Still relying on hotel ballrooms and conference rooms for your big (or small) corporate event venue? With their unimaginative interiors, predetermined menus, and limited equipment rentals? It’s time to think again and level up your corporate event venue rental game!
Corporate event venue rentals and planning have been the backbone of Canoe Studios for well over a decade, meaning we’ve learned a thing or two about throwing some of the most creative, memorable, and talked-about events in all of New York City. If you’re thinking about how to approach your next corporate event venue or how to bring your unique vision to life, let us walk you through everything you need to know.
We Have Perfected the Business Conference
In our experience there are 2 major types of corporate events hosted around NYC: speaking engagements, aka business conferences, and luxury cocktail parties.
Business conferences are often an “all day” event, with multiple events spanning from 8am to around 5pm or 6pm. Because these often include speaking engagements, we’ll have to configure at least one studio or part of the studio space to fit stadium-style seating along with a stage, speakers, and a comprehensive A/V setup equipped to provide an optimal experience for both listeners and speakers.
The rest of Canoe Studio’s 9-studio space is yours to play with: from meeting rooms to dining areas, hang out spaces to speaking engagements, our 40,000 square feet of completely flexible space can host corporate event venue rentals of any size or scale.
Sound is a massively important aspect of business conferences and speaking engagements that is often taken for granted. That’s why we take the responsibility off our clients’ shoulders and make it our mission to figure out the precise acoustics and layout to optimize studio sound.
Traditional all-day business conferences often include a catered lunch as well, and thanks to Canoe Studio’s versatile kitchen and catering options, we’re able to accommodate any cuisine, event size, or style that best suits your event.
Upscale Cocktail Parties Are Our Jam
If business conferences and speaking engagements comprise about half of our annual events, the other half belongs to upscale cocktail parties. Business conferences are professionally-focused, meticulously planned events that usually occupy (surprise!) business hours.
Cocktail parties, on the other hand, almost always take place in the evening and usually have a more fluid schedule. That does not mean, however, that they’re any easier to plan! Audio/visual configuration is an important part of any event we host, but lighting is an especially critical component of cocktail parties since there is rarely any natural light to rely on.
Because we’ll have to rely on artificial light not just to illuminate the space but to set the mood as well, we work very closely with our clients to create a lighting layout plan that complements the time of day, style, and any relevant themes of your corporate event venue.
It All Starts With a Site Visit
In order to be the best team members and hosts for your corporate event venue, it’s important to establish a creative unity and collaboration right from the get-go. With Canoe Studios, this sort of “event planning kickoff” begins with a site visit where we invite clients to the studio to meet us and do an extensive walkthrough of the studio space.
At this point many of our clients come prepared with a run-of-show schedule that we can use as a creative jumping off point as we start to visualize which room is ideal for which part of their event.
Once we have a general layout in mind, we can shift gears and begin considering what type of rentals are needed: chairs, tables, projectors, etc. for business conferences; lights, cameras, speakers, etc. for cocktail parties. We also have the experience and creative taste to help you down to the finest details, from linens to your overall color palette, floral arrangements to food and beverage. We cover it all and decide on a plan of action from the very beginning!
Lighting and Sound: Any Corporate Event Venue’s Dealmaker or Dealbreaker
Lighting, especially during midday business conferences, is still a commonly taken for granted element of event hosting. Even though you should plan on relying on Canoe Studios’ deluge of natural light from its panarmonic windows, what if the weather suddenly changes and we’re under cloud cover? Suddenly you need some backup lights to brighten your space again!
That’s just one example of how critical a lighting layout and plan is to any corporate event venue, day or night. During cocktail parties in the evening, lighting is a massive driving force in setting the right mood and tone and deserves to be thoughtfully considered and creatively realized.
Likewise, especially for speaking engagements, good sound is essential and easily forgotten. What good is a big stage and microphone if the audience arrangement and speaker layout isn’t optimized for sound? The people standing in the back corner should be just as capable of hearing every word as those sitting in the front row.
Can Canoe Studios Produce My Event?
You better believe it! Event producing and management is one of our proudest specialties. Some of the world’s biggest and most prestigious brands have uniquely trusted Canoe Studios with their event planning needs: Cadillac, Lamborghini, Taylor Swift, Keds, The Players Tribute, and so many more.
These brands require perfection. Excellence isn’t enough. They have extremely particular and complex needs that only we can meet, which is why they continue coming back to us year after year. We have the versatility, creative intuition, and expertise to visualize and realize some of the best events and parties in all of New York City.
How Does Canoe Studios Make Corporate Event Venue Rentals Unique?
Not only is every aspect of Canoe Studios in-house — catering, equipment rentals, studio space, staff, and more — but we provide a white glove hotel concierge experience with the creativity and versatility of a full-service production company. At Canoe, not only can you rent one of New York City’s most prestigious spaces, you can also hire your own producer and event planner to configure the best chef, lighting, A/V, equipment, staff, and more to bring your vision to life.
Canoe Studios is quite truly a blank canvas of unimaginable corporate event venue potential. It’s a space you need to see to believe, a 40,000 square foot slice of 14th story Manhattan heaven. When you’re here, you’re not beholden to whatever an existing space has interior designed or at their disposal. With us, you are truly limitless and we can make the event of your dreams come to life like nowhere else!
