How to Choose a Location for a Conference

When you think of hosting a great conference, what locations come to your mind? A Grand Ball Room in a Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas? An outdoor quad in a Palm Springs resort? Anything Disney? How about a smaller, unique city like Saratoga Springs?

Although each of the above locations offers their own unique benefits to hosting a meeting, starting out with the host city and venue in mind is not usually the best way to decide on the place. There are plenty of variables to consider before you make a decision.

For location, your first step is usually to narrow down your search by city. You’ll need to make sure that the city can offer conference attendees an experience that is hassle-free, offers some level of entertainment, and is affordable within their means. Cities like Las Vegas and Orlando end up being ideal settings for meetings not because of all the excitement each city has to offer (although that can play a part in a decision). They work out because they are built to host and service guests.

First and foremost, a good host city will be one that people will want to attend a conference in. You must think of target list for attendees and decide what locations they would be interested in. Some groups enjoy big cities, while others may be more interested in more secluded locations. A quick survey to your target may help direct this part of the search. Next, the city should be relatively easy and inexpensive to get to. In today’s climate this typically means that attendees should be able to fly easily in and out of a city, as well as travel within the city once they get there. Although a location may be real desirable for some attendees, if they do not have the means to pay for the trip, or afford to get around once they are there, that part of your audience will not be able to attend.

Also make sure that the city has enough rooms, restaurants, and other businesses to meet the needs of your attendees. It would be a shame for your event to be under-attended because a segment of the audience could only find rooms 10 miles or more away from the event center. This not only hurts the event in the current year, but those attendees that couldn’t make it have a bad taste in their mouth, and those that did make it may wonder why others don’t think the meeting is important enough to attend.

Keep in mind that just because a meeting was a hit in a city one time, this does not guarantee that it will be a hit if the next meeting is held there. You should take note of variables that may have made it a hit – like a place that many attendees had never been before, time of year the conference is held, guest speakers, etc. Do a little research to see if it may make sense to rotate that location into the mix, without having it there permanently.

Once you have nailed down the city it’s time to look at venues. Remember that the most well-known venue in a city isn’t necessarily the place that will most help your meeting be a success. Make sure to look around to see which locations offer the amenities to achieve the conference goals. Questions to ask include:

- How does this location make my organization look?
- Will this location give me all the time we need?
- Is there onsite dining?
- Does public transportation run to the location?

Once you have narrowed down the locations that meet the conference needs, you can start leveraging them against each other in order to get the best rates. But that’s a topic for another discussion.

One last bit of advice. For both the city and venue, always take the time to see them in action before committing to anything. Visit them during their peak seasons to make sure they can appropriately accommodate your group for your event. This has the opportunity to offer you either piece of mind or a chance to get out before you are in to deep.

If you have any questions regarding locations for your next event or meeting, please contact us at [email protected]