Organisation is Key

Here at Rothamsted Conference Centre in Harpenden, our team of event management professionals have extensive experience in running events of all shapes and sizes. During their time in the events industry, they’ve picked up a lot of great tips and advice. Here we share a few of these with you. We hope they’re useful!

1. Hashtags

Are they really that important? How can they help your event? Well, hashtags can not only communicate what your event is about on social media, but you can use your hashtag within your organisation and during your pre-event promotion. It also helps people to communicate with each other prior and during your events. If they share posts on social media and use your hashtag, it can encourage online conversations, get people building relationships over common interests, and it can often lead to them meeting up. As the organiser of the event, you can also see what is being said about your event by searching. If your event is large enough, it may even trend on social media and generate greater awareness, interest and attendance. Or possibly even news coverage.

2. Be AV Ready

If you’re running a presentation from your own laptop, check with the venue as to whether you need to bring your own cables, Apple Mac adapter if you are using a Mac, or check to see if the venue provides a laptop to use.

Always check your USB stick is working. Lots of people add their presentation to a USB stick and don’t check that it’s functioning. Always double check this before the big day.

3. Dietary requirements

Dietary requirements are far more common these days and it is essential that you understand any requirements before the day. Check with your guests well in advance and ensure that you let the venue know in plenty of time. It can sometimes help to meet and chat to the chef to understand what options are available and to give you and your guests peace of mind that all your dietary needs are fully taken care of.

4. On-the-day registration

Do you want your guests to register or sign in when they arrive at the venue? Will you be welcoming guests or are you expecting the venue to help with registration? It’s always best to work these things out in advance and communicate clearly with your guests and your events team. Be sure to think about whether the rooms are clearly signposted, so your guests know where they need to go once they get to the venue.

5. Breakout areas

Talk with the venue during your site visit to understand what they can offer in terms of breakout areas. How many do you need? What capacity and layout needs do you have for each session? How creative will the venue let you be? Some clients may want to use corridor areas creatively. Check if your venue is happy with that. Talk to your venue about whether breakout room hire is part of the overall hire cost or not. Think about whether it is more cost effective for you to hire the whole venue for exclusive use.

6. Pens

We know it might sound obvious, but very often venues are asked to provide pens at the last minute. Sometimes venues offer pens as part of their Day Delegate Rate (DDR) package but often they are not. Plan to take your own pens or ask the venue if they can provide them for you.