Finding the right conference venue is one of the many components that event organizers need to think about to ensure that their attendees have a positive, memorable experience. The list is long. There is the program and speaker selection. There is the marketing side: website design, registration set-up, media partnerships, etc.
Operations managers tend to be the unsung heroes of event management. They make sure that all the logistics come together just right: the venue, the location, the AV, visa management, travel arrangements, and many more items on their to-do list. The irony is that when they organize everything perfectly, attendees rarely notice. It is when there is a glitch, a faux pas that their role comes under scrutiny. After all, nobody is going to praise organizers for coffee breaks being catered on time. However, many will feel like their experience was negatively impacted if there is no coffee to begin with.
So today, let’s discuss one of the most impactful aspects of event management: selecting the conference venue. Here is your step-by-step guide
Conference Venue 101: The Location
First things first. There is no venue discussion until the country and city get finalized. A lot of factors go into the decision-making process at this stage:
- Which city is connected well enough to make it easy for the participants from various countries to attend?
- What are the prices like in this city/country? Daily delegate rates vary greatly from country to country.
- How desired is the location from the tourism perspective? Attendees want to combine the experience of learning and participating in an academic conference with the excitement of exploring a new city.
- How feasible is it for the attendees who require a visa to obtain one?
- Is the country/city safe?
- Are there any other major events happening that may pose a problem? It could be a large music festival, a world sporting competition, etc.
Once organizers answer all these questions, they can narrow down their search and focus on the conference venues.
8 Tips for Evaluating a Conference Venue
1. Venue Size
Different academic conferences have different size requirements. Is it a smaller conference for 50-100 people? Is it a mid-size event for 200-400 participants? It’s important to find a conference venue that matches attendance expectations.
The trick with estimating the size needs is hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. That means the space should be large enough to accommodate more people than planned (up to 10-15% more) yet not look empty if the attendance rate is lower than planned.
2. Program Needs
The next item on the checklist is to determine the needs of the agenda. Is it a single-stream event, or are there breakout sessions? This will help determine the number of rooms a venue should have. Will there be many exhibitors and/or poster presenters? This means the networking/coffee break area should be spacious.
Additionally, organizers should consider the flow of the event. It should be easy to move in between the spaces. Furthermore, the flow should facilitate networking and socializing.
Finally, what set-up does a conference require? For example, a classroom-style room set-up can accommodate more participants than a boardroom-style setup yet not as many as a theater-style arrangement.
3. Ease of Access
While it is not always feasible to host a conference in a downtown/central location, organizers should still consider a venue’s ease of access. Ideally, it would be well-connected to the rest of the city via public transport.
A popular alternative is an airport hotel venue. Airport hotels work primarily for conferences where most of the attendees are expected to come from outside of the host city and travel by airplane. However, organizers should be cautious when planning an airport-adjacent hotel as a conference venue. They tend to be located far away from cities’ downtown areas, which means the attendees will have to deal with the inconvenience of traveling to explore the city.
4. Accessibility
Academic events, by definition, attract a diverse group of people. As such, it is important for organizers to discuss with the venue potential accessibility needs.
For example, if participation in the event and social activities requires moving from one floor to another, is there an elevator? Are various rooms, parking, and the entrance to the venue wheelchair-accessible?
5. Daily Delegate Rate and Other Fees
Every event organizer works with a budget. The daily delegate rate (DDR) – the fee a venue charges for each delegate and includes room access, coffee breaks, lunch, etc. – can vary drastically among venues.
There are other fees for organizers to consider:
- Audio-visual equipment
- Drinks (most of the time, organizers need to negotiate alcohol drinks separately from the DDR)
- Pre-event set-up
- Additional assistance and personnel – e.g., an on-site technician
- Signage throughout the conference venue
- A cloakroom
Luckily, academic conferences can also consider academic institutions as their venue. Typically, it’s local universities. Such venues tend to have a variety of room options. As institutions of higher learning, they also provide a perfect backdrop for academic events.
6. Conference Venue Catering
No conference organizer wants their guests to go hungry. Academic events tend to be all-day type of affairs. Therefore, it is important to pay special attention to the catering options a venue offers.
For example, are there vegetarian and vegan options available? To that end, how long in advance does the venue ask to be notified of such preferences? What about the participants with other dietary requirements or allergies? Can the venue accommodate such requests and guarantee no cross-contamination?
Poor catering can ruin the experience of attendees, even if the learning side of the conference is executed impeccably.
7. Communication and Responsiveness
Event organizers can tell a lot about the venue by how communicative its representatives are during the inquiry stage. For example, if it takes days to receive a quote or get various questions answered, chances are that this is how communication will continue once the planning of the conference starts.
The venue staff knows the possibilities and limitations of their space the best. They should act as advisors, invested in the success of the event organizer’s conference. Knowledgeable staff will provide advice based on the many other events they hosted at their location.
The reality of planning and organizing events is that no matter how meticulous and prepared the organizers are, unexpected things come up. For example, a microphone stops working, snacks run out, a breakout session runs long creating a delay in the overall program – there are dozens of small and large things that can go wrong. An experienced conference organizer knows how to minimize these risks. However, it is exponentially more difficult to seamlessly resolve unexpected hiccups when the venue staff doesn’t cooperate.
8. Conference Venue Style and Atmosphere
The “vibe” of a venue is an important aspect to consider. For example, events around technology and innovation are better served by sleek, contemporary venues. It’s much more in-tune with the program and the attendees’ profiles to host it in a space that feels airy, has glass features, etc.
On the other hand, a conference for the legal industry may call for a more conservative, traditional atmosphere. Leather chairs and wooden accents, white tablecloth and exquisite exterior and interior architecture.
Now that we’ve provided a checklist of factors to consider when evaluating conference venue, here is a bonus tip: start your search on venue aggregator sites – e.g., Venuu.com – but don’t limit yourself to them. Such aggregators may either not have all the possible venues or their data might be outdated. However, they do offer a solid place to start to benchmark prices, space possibilities, and locations.
We wish you the best of luck on your search for the perfect conference venue!
Â
0 Comments