Venue & event management software terminology can be a bit confusing, even for the seasoned events professional. If you are looking for venue & events management software, then it’s important that you know what to search for to find a solution that meets your business needs quickly and easily. That said, if you are new to the industry or you haven’t been tasked with purchasing software before, then you must familiarise yourself with event-specific lingo and technical software terms to help you to identify and evaluate the right systems.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of some of the most commonly used jargon relevant for venues, events and software. This list of venue and event management software terminology will help you to find a solution that suits your needs and truly understand how it can benefit your business:
Venue & Events Terms:
- Audio Visual (AV): The lighting, screens, speakers and other technical equipment used to support the sound and visual presentations at an event.
- Back of House (BOH): Any space that customers/attendees typically do not see at an event, e.g. kitchen, green room, break rooms, office spaces etc.
- Banquet Event Order (BEO)/Event Order (Event Order)/Run Sheet: A document listing all requirements and logistics for the event. Not just catering, but everything needed at the event from start to finish.
- Breakout Rooms: Smaller rooms and event spaces used by attendees for meetings and networking sessions that happen outside of main/plenary sessions at conferences and events.
- Certified Meeting Professional or Certified Meeting Planner (CMP): An individual who holds an industry-specific accreditation obtained from the Events Industry Council.
- Covers/PAX: The number of attendees at an event.
- Request for Proposal (RFP)/Request for Quotation (RFQ): A request from a prospect or client outlining the requirements for their event or venue booking including all of the catering, inventory, audio-visual and other elements needed for their event. In this instance, the venue would need to reply with a formal proposal/quotation outlining how they can meet the clients needs.
- Room Dividers/Airwalls: The partition system used to split up larger rooms into smaller spaces.
- Room Layout/Seating Plans: The configuration of the tables and chairs within the venue relevant for the type of event. Some examples include:
- Auditorium/Theatre Style: Chairs setup in rows facing the stage. The configuration which holds the most people.
- Boardroom – One large table surrounded by chairs, suitable for small to medium-size meetings.
- Classroom/Schoolroom: Tables and chairs set up in rows facing the stages. This setup makes it easy for the audience to take notes.
- U-shape /Horseshoe – Tables setup in a u-shape with chairs on the outside (and sometimes on the inside as well).
- Set-up time: The time required to make the room or hall ready for an event. During this time, no other event can be booked for that space.
Software Terms:
- Add-On Module: Additional functionality that can be added to the core system to expand the capabilities of the system.
- Application Programming Interface (API): An interface that allows you to seamlessly synchronise information across different applications/systems/software that were not specifically designed to work together.
- Cloud: Cloud computing is a software delivery model in which resources and data can be accessed on-demand via the internet. The term “cloud” is used to demonstrate the fact that information is readily available anytime, anywhere and users do not need to be in a specific location to gain access to it – it’s almost as if it is floating in the air above you.
- Enterprise-grade: Software that is scalable and that can support a large number of users.
- Integration: In terms of software, Integration is a process of merging two or more systems using either a single or bi-directional sync so that data/functionality flows freely between them.
- Multi-tenant: A single instance of the software that supports multiple tenants. All tenants share a single database, but each tenant is isolated, so they are invisible to each other.
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Sometimes referred to as “on-demand”, SaaS is a licensing and delivery model in which software is delivered over the internet on a subscription basis.
- Sandbox: area of the software platform to try and test new functionality without the risk of losing data or showing build stages.
- Tenant: A tenant is a group of users who share a common access with specific privileges to the software instance.
- User Interface: The point at which the user and the software/system interact.
If you’re in the market for venue & event management software, feel free to contact us to learn more about our award-winning enterprise-grade solution.
