The fact that there are numerous Business conference centres spread across the United Kingdom doesn’t make choosing the right venue for your conference any easier. You have many considerations to make before settling on the best choice. You need to do a thorough research on what is on offer, in terms of meeting rooms and conference facilities, in various venues that are available for hire, before making your final decision. The following are some tips on how to settle on an appropriate venue for a business conference.
- Location
This is one of the most important considerations since it will not only determine the attendance but also the mood of the conference. If you want a low key and formal function; choose a laid-back and casual location. However, if you are organising a high octane conference whereby you want all participants to be highly charged; choose a location whose surroundings inspire excitement and motivation. Above all, the venue should be easily accessible to all the participants who are attending the conference.
2. Check out the Available Facilities
This will depend on the kind of conference that you are organising. For your conference to be successful, you need to ensure that the venue you have booked has all the right facilities that you require. Some of the common conference facilities for most meetings include strategically located electrical outlets, projection screens, sufficient lighting, LCD Televisions, and public address. The worst mistake you can make is to book a venue before verifying that all the important facilities needed for your conference are available. It would be advisable to have a checklist of all that you need for speeches, presentations and demonstrations during your conference, and tick each item one by one beforehand.
3. Check out the Cost
It is important to have a tentative budget that you want to work with right from the beginning. This will enable you to stick to what is affordable to you and avoid overstretching your budget. However, this shouldn’t mean that you go for the cheapest venue in town since cheap can sometimes turn out to be really expensive. The idea here is to ensure that you get value for your money by getting the best services within your means. When checking out the cost, you also need to inquire about the refund policy of the venue. This comes in handy in the event that you are forced to cancel your conference. Some venues are known to only make partial refunds. You also need to know whether an upfront deposit is needed and if so, when the remaining payment needs to be made.
4. Confirm the Venue’s Availability
Some venues are always fully booked. Therefore, it is always important to carefully check out which of your favourite venues will be available at the exact date when your conference will be taking place. Also, in case you might need to change dates of your conference, you need to know what their policy about the same is, well in advance.
5. Visit the venue
Finally, after choosing your venue, it is imperative to make a physical tour of the place a few days to the conference. This will enable you to confirm whether all the necessary facilities and amenities are available. You will also get a chance to assess how the venue workers treat clients.
