Robust demand for meeting spaces means venues need to ensure their offering embraces the conference room trends that clients are craving.
Employee engagement is high on the agenda for all businesses now and this stretches to off-site meetings too.
To inspire delegates and to ensure your off-site event achieves its aims, the chosen venue must provide a high-quality experience in line with meeting room technology trends, and embody your company’s corporate social responsibility agenda.
With prices for off-site meeting rooms rising and the number of enquiries up on 2018 according to the Meetings Industry Association, venues that adopt key meeting industry trends have the opportunity to stand out from the competition.
Conference Room Trends
Sustainability
Most of us are increasingly aware of our impact on the environment and event organisers are now keenly seeking out venues that take this into consideration.
As sustainability becomes further entrenched into business strategies, the demand for off-site conference facilities to show how they reduce their impact on the environment and how they can curtail an event’s carbon footprint is becoming more important.
Event planners keen on sustainability should seek to establish the environmental credentials of a venue before booking. The presence of an Environmental Management System is a positive indicator as it shows a venue’s commitment to measuring the impact of its activities and services.
An energy efficiency pledge established recycling policy and sustainable procurement framework are strong benchmarks of a venue’s environmental aptitude.
Technology
Having the latest must-have gadgets at your disposal for your off-site meeting is hugely important as technology can improve a presentation, increase delegate participation and help ensure your key messages are easily communicated.
Innovative interactive whiteboards help keep everyone engaged while helping meetings run more efficiently and allow delegates in other locations to participate virtually too.
With more than half of workers admitting to zoning out at an all-day meeting, ensuring delegates can get involved via audience participation devices is also becoming an important tool for companies organising external conferences.
While internet connectivity, online meeting facilities, audio and video recording capabilities and top quality audio-visual equipment are also deemed essential, it is crucial to ensure a dedicated technology team is available to prevent any unwanted and disruptive glitches.
Design for inspiration
First impressions count and the ‘where’ your company delivers its message is as important as the ‘how’.
Beyond simply the variety of rooms available, off-site meeting organisers increasingly want purpose-designed flexible meeting rooms that can be arranged to suit their requirements.
The ability to expand or split rooms throughout the day to accommodate different needs, and features such as magnetic walls to enhance design-based sessions, appeal to today’s forward-thinking event planners.
It is also valuable if the conference room espouses sophistication and easily enables the use of multi-media technology at each delegate’s seat and the event host’s position.
To help delegates remain invigorated, alert and inspired, naturally lit, spacious rooms are hugely beneficial, while easy access to outdoor space provides the opportunity for important breaks to prevent burnout and help maintain productivity.
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