The statement that graduation venues should be reserved a year in advance may seem, on the surface, to be very logical advice, it is amazing how many people call us three or four months in advance, wanting a graduation venue and being amazed that all spring dates are reserved. Amazing to the point we believe a separate article, this article, should be written explaining why it is so difficult to nail down a graduation venue each year.
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Two types of graduation venues.
The term “graduation venues” is a bit nebulous. To our way of thinking, that term can either mean a venue rental where a graduation will be held, or a venue where a graduation party will be held.
One might think that the larger the city, the more venues available, and that is certainly true in 99% of the cities in the U.S. You do have more venues to choose from in a city of one million as opposed to a city of 10,000. However, you also have more citizens demanding more venues, and therein lies the problem. Let’s look at the math.
The math of time-sensitive venues.
A vision just flashed through this writer’s brain: I wonder how they manage this problem in a city like Boston, a city renowned for so many outstanding universities, not to mention the high schools which feed into those universities? How do they manage to provide venues for such a huge demand?
The first problem with graduations has to do with a small rental window. Most graduations, the vast majority of them, occur in a six-week period between Mid-May and the end of June. And the majority of those graduations occur either on a Friday night or a Saturday, meaning the greatest demand occurs for twelve specific days. Okay, all is well and good if you only have two universities and ten high schools in that area. The math works in that instance. But what if you have twenty high schools and five colleges, and only ten event venues for them all to fight over?
And the math might be worse when we talk about graduation party room rentals. Twenty high schools might mean close to twenty-thousand graduates, and if even half of those graduates wants to have a graduation party, the math simply does not add up for graduation venues.
The only sure way to secure a venue when you want one.
This may seem like a discouraging article, but it is not meant to be. We simply want you aware of the math problem, and the only way to make that math work is by making a reservation a full year in advance. If you are a school, most likely you can hold the ceremony in your auditorium, but if you do not have an auditorium, your best approach is to make a standing reservation at a particular location, even if you have to pay a continual retainer to make sure you are given that reservation each year at a particular date.
If you are the parent of a graduate, making the reservation a full year in advance is your only option and then you might be disappointed. The numbers are definitely not in your favor, but you increase your chances by being aware of the year-in-advance approach.
A final word about Tarrant Events Center.
Tarrant Events Center is locally owned and operated. Call us today and ask us about our all-inclusive pricing policy. We believe it is a game-changer you will want to be aware of.