When you’re running a meeting, one of the most important things you can do is get the right venue. Whether you’re trying to impress a potential client with a pitch, make sure your team understands the importance of what you have to say, or simply make a splash in a new company, it can help to take your meeting out of the office and find a nearby venue that provides everything you need. This can also be a good tactic if you’re dealing with sensitive news and need neutral territory to avoid heated emotional reactions.
The most important thing when you’re choosing an outside venue is to make sure it has all the facilities you need. You need to think carefully before committing yourself to make sure you’re getting when you really need from your meeting venue. Using a company like VenueScanner means you can filter for size and the available facilities and makes generating a shortlist that much easier.
For pitches or client meetings, you need to consider not just your own needs, but what they will bring to the table. You’ll likely need at least a screen and some multimedia connections to deliver your presentation, as well as the appropriate capacity for all your guests. Depending on who you’re pitching too, you might want to consider some additions as well: if you have a long meeting instore, onsite catering might help to make your client’s mind up, for example!
It’s worth thinking carefully about this, however. If you’re pitching yourself as a prestige service, it only helps your case to be able to present opulent venues with tea, coffee and food on-hand. If you’re trying to win a contract for a company that has to watch it’s budget, it’s well worth your time to downsize a little. You don’t want to present yourself as wasting valuable money on luxuries.
If you’re bringing together people you already work with, you should know exactly how many people are attending. You should also know where they’re coming from: if this is a rare meet up of a geographically distributed team, choosing a location that makes travel easy for the majority of them ensures you’ll more alert and engaged team members to meet with.
As long as you think carefully about the purpose you want this meeting to achieve, you should be able to choose a venue that serves that purpose perfectly.