Conference Venues
Conference organisers are not as many people think always specialists members of staff recruited to fulfil the role of organising company events. Indeed in many cases it is often a role that is simply part of their normal job. People who commonly get involved in these conferences are PA’s, Secretaries and HR Staff to mention just a few.
Naturally when it comes to finding conference venues people who have no experience in selecting them can find this task difficult..
There are many tools that people can use when looking for conference venues and below are a few ideas.
The Internet
The Internet has a variety of tools that can help even the most experienced event organiser. Indeed many people wonder how suitable conference venues were ever found without it! The basic tools are simple search engines however the results from these will depend on the search term you use. The results are often not what you would expect and indeed many conference venues that may be just what you are looking for are often not listed unless you type in their specific name.
There are many websites that represent several venues of a specific type. A good example of this is www.avonvenue.com who represent many conference venues from the local area and allow you to enquire directly to the venue of to use the conference venue finding service. If you are looking for something different then www.funkyvenues.com provides a selection of venues from church to underground dungeons. Finally, many PA’s recommend the use of Johansens online directory for finding the perfect conference venue whether you are looking for a small boardroom of a large country house for your AGM. Visit www.johansens.com and get searching.
Finally, there are specialist sites that enable you to search for a selection of suitable venues based on your search criteria the most advanced of these is www.click4venues.com. One criticism of this type of site is that they only show you venues that have paid to be included and they include more information on certain venues than others, in some cases the information included is useless and no help at all. We are still waiting for a complete online search director that has every UK conference venue included.
Directories
Before the birth of the internet directories were a conference organisers main source of assistance. The main directories are ‘Conference Blue and Green’ the ‘Venue Directory, both can now be searched online, but the information on the conference venues in the printed versions or indeed on the interactive CD versions is more complete and easier to use.
Venue Finding Agencies
Why search yourself when you can get someone to do the searching for you? Venue Finding agencies offer a free service to anyone needing a conference venue and the results that they provide will save you time contacting the venues yourself and indeed many agencies operate very sophisticated search tools that will enable you to get a real feel for the venues they are offering.
There are 100’s of agencies in the UK and the best way to ensure you are using a reputable one is to use one that has achieved AIM – Accredited In Meetings status with the Meetings Industry Association - www.mia-uk.org. These agencies adhere to code of conduct and have been assessed in their ability to deliver suitable conference venue options for 3 rd party clients.
Hopefully, by using a variety of the tools above you will be able to find the perfect conference venue for your event no matter what the requirements or budget and what is often a difficult task should be far more simple.
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