Park Crescent Conference Centre London Interview with Meetingsbooker
(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, February 17, 2014 ) London, UK -- The biggest disaster that can hit a conference is size limitation. If more people turn up than there are seats or square metres, this will result in a poor time for attendees and no matter how good the content of a conference is, the message won't get across.
According to Ms West of Park Crescent Conference Centre, conference organisers can stop this from happening simply by booking a conference venue that's larger than they need. "A lot of conference organisers make the mistake of booking a venue that 'just fits' everybody in. The problem with this is that there's very little lee-way with regard to extra guests. Organisers can safe guard themselves simply by booking a venue in excess of what they need".
A clear example of a conference that gets the size of its venue right is the IFA Consumer Electronics Conference. In 2011 this conference featured 1,140 exhibitors and more than 230,000 visitors. They booked a venue that was in excess of 4000 square metres. Only 3500 square metres were needed.
In a piece for How To, Peter Jeffries says "Obviously you need a venue large enough to hold all your attendees, but think of it from the other direction as well. Hiring a cavernous venue for only 15 people is not only a waste of money, but is likely to make the attendees feel uncomfortable and devalued."
What Jeffries means is that it's important to hire a venue large enough for guests, but it's also critical to choose a venue that is not going to alienate visitors. Ms West thinks that size should be the biggest determining factor in venue choice "Look at it this way - if you book a venue with space for 50 people and 60 people turn up, you are going to have to be either exceptional at improvising or turn people away. The latter is something that any organiser should never have to face."
Preparation is key to choosing the right size venue. According to Business Events Sydney, one of the biggest mistakes made is planning the conference before preparing for it "One of the most frequent mistakes made by new event and conference planners is to launch into the ‘planning’ before they’ve done the ‘preparation’, leaving themselves vulnerable to budget blowouts, double-booking, lost tasks and mixed messages."
'About' section: Park Crescent Conference Centre is a great conference venue, located opposite Regents Park. It is ideally suited for conferences, exhibitions and training.
