Conference Venues

When planning a conference it’s vital to consider a few areas in order to find the right venue for your needs, otherwise you could end up in a room that squeezes you in like tinned sardines, with no natural daylight and way over your budget! Follow our top tips below in order to find the conference venue of your dreams! 

Type of Meeting

It’s important to consider just why you are are holding the conference and what your objectives are. Perhaps you are holding a conference with various key speakers and presentations, therefore finding a conference room with the following should tick your boxes:

• Natural daylight and air conditioning for those hours spent in the meeting room
• Clear line of vision to the screens displaying the presentations, so that nobody misses out on what’s being discussed
• A high quality AV set, ensuring that no matter where you are seated, you are able to see and hear the presentation on screen
• Plenty of space in the meeting room between tables and around the tables, therefore maximising guest comfort

  Location

Once you’ve established just what your conference is for, you can now narrow down the best location for your event. This is such an important factor to the planning process of any event, as it can make or break event attendance, key points to consider are:

• Access – is there an airport close to the hotel for guests flying in? what are the motorway links like? Is parking available onsite and what’s the cost of this?
• Capacity – How big is the hotel? Can it cater for the size of your group realistically?
• Wow Venue? – Is the venue new? Unique? Or been in the news lately? This can be a real pull when it comes to attendance, so is definitely something to consider

  The Cost

It’s important when looking for your conference venue to consider your budget, and stick to it!! It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting the glitz and glamour of a 5 star, but at the same time it’s vital to be realistic!  

Facilities When looking for the perfect conference venue, it’s important to consider the facilities they offer within their conference rooms, this will also impact your budget, so checking the following may prove as a money saving God send!

• What AV does the room comes with? – Projectors, Screens? Flipcharts?
• Does the venue offer free unlimited WiFi access?
• Does the meeting room come with suitable light fittings, power points and unobstructed views?

These should all be part and parcel of any venue claiming to offer ‘dedicated meeting facilities’ but it’s always best to check before committing to a venue

  Food & Beverage

If your conference runs over a couple of days, it’s important to consider the menu they can offer your group and how varied this is. Also a lot of venues try to stand out from the crowd when it comes to the menus they offer with creative ways to cater to delegate needs, such as ‘power smoothies’ and ‘brain food’ a fun twist on the standard tea, coffee & homemade cookies! It’s also worth seeing if the hotel will offer you a tasting session. If you plan to have several meals onsite throughout your conference, it’s important to ensure you are happy with the standards they offer and also that they are well equipped for dietary requirements such as: allergies, vegetarian, gluten free and coeliac guests for example.

  Accommodation 

It’s important to consider not only the conference facilites for your event, but also if the venue offers accommodation. In order to make your delegate’s experience as comfortable and enjoyable as possible, it’s good to take note of where they will be travelling from, will they be flying in on an overnight flight, landing in the early hours of the morning? Offering bedrooms for people who would really benefit from a bed for the night in order to get the most out of the conference the next day, will not go unnoticed!

  Site Visit

Once all of the above points have been taken into consideration and you think you’ve found the perfect venue, it’s important to see if the venue will have you in for a site visit, before signing a contract, particularly if you’ve never visted the venue before. A site visit will enable you to gage the welcome you receive, as this is likely to be the same as your guest’s will get! You will also get to meet the team looking after you – are they enthusiastic, positive and knowledgable of the hotel? What is the meeting room like? Will it be big enough? Is the décor well maintained?   The above points should guide you in the right direction of your perfect conference venue so that you are able to offer delegates a conference that not only ticks the boxes in terms of content, meaning they will walk away more informed of the message you are trying to convey, but also that this was all held in the perfect setting, meaning each delegate got the very best out of the time spent at the conference.

Did we miss anything important in order to nail the perfect venue? Let us know below!