Location, Location, Location

Where am I going to host this thing? This was the first question I asked when I started planning LAN Parties. Was going to host it in my dorm room, a community room or do I need to rent a space. Luckily at my university I have access to a variety of spaces for free. So for me picking location depends on how many people I'm Inviting. If is just my roommate and a friend or two, I'm lazy and throw it together

The old saying for businesses is true for LAN Parties too, location can be everything. Your target audience should determine your location. Is your event city wide or is it a regional event or in my case a small on campus event. The best location is one that is in a centralized area with easy access for guests. For a big event this would be a place on a major road with plenty of parking or in my case a central place on campus. The more popular your LAN Party becomes it becomes a a less important, space and electricity soon become more important and guests are willing to travel further for a bigger event. As the LAN-O-THON event has grown we have had to exchange the most central location I could get with one that had more space and electricity.

We moved the event from Holly J (HAJ on the map) to Cypress E (RCE) so our event could grow bigger which was a necessary sacrifice.

Noise
Noise is another concern with the music cranked up and gamers yelling at insults at each other you need a location that won't annoy nearby people the last thing you want is your neighbors knocking on your door or worse the police knocking on your door telling you to turn it down.

Parking
LAN Party guest have to carry lots of heavy computer stuff into the event so it is a good idea to make sure you have enough parking nearby or have a nice unloading zone so guests don't have to walk to far.

Other
Some more things to consider when choosing a location are space, electricity and cost. These aspects will be discussed in future article.

Have a question? Did I leave something out? That's what the comment box is for.

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