Event/Meeting Planning advice

[dyppmo]

Hello to all.

I've been lurking here for a long time and even chimed in a few(4 or 5) times when I thought I had something helpful to say.
This has been the greatest resource in my development as a Sketchup artist by far, and the community is always respectful and critical(in only a positive way).

With all that said I need some quick advice, please.

I have been working for a concessions company in Boston. We operate bars and food stands at Music, Arts and Sports venues as well as large special events(1000 to 10,000+ people).

I use Sketchup for lots of things like:
Area calculation
Space usage
Tent placement
Power runs
Pedestrian flow
Visualization for the client
City applications for event and liquor licenses....

You get the idea.

I have now caught the attention of some of the event planning companies in town and have been approached to do some freelance work for them(my awesome boss has given his blessing).

So what I need help with is pricing.

I'm not an architect and have no technical training in this area at all(did lots drafting in high school 25yrs ago).
I have worked in hotel event planning and restaurant management so that is where my expertice lies.

These can be multi-million dollar events and my services are valuable to these companies but I have no clue how to attach a value to my work hours and I don't want to price myself out of a good gig.

There tends to be many changes made in the process of planning these events and sometimes the turn around time is tight.

Is anyone else using Sketchup like this?
Can anyone suggest a billing rate for this service?

I attached a couple of images from the last couple of years for reference.(all from different projects)

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

ps. I'm not sure why the last 2 images have a black background when uploaded but I'm not going to fix it right now.

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[solo]

Interesting use of Sketchup mate, I have no idea what your time is worth or what the industry can sustain but you definitely bring value to a project.
Most folk in the archvis industry work at a per hour rate, so maybe that should be a starting point.
Figure out what your free time is worth (as I'm sure this will be done in your private time), also take into consideration the project overall value and come to some sort of hourly rate or if you believe you can estimate the time it will take you then offer a project price based on info given before you start and make sure that any changes to plan will be added to the price.

This is your busy season, I will be in your neck of the woods soon (well..Cape Cod at least)looking forward to decent below 100 degree weather.

Good luck.

[AVguy]

Hi Dyppmo,

I do a similar thing for the company I work for, through our area of work is indoor corporate events. I use SU to visualise site lines and give a sense of the space that a 2D plan doesn't do.

I agree with Solo about charging at an hourly rate but I guess you have to work out how much time it's going to take you to do the inital drawings and what that time is worth to you.

Some cash is better than no cash.

[Mike Lucey]

Thanks for posting Jeff. Its always good to see SU used for different uses. You are obvously expert in your field, good professional looking work there. Its great to see a before (model) and an after photo, very impressive indeed.

I think the advise Pete (Solo) offers is very sound. Even if you find that you have underpriced on your first private job, what harm? At least you will have learned what to look for the next time around. I find that if you are straight up with clients and advise them that you are not sure about what to charge and suggest an hourly rate, advised on even a daily basis (eamiling /showing progress piucs) most will help happy to go along with your end charge / bill as they will see it build and realise they are are getting a good and fair deal.

Good luck with the job and keep us posted.

Mike

[Gaieus]

@dyppmo said:

I'm not sure why the last 2 images have a black background when uploaded but I'm not going to fix it right now.

Sorry but I can't contribute any meaningful just about this; the thumbnails of png files with transparent backgrounds, when made by the forum software, always show up like this. Don't worry about them.