Thinking of Hosting a Small Car Meet and Looking for Advice

[Reubensmith]

I'm looking at organising a small car meet on a Saturday morning this summer in the Peak District. I’ve got a potential venue — a pub in Hope with a decent-sized car park that would be ideal and would look great for photos.

The only catch is that they won’t start serving coffee until around 11:30, and by that point they’d probably want the car park cleared for regular customers, so there wouldn’t be anything available in terms of food or drink during the meet itself.

I’ve never organised anything like this before, and I’m only 16, so I’m aware there might be a few complications. It’d be a free event — mainly just to see what interesting stuff turns up, nothing over the top.

I had a few questions:

Would something like this require public liability insurance, or is that more for large or ticketed events?

Do I need to do a risk assessment, even for a small casual meet like this?

Has anyone had experience running meets at pubs or similar venues — anything I should be aware of?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Reuben

[xx99xx]

Have you spoken to the pub to:

A) get their permission

And, if they agree...

B) ask if they'll open a bit earlier to serve food and drink?

[Reubensmith]

xx99xx said:

Have you spoken to the pub to:

A) get their permission

And, if they agree...

B) ask if they'll open a bit earlier to serve food and drink?

Hi,

Yes they are happy for me to have the car meet there - 'You would be welcome to gather in the car park for photos and meet up on either the Saturday or Sunday morning'

But unfortunately no they aren't up for opening early - which isn't ideal really.
'Sorry we can’t do the breakfasts as we will be serving to residents and then have to turn the kitchen round for lunch service'

I'm mainly seeing if there's anything I need to do as an 'organiser' to make sure all will go smoothly. Even though there's no coffee, I still think I can get a good turnout

Thanks for your response

[pidsy]

Ask if they’ll mind you getting a coffee van along till 11.30?

[CoreyDog]

Reubensmith said:

I'm looking at organising a small car meet on a Saturday morning this summer in the Peak District. I ve got a potential venue a pub in Hope with a decent-sized car park that would be ideal and would look great for photos.

The only catch is that they won t start serving coffee until around 11:30, and by that point they d probably want the car park cleared for regular customers, so there wouldn t be anything available in terms of food or drink during the meet itself.

I ve never organised anything like this before, and I m only 16, so I m aware there might be a few complications. It d be a free event mainly just to see what interesting stuff turns up, nothing over the top.

I had a few questions:

Would something like this require public liability insurance, or is that more for large or ticketed events?

Do I need to do a risk assessment, even for a small casual meet like this?

Has anyone had experience running meets at pubs or similar venues anything I should be aware of?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Reuben

If it s a public event that you will be advertising and encouraging members of the public to attend, you will need Liability Insurance and to do all the relevant risk assessments.

Don t let that put you off too much though, my business exhibits several times per year at events at the NEC, risk assessments takes me about 15 minutes and our PLI is £65 a year though since it involves cars, may be looking at higher figures.

I suspect I know which place you mean (Peaks is a regular run on the motorbike) and certainly worth a chat with them about opening early and giving them an indication of numbers expected and the potential revenue for them. It will be dependant though on the type of vehicles and owners you intend to attract, classic cars, win! Loud daft Audis with pops and bangs and young lads in baseball caps . Probably not.

If you get it off the ground, let me know, will take a run up on the bike.

EDIT:-

Seen you have a post about the opening of the pub etc whilst I was typing so feel free to disregard.

[trashbat]

I see it's free, but is there any other benefit or perceiveable benefit to you, like self-promotion or publicity or anything?

Not a lawyer, but AIUI: if organising anything, you do have some potential liability, but as a purely private individual it is more likely to be in the realms of whether you behaved reasonably; however this obligation goes up significantly if what you're doing is in any way commercial or for reward, which doesn't necessarily just mean money. Same to some extent if it's for any organised entity, like a club.

[Reubensmith]

pidsy said:

Ask if they ll mind you getting a coffee van along till 11.30?

I've thought about this but I don't know if there would be enough people to justify the coffee van - I might try to reach out to a few and see what they think, its definitely an option. The car park has about 45 spaces and I'm thinking I could get at least 20 people

[Reubensmith]

trashbat said:

I see it's free, but is there any other benefit or perceiveable benefit to you, like self-promotion or publicity or anything?

Not a lawyer, but AIUI: if organising anything, you do have some potential liability, but as a purely private individual it is more likely to be in the realms of whether you behaved reasonably; however this obligation goes up significantly if what you're doing is in any way commercial or for reward, which doesn't necessarily just mean money. Same to some extent if it's for any organised entity, like a club.

