and tall, and a booth at least 2%. With a section or booth focused, Enter or Space selects it.