Parking on campus is very limited during the day, and all visitors will require a visitor parking permit during the week. Request this through the parking office. No permits are required for visitors to park on Campus between 5.00pm and 8.00am or at weekends. Please be mindful that, if your event starts at 5.00pm on a weekday, people will want to arrive and park before that time and would, therefore, require a permit.
Porters can help to set up the room to the layout you need, and ensure the venue is clean and tidy. You should request porting help at least 1 week in advance. Contact the zone porters for the venue you are using.
If you are hosting a major event on campus, or your event covers a controversial subject matter or speaker, you should alert Security and Safety Services so that appropriate measures can be put in place if needed.
Any rooms booked through central timetabling will be notified to the portering teams for each building. If your event is subsequently cancelled, be sure to cancel the room booking and notify the portering team as they may have made special arrangements for out of hours cover if your event is taking place outside of normal working hours.
]]>In the information you collect from your attendees, remember to ask for dietary requirements and collate information and final numbers to pass on to the catering team about a week before your event.
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You may find you require additional help at your event, for registration of attendees, to sign-post on campus, to assist with seating guests, or passing around roving mics during a Q&A session. If your budget allows, you could consider using temporary student helpers. Students can be booked through Unitemps, using their requisition procedures. Please visit the HR website for further information on using Unitemps.
Consider whether you would like staff/helpers to wear a specific uniform at your event.
Provide all staff working with a running-order for the event, and ensure that they are all well briefed on their responsibilities.
]]>All events should routinely have a risk assessment carried out early in the planning process, and definitely before the event commences. Help and advice on carrying out risk assessments can be found on the Safety Services website, and the University Risk Assessment form is also available to download.
The risk assessment is a working document that is for the use of the event manager and personnel working at the event. It is there to help you identify risks and put in place sensible measures to control those risks.
The Prevent Strategy is a Government initiative to prevent terrorism by reducing the possiblity of radicalisation. This strategy applies to all external speakers that speak on University premises, who are vetted to ensure they uphold the Freedom of Speech principles. This requirement is not onerous or meant to curtail legitimate activities, merely to ensure there can be full, equal and legal debate.
For full details of the Universities Prevent Advice on external speakers, please visit the Prevent web page.
]]>To request any of the above, please email events@le.ac.uk and we will book these out for you if they are available.
]]>Colleagues within External Relations can work with you to create useful, engaging and shareable content, from video to imagery and web copy to print materials.
They can also help you with internal communications and writing and distributing press releases.
To list your event on the University website events listing and in the weekly Insider e-newsletter, you can submit your new event here. You should also consider listing your events on regional online events listings.
If you have fliers, these can be distributed within the local area. There are companies that provide that service.
The Digital Media team will be able to advise on approaches to social media.
Detailed information on all the services available can be found on the Marketing Communications Office web pages. This is one of the most important parts of your event, and External Relations can help you plan your communications. Please contact us at the beginning of your planning process so that we are involved right from the start.
To request any help with publicising your event, please contact External Relations on ERD-requests@le.ac.uk or phone 0116 223 1756.
The Peter Williams Lecture Theatre and the two lecture theatres in the Centre for Medicine now have seat numbering. This makes it possible to allocate seats for all attendees, if required. The Events Team have seating plans for these lecture theatres, and can provide you with copies on request.
Decide early on if you will need to reserve any seats/tickets for VIP guests so that these do not get allocated.
Consider whether your event will be entirely invite-only, or if you will allow people to just turn up on the day without an invitation or pre-booking. Think carefully about how you invite any VIPs - do you want to send formal invitations, letters, emails? Remember, some people do not use email so you may need to incorporate postal invites as well. Formal Invitations can be designed and printed in-house to your specifications. Contact print services for more information.
Send your invitations out in good time to allow for collating and chasing responses.
Put an RSVP date on your invitations.
Decide what the RSVP process will be and who will handle any queries about the event
Rooms and Lecture Theatres are available to book on campus, at Brookfield, at College Court or the Students' Union. Some rooms are free of charge, others will incur a charge if booked through RACS or the SU.