I probably should have included that in the initial post. I'm a car photographer so it would be good for meeting new owners, and I can invite owners who I already know - might even be able to get cars like a McLaren Senna or Aventador SV to come. No monetary gain I just think it would be a good thing to do, and it might be a good start to organising ticketed events later on - which I'd love to do eventually.

[Reubensmith]

CoreyDog said:

If it s a public event that you will be advertising and encouraging members of the public to attend, you will need Liability Insurance and to do all the relevant risk assessments.

Don t let that put you off too much though, my business exhibits several times per year at events at the NEC, risk assessments takes me about 15 minutes and our PLI is £65 a year though since it involves cars, may be looking at higher figures.

I suspect I know which place you mean (Peaks is a regular run on the motorbike) and certainly worth a chat with them about opening early and giving them an indication of numbers expected and the potential revenue for them. It will be dependant though on the type of vehicles and owners you intend to attract, classic cars, win! Loud daft Audis with pops and bangs and young lads in baseball caps . Probably not.

If you get it off the ground, let me know, will take a run up on the bike.

EDIT:-

Seen you have a post about the opening of the pub etc whilst I was typing so feel free to disregard.

Thanks for the response. I'll take a look into it, it might not be possible since I'm 16, I was looking at public liability to sign up to be a photographer for some events, but you have to be 18. I thought I might be able to persuade them into opening early but not really worked. I'm mainly trying to target it to supercar and classic car owners to avoid the boy racers, and try to keep it invite-only. Since I'm a photographer I know quite a few owners, which would be a good start. Thanks

[CoreyDog]

Reubensmith said:

Thanks for the response. I'll take a look into it, it might not be possible since I'm 16, I was looking at public liability to sign up to be a photographer for some events, but you have to be 18. I thought I might be able to persuade them into opening early but not really worked. I'm mainly trying to target it to supercar and classic car owners to avoid the boy racers, and try to keep it invite-only. Since I'm a photographer I know quite a few owners, which would be a good start. Thanks

The Public Liability insurance doesn’t necessarily have to be in your name, we alternate ours between me and my wife dependant on who draw the short straw and is organising it! They are more interested in the “Business name” that is applying, they will ask for a “designated supervisor” though which could be a tricky area at 16, the designated supervisor is responsible on-site for the duration of the event and is in charge of the health and safety aspects.

If you can some how navigate that though, don’t let the risk assessment put you off, it’s all really common sense stuff and can find templates on the web, can even ask AI to write it these days provided give it the information.

Great idea though and I really hope you can pull it off.

[2172cc]

I had given some consideration to doing something similar in the past but quickly gave up on the idea once I looked into it further. In my case it would have been aimed mainly at classics but the main priorities would have been plenty of easy parking and decent coffee/breakfast facilities but also hoping to attract the sort of more mature drivers that wouldn't be causing any sort of anti social issues.
I found suitable locations but in the end wasn't worth it for me to put myself forward but seemed easier to just tag along to existing meets.
If your looking at attracting supercars and modified moderns then it could start to get out of hand especially if enthusiastic drive aways are encouraged for photo opportunities which could mean you start to get complaints from the locals.
Hopefully someone else on here with more practicable experience can give you some better advice

[ScoobyChris]

Guess it might depend on the purpose of the event as to whether you need insurance. My experience is that I used to organise driving days which were basically suggested routes based around a Premier Inn/Brewers Fayre. Format was we meet up first thing for breakfast/coffee then paired up and went driving for the morning, had lunch as a group, then went with different pairs in the afternoon for a drive, meeting up again as a group in the evening. Some had dinner and further drives. The day was very much a meeting of friends rather than an event and everyone was well behaved and respectful.

Gave the pub a headsup beforehand to ask them/let them know and they were very welcoming/accommodating.

Chris

[nvubu]

2172cc said:

I had given some consideration to doing something similar in the past but quickly gave up on the idea once I looked into it further. In my case it would have been aimed mainly at classics but the main priorities would have been plenty of easy parking and decent coffee/breakfast facilities but also hoping to attract the sort of more mature drivers that wouldn't be causing any sort of anti social issues.
I found suitable locations but in the end wasn't worth it for me to put myself forward but seemed easier to just tag along to existing meets.
If your looking at attracting supercars and modified moderns then it could start to get out of hand especially if enthusiastic drive aways are encouraged for photo opportunities which could mean you start to get complaints from the locals.
Hopefully someone else on here with more practicable experience can give you some better advice

I organise a monthly breakfast meet for a one-make forum club. I find a pub/venue (must have a decent car park) that serves a Sunday breakfast at the latest from 9am and make a booking for 10-15 people - and I confirm the numbers on the Friday before. I stick a post up on the forum with the date & venue and ask people to say if they are coming.

