Finding the right venue takes hours, days, even weeks because if you don’t get the best, someone else will. Here’s how to make it easy..

Preparation..

City Map

We provide you a City Map (do not create a new one!) for marking businesses (venues, coworkings and language schools) and storing notes on them.

Invite friends

Share your map, this guide and the Add Venue form via mundolingo.org/join with others so they can add their own favourite venues.

Ask the public

Share your search in social media groups, ask the public for their favourite venues.

🎯 The Target

Don’t be ‘Basic’

✅ Great venues for building commmunity are ‘unique, alternative, grundgy, creative, edgy, funky, arty, traveller friendly, off-beat’, or just have a special character.

❌ Bad venues, often chains, are sterile, clean-cut, with an industrial or minimalistic decor that transmits a soulless energy.

TLDR; Independent bars nurture their vibe → Chains are lame 🤮

← · · Spread Out · · →

Yes, language schools and train stations are in the centre (Same in all cities around the world) but to open one event in the centre of a mega-city is short-sighted. Spread out, open 3, 4 or more weekly events. Ask yourself; if you open 5 events tomorrow, where would they be?

Why the CBD / Centre, is a waste of time 👇

1. High Prices

2. Bars are busy - They don’t need us

3. Full of office workers in suits. Suits kill vibe

4. No soul. - Generic penny-pinching corporate chains.

5. People working/studying in the centre go home at 5pm. After taking an hour to get home and change, they don’t come back to the centre.

🧡 The Fringe

These bars are friendly and cultivate their community in order to survive, just like us! Independents are often run by open-minded owners rather than the corporate office policies of chains. The fringe has trendy bars, sweet vibes, lower prices, less suits and authentic smiles.

🔎 Investigate!

Traffic Light System

Colour code your venues:

🟡 +100 points on map

Add all the bars you can find. Zoom in and out!

🔴 Eliminate (Online)

Check google photos, reviews, closing hours. Mark good spacious venues as yellow (potential), and bad ones as Red (no potential).

Dig Deep

Google independent articles and blogs on bars in your city.

Example search terms for spacious/unique bars:

• Hidden Gems in [City]

• Hipster hang outs [City]

• Arty bars [City]

• Unique bars [City]Bars to dance swing [City]

Use AI

ChatGPT or whichever service you prefer.

🟡 Inspect Venues

At this point, your map should have lots of red and yellow markers. Let’s turn those yellows into greens.

You need

1. Your City Map open on your phone

2. ‘Add Venue’ form ready on your phone (4th option on the join page)

3. Grab a friend (or victim)

Have a drink in each venue preferably on a Tuesday to Thursday night. Be prepared to spread the search over 2 or even 3 weeks. If you planned a route, follow it with GPS on your smartphone.

🕵️ Incognito

Don’t tell venue staff you’re a Mundo Lingo Manager unprompted. If they ask, you can tell them, but first, try to absorb the ambience as an anonymous agent.

🔴 No good?

Mark it red and add notes

🟡 Maybe?

If it’s good, but not THAT good, keep it yellow + take notes

🟢 Like it?

Okay, let’s 👇

1. Buy a drink – How’s the service?

2. Talk with your friend – Can you hear each other okay?

3. Go to the bathroom – Are they clean?

4. Look at the food – does it look nice? Take a photo of the menu!

….🟢 Still Here?

Okay niiiiiice let’s do this 👇

1. Fill in the Add Venue form (Option 4 on the join page).

2. Take a walkthrough video with your phone

Venue Presentation

Before submitting your final VP (venue presentation) join the scrum ask others to check your map is likely to pass the evaluation. One free VP Evaluation is given to each Manager every 6 months.

Your map must have:

🔴🟡🟢    - 100 venues total
🟡🟢      - 10 venues Green or yellow
🟢        - 5 venues Green

Notes should have:

• Capacity, HFE, closing time, distinguishing factors. Beer On Tap + Food

• Target area, if it is not the main area

• Lights, temperature, music, flow

• Link to walk-through video/photos of target space

VP Evaluation

The Evaluator will test for the following

1. Are the markers spread out + with full notes?

2. Can Evaluator find 2 or more good venues that are not marked?

3. Do the 5+ green markers meet full criteria?

If one of these fail, the evaluation is terminated and the author may re-submit after 2 weeks.

A minimum Pass is 5 Green lights of which 3 may be conditionals. Each venue’s status is shown in the title as either Conditional (C) or Green Light ✅ like this:

Results

In the case of a Fail the Manager may either re-submit 2 weeks later and wait until no other VP Evaluations are in the queue, or pay 50USD for a new re-evaluation with fast times.

In the case of a Pass, and if training is complete, the Manager has full authority to approach green-lighted venues and sign the ESC. More on that in First Date.

Exclusivity

Green lights are exclusive to their owners (non-transferable between Managers) for 3 months.

Top-Ups

If a Venue Presentation resulting in 5+ Green Lights (Pass) was made in the past 6 months the same Manager may can submit a Top-Up VP. Top-ups may request that only 2 greens are evaluated, but must have complete notes and less than 20 yellows.

Now what?

Next up,

Or Go Back

👈 Events Operations Manual