7 mistakes to avoid when planning a conference

Monday 18 November 2019

On the lead up to an large event, specifically a conference or exhibition, there are so many elements to consider. Regardless of the amount of experience you may have, or the hours of relentless planning that have gone into an event, you may have overlooked these surprisingly common mistakes...

Here are Venue Search London’s 7 scenarios to AVOID when holding your next  London Conference or exhibition:

1. Poor time-keeping - Sessions overrunning can put your whole conference or exhibition out of whack. This is particularly problematic if you have paid speakers as they may have a strict schedule and may end up not getting their full session time, annoying both the speaker and delegates.

2. Unclear signage – This might seem obvious but is very make sure you have clear signage and plenty of it around your conference venue. Otherwise a whole room could be missed by delegates which will be detrimental to re-booking the exhibitors in that room the next year.

3. Parking fines- there are usually a lot of people and suppliers involved who will be wanting to make drop-offs. If your conference or exhibition is taking place in a London conference venue or in another major city then there are often lots of rules about drop offs and parking, make sure you know what the rules are surrounding your venue and relay this to suppliers in order to avoid fines!

4. Lack of seating – Something that is essential for the guest experience is seating. If you don’t have enough spaces for people to relax delegates will not stay at your event very long.

5. No water – In this day and age it is essential to offer free water filling stations. Delegates will be walking around for a number of hours so offering free water refilling stations is something we always offer at our events, plus this is better for the environment than supplying plastic bottled water.

6. Hidden charges - When booking a London conference venue, it is important to understand all of the costs that will go into your event. Ask questions about AV, security, cloakroom, catering and service charge!

7. Cutting out the experts - free venue finding services can often take a lot of pressure off, as well as saving you time and money. They are experts in their field, know about the latest special offers and can often negotiate better rates based on the volume of business they place within London Conference Venues.

 Venue Search London are an unbiased team of London experts, on receiving your initial brief we will give you a call to discuss your exact requirements before following up with a venue shortlist within a few hours. 

If you’re looking for your next Conference Venue or have any other venue enquiry, pop us an email to hello@venuesearchlondon.com or complete our online enquiry form for a chat about your event brief.