How to Plan a Conference in a Hotel: Complete Guide

How planning a conference in a hotel can be very straightforward as one would assume; however, as one begins to get into the nitty-gritty’s, they will realise that there is a lot more to be considered in planning a conference than just room bookings and sandwich selections.

The first thing that needs to be determined are the numbers. Hotels want a rough idea, and you need to know what size room to get. Make sure to add around ten percent to your expected attendance, as someone is always bound to bring a colleague that you weren’t informed of. It is always better to have slightly more room than to be squeezing guests in.

When looking for venues, start looking at least three to four months in advance. Plan for even longer if you are planning something for peak season, as Hotels get booked quickly. This is especially true if you are looking for conference dates in September or October. Conference planning in December is an obvious nightmare as well.

When visiting hotels, make sure to walk all the rooms. Don’t just rely on the hotel creations to do the walking for you, as they will often showcase the room in the most flattering light, especially if there are a lot of rooms in a hotel. Be sure to check the ceilings as well if you are planning to have screens or banners, as certain conference hotels are just converted function rooms and have low ceilings. This can make the room feel quite claustrophobic.Before booking, make sure to check the hotel’s Wi-Fi situation. How many people can connect to the Wi-Fi at once? Will it even work or will people be complaining that their emails won’t load? list some common Wi-Fi issues. Some hotels have internet connection that is acceptable for guests to check their emails or watch the facebook videos, but will fully crash if multiple guests try to access the internet at the same time.

Conference room AV equipment also varies greatly. Some hotels include projectors, screens, and TV’s in the room rental, while others will charge you for everything individually. You’ll probably want some of this stuff in writing as you don’t want to be surprised that they have a $200 charge for a projector, especially if you thought it was free.

Catering at an event also tends to be an area where a lot more thought goes into the planning. For example, every hotel’s Day Delegate rate will include at least tea, coffee, and probably some other snacks, but it is good to check the full scope of what is offered. Are the mid-morning biscuits included as part of the rate? What about cake? Lunch can either be served as a sit-down or a buffet, and buffet is easier for people to access and and is more convenient for bigger groups that are networking.

Require dietary needs ahead of time. You will without a question have some vegetarians, likely a couple of vegans, and there’s always someone allergic to gluten. Most hotels will accommodate but they need to know ahead of time. Ask your attendees to submit their dietary needs with their registration, as opposed to finding out on the day of the conference.

Room arrangements can make a bigger difference than expected. For furniture arrangements, there are theatre and cabaret styles. Theatre style fits the most people, but that gets troublesome when you’re looking to have interaction. Cabaret style with circular tables works best for workshops, but then you’re going to fit a fewer number of bodies in. U-shape is better for smaller groups needing to see one another, but that gets a little cramped with numbers over 30.

Check in advance if parking is included. Parking can be a headache, especially for hotels in the city center. A 20 minute search for a place to leave your car is very frustrating and puts a person in a bad mood real quick.

It is important to look at bedrooms, and the bedrooms do not have to be fancy but do need to be clean and have good quality beds, and then breakfast schedules need to be verified, as there is always someone who needs to check out early.

Get everything in writing. Everything. Room hire cost, numbers of vegetarian lunches, and even the screen size to everything in the contract needs to be agreed upon. Generally, agreements do get honored by hotels, but employee turnover happens, and neglect happens, so it is best to be prepared.

You should have a contact person at the hotel to whom you can speak directly. Additionally, you should have a designated person for your event, so they can resolve any issues in a timely manner. On the day of the event, you do not want to have to call the front desk, and have to explain the scenario from the very beginning.

Try to do a proper site visit the day before the event if you can. It only takes an hour to check the room setup, make sure that the AV equipment is working, and ensure that everything is in the right place, but it saves you from having to solve problems in front of your delegates.

Hotels are easier than most other venues to work with when planning a conference since they do all the work for you for the most part. You have everything in one place, they do the catering, and there’s usually someone around to help with problems if anything goes wrong.