How do you decide where to hold your conference?  How do you balance conflicting criteria?  How do you maximize venue quality while still keeping the conference affordable?

Discussion about selecting a venue and the qualities of a good venue.  This discussion may include cautionary tales and horror stories ("this happened to us; don't let it happen to you!") but please keep anecdotes as factual as possible, so no one gets in trouble for libel.  Please respond to this first post unless you're specifically addressing a subtopic raised in a major subpost.

Comments

Thu, 03/01/2012 - 15:31

Cat Brysch

from the vendor point of view is, in no particular order are: good load in (with ramps and room to move!), accurately measured space (if I pay for 10' X 10', that's what I WANT!), well-populated area for the public to come in (it can save me in a conference), good parking (FREE) for vendors, hotels close enough to walk (for a variety of costs for the budget), available electrical connections (even by a 3rd party company), availability of food (nuf sed!). There are more that I'll add as I think if them, but I have a cautionary tale, too: Some convention centers will have the fire marshall come in a inspect all the booth set-ups and I was shut down (just for about an hour prior to opening) until I got some heavy-duty cords...NO extension cords allowed! I was thankful that they did this prior to opening and I never missed a beat, corrected the problem at a near-by Home Depot and now I use them ALL the time! I have never encountered this at regional shows, but always remain up to code now and am thankful for the lesson!