Top 10 Conference Venue and Meeting Room Finding Tips 
Need to find a conference venue, meeting room or somewhere to hold a training session then follow these tips and they will save you time, money and a whole lot of stress.
1 Planning
A few minutes spent on this can save hours later on. Write down your requirements in a format that can easily be sent to conference and meeting venues or explained over the phone. On top of the basic things like dates, timings and attendee numbers your plan should include a list of delegate requirements (dietary, room access, parking, etc) and business and AV equipment needs (Wi-Fi, projector, PA, etc). You should also set a realistic budget for your conference or meeting. Look at the costs of previous company events and check the websites of a few venues for their rates to get a feel of what the costs will be. Don’t forget to add some contingency (10% is sensible).
2 Dates
Typically Tuesday to Thursday are conference venues busiest days so if you are flexible on dates then look at Mondays and Fridays. Availability will be better and venues will be more willing to negotiate on the price on these days.
3 Budget
Sharing your budget (minus any contingency) with venues may sound like a sure fire way to making sure you don’t get a good price but from our experience conference and meeting venues are particularly keen to secure what they know is a confirmed budget and are prepared to discount list prices significantly as a result (by as much as 60% in our experience). By sharing your budget you could get more for your money, gaining access to venues that would have normally come in too expensive, or realise some great savings so you come in under budget.
4 Layout
Selecting the right room set up for your event can have a significant impact on the venues available to you and their price as layout determines the size of the room you require. Space saving set ups like theatre style use up half the space of a room set up cabaret style. Your requirements may mean you are fixed to a specific set up, but if you do have flexibility then go for a space saving layout. This could save you a significant amount on room hire or give you a great negotiation point on day delegate rates with conference and meeting venues.
5 Attendees
Being realistic on the number of people attending your conference or meeting can save you a lot of money. All too often people book their venue for the highest possible denominator only to have much fewer people on the day. Typical attendance figures are 10% lower than the highest possible turnouts so think about booking your venue for this number. What if more people turn up? Plan this with the venue. Tell them what you are doing and ask what impact more people will have, how they will accommodate them and how much extra you will pay for them. Venues may charge extra for additional people on the day but in most cases it will pay dividends.
6 Proposals
Make sure you get enough proposals from conference venues to make an informed decision. Three proposals is quite often seen as enough but I would always encourage people to get at least five. Comparisons can be more easily drawn from this amount and you can use the information from the unsuccessful proposals as negotiation tools.
7 Shortlist
You have received five or more proposals now score them against the plan you made. Score each one against your requirements (5 points for an excellent fit and 1 point for poor). You are then ready to either view the best conference and meeting veneus or move straight into negotiation with the top 2 or 3.
8 Negotiate
When negotiating, don’t just think about getting money off the price, but what extras the venue can throw in. If a venue will not budge on price, ask them to include things like an upgraded lunch and refreshments, AV equipment and even event management support.
9 Cancellation
Before you sign on the line what happens if your conference or meeting is cancelled or postponed, check the venue’s cancellation policy and then think about the likelihood of this happening to your event. If there is a chance it could be postponed, ask the venue what they can do and see if they can make a concession to their policy.
10 Recommendations
If you are at all in doubt about the venue you have chosen, ask for recommendations before signing the contract. Get the venue to provide a list of clients that you can contact directly for a recommendation. On top of this, ask for comments from your contacts, post a question on LinkedIn Groups or use Twitter to find people who have used the venue’s services.