For a conference event to go smoothly and pleasantly for everyone involved you have to consider many factors and do your homework properly. After all, if something goes wrong, your reputation is on the line, not to mention any business you are involved with. How could people trust you to run a business if you can’t even run a conference event to everyone’s satisfaction?
Know Your Attendees
Before doing anything else, create a list of all the attendees. Most importantly, make sure you are aware of their financial means, the distance they have to travel, and how will they travel it – by air or land?
These considerations are important in order not to overburden the conference attendees and make sure that the conference venue is in a suitable location. It also reduces the chance of them not showing up in the first place, due to too much inconvenience. You will find that using an Excel spreadsheet to create a couple of column categories next to each attendee’s name will be extremely helpful to hone the right conference venue location.
Selecting the Right Location
Once you have a good idea about the bulk of your conference attendees, it’s time to choose the actual venue based on their general characteristics. Is the location close to an airport, and if not, is there an affordable shuttle? Is there ample parking lot space and access to the venue? Are there cheap rentable spaces in near vicinity, like hotels or motels? Are there VIP 5-star hotels in the vicinity? Does the conference venue have extra amenities like a bar or a pool?
If you have done your homework in the previous step then determining the right location will become easy.
Zooming in on the Conference Venue
Finally, if you have thoroughly followed through the previous two steps, you have equipped yourself with the right knowledge to choose the most appropriate conference venue.
At this point, it will all come to balancing your budget between the attendee’s needs and the cost of the venue. Of course, if you need to hire extra staff, for security or catering, it will cost you more in addition to renting the space itself.
The best way to go about it is to use an aggregate search tool. One such excellent tool as Venue Finder which has all kinds of options for your event.
For example, if you search for Manchester conference venues, you will be able to narrow the search down across many categories, covering all the factors previously mentioned.
Additionally, each venue is aptly described and photographed, so you will have an accurate idea if it fits your conference needs.
Final Words
With all said and done, the most convenient conference venue will be the one that offers a full package; room & board, a bar or café, entertainment centre, smaller meeting rooms for business networking, high-speed internet availability throughout the entire building, etc. etc.
Certainly, the modern age of technology and competition has removed these features from being relegated to the luxurious category, so it would be a shame to not treat your guests accordingly. As their enjoyment of the event rises, so will your standing as well.
