Top tips for hosting a business conference

It can be too easy to perceive business conferences as necessarily dull. The mere mention of a networking event could bring to mind suited, stone-faced professionals listening to successive hours of presentations, taking just brief breaks at a nearby bar. However, while a conference is indeed primarily intended for sharing information, that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Here is how you can ensure that, under your watch, a corporate conference is both fun and informative.

Consider various factors when choosing a venue

The venue that you choose can be fundamental to the conference’s success; therefore, it’s worth taking your time to consider a wealth of factors before you make a concrete decision (and you might even want to work with someone like these professional conference organisers london to make sure every aspect of this conference is as thought-out as possible). Your choice of venue can give your company a lot of coveted credibility in the eyes of the attendees. After all, these people will not have the most positive first impression if they have to walk down a run-down street before noticing that the venue is an eyesore building with flaking paint.

Nonetheless, you should also consider more dry and practical concerns. A quiet and peaceful setting, like the location of the Evesham-based The Wood Norton hotel in Worcestershire, will better enable the attendees to focus their minds on corporate matters – and this, in turn, can maximise their productivity. It’s also a good idea to choose somewhere close to a major city, as it will make it easier for the guests to make their way to the venue. The Wood Norton, for example, lies just 30 miles south of Birmingham and 90 minutes from London by car or train.

Choose a meeting room of a suitable size

Meeting rooms come in various sizes, and you could too easily underestimate how vital it is to choose the right size. As SmallBusiness.co.uk explains, should the room be too small, it could make your guests sweat and uncomfortable; an overly large room, on the other hand, will give the unflattering impression that half of the delegates failed to make it to the event.

To increase the likelihood of your choice of meeting room hitting the sweet spot, you should discern how many delegates are expected to attend and what kinds of equipment will be used. Once you have decided on a venue, you can pass this information onto its staff, who can then do what they can to match you with a meeting room that will suitably accommodate everything you want it to.

Keep the schedule tight but varied

This entails making sure that everything stays on schedule, with lectures and presentations not running over. However, it also means injecting an appreciable degree of variety into the program, as repeatedly going from one presentation or lecture to another can be mentally wearing. So, spread out information sessions throughout the day, freeing up time for lighter activities. This is advice put forward by Noobpreneur.com owner Ivan Widjaya in an article for Biz Penguin. Also, you should communicate both the program and leisure time options well ahead of the conference’s start.