Most venue shortlists are decided on plenary capacity and a photograph, then unravel on transfer legs and load-in. This matrix scores the twelve criteria that actually determine whether a Fiji event works, weighted so the deal-breakers cannot be outvoted by the nice-to-haves.
What are the twelve criteria?
Score each venue 0 to 5 on each line, multiply by the weight, and total. The weights below are a starting point - adjust them to your event, but do it once, before you look at any venue, not after.
| # | Criterion | Weight | What a 5 looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plenary capacity in your format | 5 | Publishes a banquet or theatre figure comfortably above your number, in one room |
| 2 | Breakout rooms | 4 | Enough named rooms, with published capacities, for your concurrent sessions |
| 3 | Sightlines | 3 | Pillar-free plenary, published as such |
| 4 | On-site rooms vs delegates | 5 | Houses the whole group without a second property |
| 5 | Transfer legs from NAN | 5 | One road leg. Two legs including a boat is a 2; a boat plus a tide window is a 1 |
| 6 | Wet-weather alternative | 5 | A named indoor room with a published seated capacity equal to your group |
| 7 | Banquet kitchen and offsite policy | 3 | Publishes per-head catering rates and permits offsite dining |
| 8 | In-house AV inventory | 4 | Enough in-country kit that nothing is flown in |
| 9 | Bandwidth for hybrid | 3 | Publishes a committed bandwidth figure, not a wifi claim |
| 10 | Load-in access | 2 | Ground-level dock, door height stated, no stairs or boat transfer for freight |
| 11 | Exclusivity | 3 | Publishes that only one event of your type runs at a time |
| 12 | Pricing transparency | 3 | Published rates, and tells you whether VAT and the Tourism Services Tax apply |
The three fives are deliberate. Capacity, accommodation and transfer legs are the lines on which a Fiji event most often fails, and a venue that scores 1 on any of them should not survive the shortlist no matter how well it does elsewhere. The wet-weather line is a five for the same reason - see the event risk assessment template.
How do you score the criteria Fiji venues do not publish?
Four of the twelve are routinely unpublished in Fiji: bandwidth, load-in detail, exclusivity and per-head catering. Score an unpublished criterion 0 until it is answered in writing, not 3 as a neutral placeholder.
That sounds harsh and it is the point. A venue that will not put its committed bandwidth in writing has told you something, and scoring it as average hides the information. In practice, asking the question usually produces the answer - and the speed of the reply is itself a data point about how the venue will behave in month ten.
What does a scored shortlist look like?
Here is the published evidence base for four Fiji venues on the three heaviest criteria. These are the operators' own figures, not estimates.
| Venue | Published plenary | On-site rooms | Transfer from NAN | Published rain plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheraton Fiji Golf & Beach Resort, ON Denarau Island | Golden Ballroom 300-800; adjacent Denarau Island Convention Centre to 1,600 | 297 | One road leg, about 10 km | Ballroom and convention centre |
| Shangri-La Yanuca Island, ON the Coral Coast | Ratu Makutu Events Centre up to 650 theatre; Davui Hall up to 400 | 443 | One road leg | Events centre |
| Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay, Nadi region | Grand Salon Ballroom 355 m², pillar-free, divisible into three salons; 300 banquet, 400 theatre | 250 | One road leg | Grand Salon |
| Sheraton Resort & Spa, Tokoriki Island, IN the Mamanucas | Turtle Ballroom up to 120; Lower Deck Infinity Pool 70 cocktail | 101 | Two legs - coach plus boat or helicopter | Turtle Ballroom |
Read the pattern rather than the winner. The three Viti Levu properties score highly on transfer legs because they are a single road movement from Nadi International. Tokoriki is a strong venue that loses points on criterion 5 for reasons it cannot change - and if your event is 80 incentive delegates rather than 400 conference delegates, that trade may be exactly right. The matrix is there to make the trade explicit, not to pick one answer.
Sheraton Tokoriki, incidentally, scores a rare 5 on criterion 12: it publishes catering rates of FJ$21 to FJ$188 per person, which is more transparency than most Fiji properties offer.
For venues outside the resort market - Vodafone Arena and the Japan-Pacific ICT Centre in Suva, or Nadi Event Centre - criterion 4 scores 0 by definition, because there are no rooms on site. That is not a fault; it means accommodation becomes a separate contract and criterion 5 has to be scored on the delegate shuttle, not the arrival transfer.
How should you weight for different event types?
Adjust before you score, and write down why.
- Association conference, 300+ - raise breakouts to 5 and bandwidth to 4. Plenary and accommodation stay at 5.
- Incentive, 50 to 120 - drop plenary to 2 and breakouts to 1; raise exclusivity to 5. The island properties start winning.
- Hybrid or broadcast - bandwidth to 5, load-in to 4, sightlines to 4.
- Board or executive retreat - exclusivity to 5, transfer legs to 3. A two-leg island transfer is acceptable for twelve people and unacceptable for 300.
- Government or sector event in Suva - transfer legs rescore entirely around Nausori rather than Nadi; see can you fly directly into Suva.
Next step
Score your shortlist before you run site inspections, then use the inspection to verify the lines you scored 0 on. Pair this with the site inspection checklist, price the winner through the Fiji event budget template, and issue the same criteria as your conference RFP so bidders answer the matrix rather than their marketing. The full capacity picture is in Fiji conference venues and capacity chart and on the capacity chart.
