Managing Bookings
Event bookings in Exchange are decided upon in the space, every Wednesday evening at 7pm at our open Collective Meeting. These meetings are completely open to anyone at all who wants to pop along and listen in – you’re free to participate as much or as little as you like. If you are looking to book an event, it’s a very good idea to attend a collective meeting both to get a feel for how the space works, and also to pitch your idea and get some feedback/answer people’s questions/recruit help/etc.
All decisions are at the discretion of the weekly collective but basic guidelines are that while Exchange is always grateful for and accept donations to go towards bills (no volunteers are paid) we host free public events and gallery exhibitions for free, ask for a donation of your choosing appropriate to your needs for a closed, private or in any way exclusive event and ask for 30% of takings for ticketed/pay-in-only events by way of a contribution towards our rent, though we can be flexible on this for charitable causes.
Exchange is a strictly alcohol-and-drug free space and cannot have very loud or fully amplified events out of consideration and respect for the neighbours and the residential apartments above.
The space is here to be used by as many people as possible, so share it! At all times respect yourself, respect others, respect the neighbourhood and respect the space that are beeing shared.
How to book an event
As well as going to one of the weekly Collective Meetings (7-9pm every wednesday), please DO send an email at info@exchangedublin.ie or fill out the form at the homepage so the venue can have your contact details and event on record – Exchange can be a little forgetful at times. It is entirely run by volunteers who manage things like this in their spare time, so please be patient if you’re waiting for a reply to your correspondence.
Promoting your event
If you’re running an event in Exchange, it’s a good idea to send an event blurb and if possible some relevant photos/promotional designs/etc. so the venue can post them on their website, facebook and twitter – these can be sent at info@exchangedublin.ie Again, this is manually updated by volunteers whenever they find the time, so please don’t get mad if they’re occasionally a bit late – they do their best.
It is also recommend that groups/events submit details to the wonderful Dublin Event Guide‘s weekly e-mail newsletter/e-zine that lists, describes and recommends all free cultural events in Dublin City and in the Greater Dublin area. Gigs, festivals, talks, lectures, exhibitions and more for all age groups are included. Make sure to include the date and time, whether the event is open to everyone or certain age groups (this should be mentioned when you book) and most importantly, whether the event is free or not!
If you’re producing promotional material for an event that’s happening in the space, please be sure to include the following five logos on all of your posters for the lovely friends who help the venue out now and again.
Rules of Exchange bookings
After a great deal of deliberation, debate, and experience in handling double-bookings and tight calendars, the Exchange Collective recently settled on a set of rules regarding regular bookings in the space.
Due to a huge demand on time and space in the calendar, these should serve to ensure the space remains as open as possible to new things, and that everyone who wishes to run events in the space gets an equitable opportunity to do so regardless of how busy the schedule gets. The new rules are as follows:
- Perpetual bookings are not made initially for a new group/event. If you wish to book a regular event, it must run for a set period to start with. If after that things are going well and you want to continue (and hopefully they are and you do), then it goes back to collective for an extension – just like Milk and Cookies, Exchange Focus, Sacred Harp, Worksearch, Tango and the Exchange Markets have before.
- Weekly bookings should ideally run for a period of one month/four weeks at a time – longer periods are at the discretion of the collective
- Fortnightly bookings should ideally run for two months/eight weeks at a time, etc. etc.
These rules are (like everything in Exchange Dublin) an experiment. Please do feel free to let Exchange know what you think!