There are several options for booking meeting rooms on different SFU Campuses.
Meeting Room: Classrooms, tutorial rooms, lecture halls
Meeting rooms are available for bookings within SFU owned spaces and requests can be submitted through your club portal
Open Space: Larger SFU spaces for events that are not classrooms
Open space rooms can be booked through your club portal.
Audio Visual Equipment
Audio Visual Equipment can be requested at the time of the booking submission through your portal.
Services include but are not limited to:
All AV requests will require a set-up diagram to be submitted. The SFSS Student Centre will facilitate communication for your set-up diagram.
Facilities
Services include but are not limited to:
All facilities requests will require a set-up diagram to be submitted. The SFSS Student Centre will facilitate communication for your set-up diagram.
SFU’s catering menus vary depending on which campus and location your event is happening at.
Catering menus are as follows:
For bookings on weekdays (after 5:30pm) and on weekends, catering services are unavailable.
More information regarding SFU Catering services can be found here: https://www.sfu.ca/ceremonies/toolkit/planning/catering.html
Self-catering is defined as bringing in your own food or pre-packaged snacks yourself.
Currently, self-catering is permitted in the SUB but subject to such things as snacks, pizza, individual fast food, coffee (coffee service by urn or take away box is allowed).
Light snacks (pre-packaged) are allowed in SFU owned spaces. However, clubs are responsible for keeping the room and floor tidy and removing all garbage after your event. Failure cleanup after your event could result in losing future room-booking privileges.
Food permits are required if you are serving food to the general public. One member of your club will also be required to have a valid Food Safe Certificate. The link to the Fraser Health permit application can be found here.
If you are ordering food from an external company and serving it to members of your club or the public, you will be required to provide the restaurant’s operating licence as proof they are an established organization with a valid operating permit.
Activity |
Required Processing Time |
| Meeting Room Booking | 5 Business Days |
| Open Space Bookings | 10 Business Days |
| SUB Boardroom & Table Bookings | 5 Business Days |
| Grant Submissions (<$1000) | 10 Business Days |
| Grant Submissions (>$1000) | 20 Business Days |
| AV* | 5 Business Days |
| Facilities* | 5 Business Days |
| SFU Catering | 10 Business Days |
*Set up diagrams must be submitted when your space/ booking is confirmed.
When starting your event planning, ask and answer the following questions:
Why
What
Where
Who
How
It is important to determine what type of event you want to host. Below are several event types you may want to consider depending on your group’s goals.
| Sample Event Types | |
| Networking | Provides guests with the opportunity to connect with each other for mutually beneficial relationships |
| Fundraising | Raising funds or awareness for a cause |
| Socials | Socialise, mingle, have fun – can be used to help create community or stronger connections |
| Team Development | Building team trust, making connections, recognizing accountability |
| Workshops | learning from industry professionals or other experienced individuals |
| Competition | Opportunity to engage in activities competitively |
| Recognition & Appreciation | Give credit/ recognition and celebrate a person, groups of people or the team |
Selecting an event date may be the most important part of your event planning. When considering when to host your event, review the following:
Setting S.M.A.R.T goals are essential to your planning. The solution is to structure your goals by being as clear and specific as possible.
| SMART GOALS | |
| Specific | Clear and specific event goals. Make sure your goals are effective for planning. |
| Measurable | Your goals should be tracked. Have a clear definition of success that helps you evaluate achievement and progress. |
| Achievable | It is important to set a goal that you can actually achieve with the resources you have available.Your goals should be realistic and attainable – don’t stretch the possibilities. |
| Relevant | Your goals need to be relevant to you and what you set out to achieve. Make sure the goal has value and also matters to you. |
| Timely | Your goals need a deadline, and you need to give yourself enough time to plan. Set an end point that isn’t too far in the future to also keep you motivated. |
Project planning has four core components of planning, managing, controlling, and monitoring the associated activities with your event or project.
| Planning | Defining clear objectives and goals, and the timeline that is needed to get there |
| Managing | Overseeing and supporting those working on and executing tasks within your team |
| Controlling | Ensuring there is control over the project and that what needs to be done can be without disruption |
| Monitoring | Monitor the progression of tasks and actions, make sure targets are being hit and the project is moving towards the goal |
When marketing your event, it is important to understand your own target market.
Brainstorm all of the possible channels and try to use as many channels as possible in order to reach a wider audience.
Online Strategies
SFSS Bi-Weekly Newsletter
The SFSS sends out a bi-weekly newsletter to all students in their membership on Fridays. Requests to be featured within the newsletter can be sent to studentcentre@sfss.ca with your event details and a marketing graphic.
Social Media
Utilizing your group’s social media pages provides a great opportunity to spread awareness about your event or group’s presence.
Good opportunities for social media promotion include:
Tip: prepare your marketing material in advance rather than creating while posting. Pre-scheduling posts and creating a content posting calendar can help with the effectiveness of your marketing.
SFSS Event Calendar
You can request for your upcoming event to be featured in the SFSS online events calendar
In-Person Promotion
Tabling
Booking a table and sitting there pitching to students presents a great opportunity for ticket sales and visibility.
Selling Event Tickets
When selling virtual tickets for the event, it is necessary to set up a secure method for people to purchase tickets through systems.
Selling Strategies
Ensure you have a maximum number of attendees set prior to opening ticket sales.
Pricing Strategies
Using pricing strategies at the beginning of your ticket sales can help increase the number of total tickets sold, and tickets sold with the special promotion.
The following types of contracts must be signed by the SFSS:
Notes about Contracting:
Contract Submission
SFSS Club/ Union Executive submits contract, invoices, contact information for venue to SFSS Generalist Coordinator at msc.generalist@sfss.ca
a. Include the following information:
i. Event information:
1. Event date
2. Type of event
3. Associated grant
4. Room Bookings
5. Projected attendee count
6. Attendee Fee
7. Budget
8. Other supplementary documentation
ii. Contract Contact Information:
1. Name
2. Position
3. Company
4. Email address
5. Phone Number
iii. Contract due date
iv. Required Certificate of Insurance (Y/N)
A sponsorship agreement governs the relationship between a sponsor and a student organisation and the entitlements of sponsoring your event. This may be a monetary or in-kind agreement.
Notes about Sponsorship Agreements:
a. Include:
i. Sponsorship Information:
ii. Sponsor/ Company Contact Information:
iii. Signing due date
Student organization travel for the 2022 – 2023 Academic year is considered and approved on a case by case basis and must be approved by the SFSS Member Services Team, prior to the student organization leaving and booking any lodging and transportation accommodations.
Before Travel
Prior to requesting for travel, include the following information in your grant request:
During Travel
After Travel
After your group returns from travel, submit your receipts and documentation to receive reimbursement if your event was sponsored by the SFSS. If there were any incidents that happened between your members or the public, please refer to the SFSS Incident Support Guidelines Rooming List
Event waivers are not required for all events but student groups planning to organise non-routine or meeting activities and events should consider having attendees sign waivers
Waiver signing ensures that participants are aware of the potential risks with attending and participating in the event and provide protection to the group and participants
Photo Consent
Consent is required if you are taking photos or posting photos of your attendees at your event.
Consent can be provided to your attendees in one of the following ways:
Posting Event Photos
Overnight Events
Overnight event requests can be submitted to the SFSS Generalist Coordinator at msc.generalist@sfss.ca. Overnight events are subject to approval by the SFSS, SFU Meeting Events & Conferences (MECS), and the SFU Sexual Violence Prevention Office.
When emailing to inquire about overnight events, please provide: