- Who will be the venue's liaison to contact if any questions/problems arise during the event? What is their contact information? Will they be on-site?
Our main contact is Hanne Vanhaverbeke. She will be there at the start of the day, but for the rest we're on our own, unless we hire their bartenders, in which case they can answer questions and help out.
- Which rooms/spaces are available, from when to when?
We get the main hall including dressing room with lockers and a small kitchen. There's room out in front to put tables/benches. It's available from morning 7am until midnight. The hall is connected to the Hal5 bar/foodcourt, which is open to the public. There are two other areas there, one with a long table one without anything, that could be rented as well.
- What is available in terms of tables, chairs, stage elements? Can we and may be freely move and reconfigure these?
They have 80 chairs and something like 20 tables which we can use, but that's it. Anything else we need to bring in.
- Can the location also be used for evening events / after-party?
Yes, with two important considerations: the noise level needs to be below 80dB (they probably mean dBA), and we need to leave by midnight.
- What is a suitable space, if any, to put children and a babysitter?
We could rent Zone C for this, or the back "patio" if it's finished next year, or maybe arrange something with "Sporty", one of the organizations housing there.
- What needs to be taken care of before vacating the place? (putting furniture back, cleaning, securing/locking things, ...)
Tables/chairs need to be put back, and things generally left the way we found them. For cleaning we can opt to pay them to do it.
- What's the capacity.
The main hall is 400m^2, and has a capacity limit of 400 people.
- Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Yes, it's all on ground floor and accessible. There are two dedicated parking spots for disabled persons.
- Are there wheelchair accessible toilets?
They have one wheelchair accessible toilet.
- Are there a portable ramp for e.g. accessing stage or other smaller areas?
No, if we need that we need to arrange it.
- What arrangements need to be made regarding picking up/dropping off keys?
Keys are never handed out, someone from the organization opens things up in the morning and closes it off at night.
- Are there rooms/areas that must be kept off-limits?
The storage room can be used for temporarily storing things for the duration of the event, but can not be used for any activities.
- Are there any special arrangements to make regarding security?
The venue hall is always accessible from the public bar area, so if we leave things there while we're not there we need security.
- Can the venue provide WIFI? Are they able to handle a few hundred simultaneously connected devices? Who can we talk to about the network setup?
They claim to have good wifi, apparently they have LAN parties once a month. They've had events with significantly larger capacity that didn't have issues, still hard to tell what will happen with lots of nerds and their devices. We're gonna get contact information from someone from the organization who should know a bit more, as well as of the LAN party organizer.
I'm tempted to just risk it, and have a mobile access point as a backup for speakers.
- Does the venue offer A/V equipment (projecter, microphone, speakers), or do they have a recommended partner companywhile nothing's going ?
No, we need to bring that all in. The only thing they have is a screen (Leinwand). They are able to recommend companies to work with, I'll also do some asking around.
The space is quite bright, so that's something to consider. You'll need at least a 4000 lumen projector, also brief speakers on having dark text on white background not the other way around. There are some big windows in the back that could be taped off, that would make a bit of a difference.
- Is there adequate power supply for A/V, lights, attendees charging devices, etc? How many power plugs are available and how are they distributed?
We'll get more technical info on this, seems they're adequately supplied, but all power sockets are high up = you need lots of cables.
- Are there extension cords/connectors that we can use?
No.
- Is there a possibility to air condition on hot days?
No, there's no heating or aircon, and you're not allowed to bring your own as it tends to bring the power supply down. We've recently had a heat wave though and it seems things were all right. You have to think of it more as an covered open air space.
- Anything not-completely-obvious to know about using their equipment?
- Is there parking space we can recommend to attendees?
There is paid parking at the station, that's probably the best option. People can try to find parking in the neighborhood, but it's a residential area with limited parking space, so we probably shouldn't put too much stress on that.
- Is there parking space that can be dedicated for the organization?
There are a few parking spaces in the back. We can also do delivery/pickup from there. Note that all delivery and pickup needs to happen from there, so stuff needs to be carried in over quite a bit of distance.
- Does the venue provide catering?
No
- Are we free to let third parties provide catering?
Yes, catering-wise we can do whatever we like.
- Can the caterer accommodate special dietary requests, e.g. food allergies? Or do they prefer we arrange for those meals separately?
- Are things like plates, cutlery, tables available?
No.
- Is there a dishwasher?
I think not. There's a small kitchen we can use, but not sure if there's a dishwasher.
- Does the venue provide the ability to order drinks?
They do offer drinks, and we must use their drinks. Drinks consumed in the bar are full price, drinks served in the venue hall are at 12% discount (still expensive).
- When do drinks need to be ordered? Can unfinished inventory be returned?
They have inventory, we should give them a heads up a week or two in advance of how much we expect to consume.
- Are we free to work with third parties for drinks?
Extra drinks can be brought in if they don't offer something comparable, in this case you pay corkage.
- Do they offer bar service?
Yes, at 25 EUR/hr/person, so this adds up quickly. Will depend on the budget if we make use of this (there's benefits to having people from the venue available who know the place).
- Are we allowed to provide our own bar staff?
Yes.
- Are there fridges, taps, bar furniture available?
Yes, they have everything to set up a bar in the venue hall.
- Where are trash receptacles?
Out back.
- Where are compost/trash/recycle bags located?
There's a clean-up kit in the kitchen with instructions.
- Where should filled compost/trash/recycle bags be put?
Containers in the back.
- Do they have any specific cleanup/composting requirements?
Glass and paper are separated.
- Is there a professional cleaning service after the event? Is it included in the price?
We can get them to clean, it's not included. Trash pickup is included within reason, if you fill up a container you pay for it.