When calculating the cost, consider the following: Additional security, Additional air conditioning and electrical cost. Additional janitorial costs.
If your office is carpeted, plan on steam cleaning the carpet after the event.
Plan not to have messy foods such as jelly.
Work early to make sure that the vendors and caterers meet the insurance requirements for your building (if any).
Even if you have many rooms (as we had), limit the tracks to between 4 to 8 rooms so the attendance does not suffer.
Make sure you have at least 8 rooms for the event so sessions will be smaller and more discussion (many to many conversations) take place as opposed to one to many lectures. 4 rooms is not enough.
Make sure there is enough toilets to cater for the amount of people attending. I would say you want at the very least 2 toilets for 50 people.
Its worth having a room which is spare to put up the schedule and have as a reception space for people who are not attending the sessions can chill in without upsetting session goers
Try and pick a venue with either lift access or on one floor for wheelchair barcampers
Pick venues which you can rope off, to allow barcampers freedom to move and get comfortable within the venue. Nothing worse than people wandering through the barcamp who are not involved
Venues which are purpose built like offices are ideal but barcamps have been done in many places such as garages, barns, marquees, student unions, etc.
Outdoor space is great for parties, adhoc sessions and for people to smoke, but bear in mind the weather don't rely on them.
Think about parking space or how you would get to and from the venue on public transport. Being near a train station is a massive plus for those not local to the area
Ask yourself if the venue is close to shops and if those shops will be open during the barcamp. You might be able to strike a deal with them for sponsorship
