How to Find the Right Venue for Your Creative Workshop
Finding a venue is one of the first big decisions you'll make when you start running creative workshops. It's easy to think you need to find the prettiest room, somewhere with beautiful light and lovely tables that will look great on Instagram. Those things are nice, of course. But after years of running workshops in venues across the country, I've learned that there's something much more important.
A good workshop venue comes with a community.
What makes a good creative workshop venue?
When I'm looking at a potential venue, I'm not just interested in the space itself. I want to know who already goes there.
Does the venue have regular customers? An engaged mailing list? A good local social media following? Do people trust their recommendations and regularly book events there? Because ideally, you don't want to hire an empty room and then have to find every single person to fill it yourself. You want to work with a venue that can help you sell the tickets.
Some of my most successful workshops have happened because the venue already had a brilliant community around it.
Where can you find venues for creative workshops?
Start by thinking about where your ideal customers already spend their time.
That might be:
Independent craft or gift shops
Art and pottery studios
Cafés
Florists
Yoga and wellbeing studios
Community spaces
Hotels
Farm shops
Garden centres
Creative hubs and coworking spaces
Don't limit yourself to businesses already running workshops either. If somewhere has the right space and the right community, you might be exactly the person who introduces workshops to them.
Don't just think about your local area
This was one of the biggest benefits of working with venues for me. When I started running workshops in a new town, I wasn't relying entirely on my own audience to fill them. I was being introduced to the venue's customers too. Suddenly, my business could reach people who might never have found me otherwise.
And something else started happening. I'd run a successful workshop with one venue, then another business in the next town would see it and get in touch. One venue led to another, which led to another.
It's how I was able to take my workshops into completely new areas without already having an established audience there.
Who should sell the workshop tickets?
There are different ways to arrange this, but personally, I've always loved working with venues that actively help sell the workshop. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to manage the booking system themselves. You might still take the bookings through your own website. What matters is that they're willing to tell their community about it. They might share it with their email list, post it on social media, put posters up in the venue or simply talk about it with their regular customers.
If you're doing absolutely all of the marketing yourself, I'd question what the venue is bringing to the partnership beyond four walls and some tables. For me, the best venue relationships have always felt like a collaboration.
Should you pay to hire a workshop venue?
There isn't one standard arrangement. Some venues charge a flat hire fee. Some take a percentage of your ticket sales. Some will pay you a fee to come in and deliver the workshop. Others might offer the space in return for bringing customers through their doors.
Before agreeing to anything, do your sums. Think about your ticket price, materials, your time, the number of people you can realistically accommodate and what you'll be left with once the venue has taken its fee. The cheapest venue isn't necessarily the best value.
I'd rather pay more to work with a venue with a brilliant community that helps me fill 15 places than pay very little for a room where I'm responsible for finding all 15 customers myself.
What should you look for when visiting a workshop venue?
Once you know the venue has the right audience, then you can think about the practical details.
Consider things like:
How many people can comfortably sit and work?
Are there enough tables and chairs?
Is there good lighting?
Is it easy to find?
Is there parking or public transport nearby?
Is it accessible?
Are there toilets?
Is there somewhere to make drinks?
How early can you arrive to set up?
How much time will you have to clear away?
Is there enough space for all your materials?
Does the overall atmosphere suit the experience you want to create?
Think about what your particular workshop involves too. A watercolour workshop will have very different requirements from floristry, pottery or arm knitting.
What should you ask a venue before booking?
Before agreeing to anything, make sure you're both clear about how the partnership will work. Ask who will manage the bookings, how the workshop will be marketed, what the venue expects from you and exactly what you're paying for. I'd also ask what usually happens when they promote events. Do their workshops normally sell well? Do they have an email list? How many people typically attend? Which kinds of events have worked particularly well with their customers?
You're not interrogating them. You're simply making sure it makes sense for both of you.
How do you approach a venue about running a workshop?
Keep it simple. Introduce yourself, explain what you teach and why you think your workshop would work well for their customers. If you've already run workshops elsewhere, include a couple of lovely photographs. If you have testimonials or examples of previous sold-out workshops, even better. But don't feel like you need a huge following before approaching venues. Remember, that's one of the reasons you're looking for good venue partners in the first place.
You're bringing your skills and a brilliant workshop. They're bringing their space and their community. Together, you're creating something that benefits both businesses.
The best venue isn't always the prettiest one
Of course I love a beautiful workshop venue, but if I had to choose between a gorgeous empty room and a slightly less Instagrammable venue with a loyal community of people who love attending its events, I know which one I'd pick. Look for the community first.
A really good venue partnership can do much more than fill one workshop. It can introduce your business to a completely new audience, help you establish yourself in a new area and even lead to opportunities with other venues nearby. That's certainly been my experience.
And once you find a venue where your workshops work really well, look after that relationship. A great venue partnership can be worth far more to your business than a room full of beautiful furniture.
Need help planning your workshops?
If you're trying to find the right venue, work out your pricing or figure out how you're actually going to fill your workshops, these are exactly the sorts of things we can talk through together.
You can start by booking a free Virtual Cuppa. Tell me a little about your workshop ideas, where you're feeling stuck and what you'd like to achieve, and we'll see if I'm the right person to help.