Event Planning Simplified With  Visio Technical

Traditionally, staff at the Sydney Town Hall prepared function plans drawn to scale on pre-printed function room plans. Dimensions and layout of variable components such as aisles, tables, podiums and special facilities were calculated manually, often using dimensions scaled off the drawings. Creating a function plan could take days, the results were less than optimally accurate, and they were made with a tolerance necessary to ensure that everything would fit. That tolerance sometimes necessitating what ultimately resulted in wasted space and resources. Sydney Town Hall is a premier events venue in Australia's largest city. It has 6 function areas and can accommodate in excess of 3,500 people.

Now, floor plans are accurately created and easily edited by function planners in minutes using Visio Technical. Plans created with Visio Technical are linked to the function planning system, Functions Perfect, a comprehensive and mature event management application developed by Parrimark Technology of Sydney, Australia. The links allow Functions Perfect and the Visio drawing to use the same data specific to venue and function such as furniture inventory and attendee positioning. The Functions Perfect package provides the technology to link and integrate planning data with drawing data and includes Visio Technical as the graphic communications solution.

Most users of Functions Perfect require Visio Technical to be customized with venue templates and furniture stencils to suit their specific venues. Visio Technical was customized for the Sydney Town Hall by Australian hospitality CAD specialist, CADPlanners. CADPlanners migrated existing CAD drawings to Visio, removing the unnecessary information and optimizing the plan for function planning requirements. This ensures that function planning staff always work with accurate representations of function areas.

"We've seen venues increase their capacity by as much as 30% using Visio Technical," said Wayne Elstub, principal of CADPlanners. "It's often a pleasant surprise for venue managers to discover they that can increase guest capacity by simply rearranging tables or changing table sizes. This sort of manipulation would be impractical using hand-drawn plans. When we set-up their Visio floor plans they are generating accurate plans in minutes... virtually no training as they do not need to know how to draw. Just drag-and-drop... they love it!"

CADPlanners' understanding the finer points of event planning, the kind of knowledge and skill that only comes with experience, enables them to deliver a value-added service that extends beyond customizing Visio to specific venues. They have even identified previously unconsidered function space for clients in the course of customizing Visio.

In addition, CADPlanners has created custom stencils and shapes, tailoring Visio Technical to the precise requirements of the venue. Visio SmartShape technology is used extensively to add business intelligence to the drag-and-drop ease-of-use.

A Visio Technical floor plan of Centennial Hall and vestibule with custom planning stencil created for Sydney Town Hall by CADPlanners.

"The time I save using Visio Technical is incredible," said Tony Casey, Operations Manager at the Sydney Town Hall.   "It took days to prepare floor plans for large events by hand.  I'd often be forced to work late just to prepare and deliver plans in a timely manner."

"Catered functions were a real nightmare. These events often required three or four floor plan changes to accommodate ever-changing attendee numbers. Depending on the changes required it could take hours to prepare each new table or stage layout," says Casey. " Now, with Visio Technical, I can prepare the same changes in minutes, less than two hours before a function starts. I can even generate initial floor plans for prospective client on screen as we discuss their function needs. They can then take a print out with them, rather than waiting a day or two while I find time to draw the plans by hand," he said.

Visio Technical has also improved communication with clients and suppliers. A function planner can electronically paste a Visio Technical floor plan into a Microsoft Word document and email it to suppliers and other function staff.  This replaces the outdated photocopy and fax trick, with the problems of poor reproduction and transmission quality that lead to time delays and misunderstandings that are simply bad for business.

Damian Poole, Acting Tourism & Venues Manager for the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales says that Visio Technical has made it easier to market the venues he manages.

Damian manages six historic event venues in Sydney including Hyde Park Barracks, completed in 1819, and the Museum of Sydney. These six very special locations can accommodate up to a total of 3,700 people for a diverse range of functions.

In addition to interior spaces, these venues also use the grounds to take advantage of the gardens, views and magnificent Sydney weather. As well as providing exciting and unique venues, this flexibility also requires function planners to work with site plans as well as room plans. Additional items such as marquees need to be provided in planning stencils. Planning information often needs to be shared with other contractors such as hiring companies and lighting and rigging contractors.

"I include sample floor plans in PowerPoint presentations to help clients visualize things that can be done with each function room. As a result, clients have more realistic demands and expectations when planning their activities. This in turn improves the overall reputation of each venue as a good function location," says Poole.

"A softcopy floor plan also allows more flexibility. Because everything is shown true to scale, you know that what you see is exactly what will fit. You can quickly and easily trial different room set-ups or experiment with unusual client requests.  Previously, I had to physically measure a room and try to visualize the final effect of a complex layout," he said.

"Each computer-generated floor plan is tidy and easy to understand," commented Wayne Elstub.  "All objects are accurately represented and shown to scale. The whole process is far more professional, leaving clients with a more positive impression of the venue and its function management activities."

Windows environment, extensive opportunities for customization at multiple levels and ease-of-use, especially for non-technical users, are just some of the reasons why Parrimark Technology provides Visio Technical as a major component of its internationally successful Functions Perfect software package.

Images by courtesy of CADPlanners, Sydney Australia.