It is basically a group of friends meeting up for breakfast - nothing else required.

I've quoted 2172cc as he would be more than welcome to join us as he is in the same area - PM me if interested.

[trashbat]

Reubensmith said:

I probably should have included that in the initial post. I'm a car photographer so it would be good for meeting new owners, and I can invite owners who I already know - might even be able to get cars like a McLaren Senna or Aventador SV to come. No monetary gain I just think it would be a good thing to do, and it might be a good start to organising ticketed events later on - which I'd love to do eventually.

OK. You as casual organiser who happens to take photos is quite different from you as an official organiser who produces tickets. You might be better served by staying towards the former.

I don't want to be excessive but at least as a thought exercise, consider the worst case scenario. One of your invitees drives carelessly or dangerously and kills an uninvolved member of the public on the public road. As the person that set the surrounding event in motion, did you behave reasonably and could you have reasonably predicted the problem? The likes of risk assessments are just a formalisation of that thinking. Remember that for every driving offence there is an "aiding and abetting" counterpart, and then other broader offences relating to negligence. Plus the non-legal consequences of how you feel about it and carry that with you.

Practical advice would be that any organiser in your position should do their best to set/remind of sensible behavioural expectations amongst attendees, and encourage individual responsibility (e.g. don't race, don't travel in convoy, overtake on your own terms). But to be frank, this is somewhat difficult for you at 16, just because you probably haven't got that experience of risk management or events turning questionable. That's not a problem in itself, and it probably reduces the expectations on you. Just be careful to tread a reasonable line for your own protection and wellbeing.

[sospan]

I am sec of a Morgan local club. We hold monthly meets organised ourselves and open to Morgan Spirts Car Club (MSCC) members from anywhere and advertised in the club monthly magazine.
We are covered by the MSCC insurance for members ( a few exceptions for passengers/non members). These are purely social meets. If an event is deemed not just social then it gets covered by Motor Sports Permit rules. A yrack day for example.
Outside of these, groups of friends often join up for trips. I go to Scotland annually, twice this year in a small group. We keep in touch with Whatsapp. Possibly Sweden next year for a Swedish Centre anniversary event.
The Club is a global one so we can contact club centres in many countries for advice etc.
The club use a commercial company for many tours globally.
One of our local members is s3c of Bentley owners too and I popped along to one event he organised locally.

[alscar]

From experience as both organiser and attendee KISS principles should apply.
Better to keep informal as has been said but its the venue choice that's equally as important.
Try and find a pub that is happy to be open and serve coffees or something fuller then your " invites " can be tailored accordingly.
For 20 cars this should be relatively easy but obviously "warn " the venue it could be more.

[RenPug]

Reubensmith said:

I'm looking at organising a small car meet on a Saturday morning this summer in the Peak District. I ve got a potential venue a pub in Hope with a decent-sized car park that would be ideal and would look great for photos.

The only catch is that they won t start serving coffee until around 11:30, and by that point they d probably want the car park cleared for regular customers, so there wouldn t be anything available in terms of food or drink during the meet itself.

I ve never organised anything like this before, and I m only 16, so I m aware there might be a few complications. It d be a free event mainly just to see what interesting stuff turns up, nothing over the top.

I had a few questions:

Would something like this require public liability insurance, or is that more for large or ticketed events?

Do I need to do a risk assessment, even for a small casual meet like this?

Has anyone had experience running meets at pubs or similar venues anything I should be aware of?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Reuben

Can't help with the details on arranging a meet however seeing you're in Sheffield i thought I'd mentioned a monthly meet that might interest you, usually quite a varied turn out. Check out YumCars in Dinnington social media pages, next one should be beginning of July.

[2172cc]

nvubu said:

I've quoted 2172cc as he would be more than welcome to join us as he is in the same area - PM me if interested.

I may do that once I've sorted a few niggly bits on my car that I've been putting off for ages.

[toddygti]

If you're looking to host in Hope, then speak to Ed in £The Bike and Boot", he runs passion for petrol on youtube/instagram and has a heavily spec'd Polo GTI. They're open for coffee etc from 0800 and will likely be happy to host if you go through him.