You can check the capacity and IT equipment in each of the rooms and teaching spaces on campus by looking at the Rooms Directory. This provides details of over 100 rooms around campus that are available via central timetabling for teaching and meetings. Booking these rooms is free of charge.
A Video Link between lecture theatres is possible if you are expecting large numbers. The Peter Williams Lecture Theatre has a dedicated video link with the Astley Clarke Lecture Theatre, and the Rattray can be linked to Bennett Link Lecture Theatre. Speak to Learning & Teaching Room Support to ensure this can be set up for you.
To book a room through central timetabling, complete the online form.
The Students' Union has a variety of rooms and they may be able to offer you a room or the Queen's Hall. Contact subookings@le.ac.uk to enquire about availability. There may be a charge for these rooms.
Leicester Conferences is the University of Leicester's specialist conferences and events provider and offer support to a variety of events from private dinners, to residential conferences with full use of meeting rooms and facilities across two venues. They can also support catering requirements and provide event management support. Please note that there will be a charge associated with using this service.
The University has a number of outdoor spaces which can be used for events, including the Events Square to the side of the Fielding Johnson Building, the lawn area in front of the Fielding Johnson main entrance, the area in front of the library as well as other smaller outdoor spaces. To reserve outside space for your event, please book through the Events Team using the Events Space Initial Enquiry Form
If you will require the room to be set out in a certain way, ie cabaret style seating, partitioning opening, registration desks or extra chairs you will need to request this through the portering team. You should ensure that you given them enough notice to plan this in to their schedule by emailing them at least one week in advance. It is also helpful if you provide them with a document specifically listing all of your requirements.
Check that the room you have booked has the required AV equipment for your event by checking the Rooms Directory. Order additional equipment such as lapel mics or roving mics through Learning & Teaching Room Support. If your event takes place outside of teaching hours or outside of term time, you will need to request AV equipment using their online form.
Check the capacity of the room fits with your required layout for the event and number of guests.
Think about if you will need additional break-out rooms or a 'green room' for refreshments/meetings/photo opportunity before or after the event.
Check accessibility of the room and make sure that you are familiar with disabled access and accessible seating.
Visit your venue to familiarise yourself with entry/exit points and note any possible bottlenecks or hazards. This will help you with risk assessments and decide if student helpers would be required to assist with crowd control at the event.
If you are planning to invite a high profile speaker, you should speak to them well in advance. It is worth checking on the University Almanac for any critical dates in the academic year, such as exams, term dates and open days etc. You can also contact events@le.ac.uk and ask us to check the 'Key Dates Calendar' which has a comprehensive list of major events taking place at the University.
If you would like to request key academic/senior staff involvement in any part of your event, you should inform them as soon as possible with dates and times. Contact details for the Office of the President and Vice-Chancellor can be found here
Depending on your speaker's travel arrangements, you may need to book a VIP parking space on campus, and it is worth checking if the speaker would like accommodation before or after the event. You can book accommodation at College Court.
Liaise with AVS if your speaker has any special requirements, i.e.showing video clips, or playing music. Contact Learning & Teaching Room Support to find out what is available. It is a good idea to request a copy of the presentation for testing and run-through before the event. You may need to arrange access to the room/lecture theatre that you are using for the event for this test. You can also book an AVS Technician for the time period of your event. This may incur additional costs.
It is very helpful to provide a Briefing Document to the speaker at least one week before the event detailing the running order, directions and parking, meet and greet details, details of VIP attendees, dress code etc. Our Speaker Briefing Template can help you with this.
External speakers are also required to be vetted as part of the Prevent Strategy.
Allocate a representative to greet and look after the speaker during the event.
Follow-up with a thank you letter or email to the speaker after the event.
Things to consider when planning your event:
Read through the guidance pages on this website using the links below, which walk you through all the stages of a successful event, from planning to execution and evaluation. Use the Event Planning Template to record details that apply to your event. The template can apply to a broad range of events, so you may find that some sections are not relevant.
Event Overview Template
Event Planning Template
Event Communications Plan
Speaker Briefing Template
Final Event Briefing and Schedule
On the Day Checklist