Make the most of your setting

When you started planning your event, no doubt precious time was spent meticulously deciding on the perfect destination.

A bustling city centre, a more tranquil countryside location, or something in between. Or perhaps your organisation is based in a neighbourhood that you feel has a lot to offer and you want to share it with your peers when they attend your event.

Whatever your reason for choosing the venue, once you have done so, it is easy to get caught up in filling your agenda with seminars, networking opportunities and keynote speeches, before having dinner onsite and bidding your guests goodnight. Before you know it, the conference is over and your delegates have gone home seeing no more than the interior walls of the venue you spent so long carefully choosing.

Destination experiences are becoming more important to event organisers, with businesses wanting their guests, colleagues and associates to explore the local area around chosen venues. They are taking time away from home, so why not help them make the most of it by experiencing a new culture or simply taking them to the tourist attraction they’ve seen so many pictures of?

A simple way to do this, is by adding a site-seeing element into your event programme. Is there something unique to the destination you have chosen that you can share with your guests?

Event planners visiting Swansea University have treated their delegates to an array of leisure activities around the city, including; Welsh dining experiences where guests have the opportunity to sample local cuisine, visiting the Penderyn distillery in Brecon, afternoon tea in The Mumbles, festive fun at Winter Wonderland, dinner in the National Waterfront Museum, and most popularly, tours of the breath-taking Gower Peninsula which attracts tourists from all around the world.

You could even offer an additional night’s stay for preferential prices so delegates can explore more of the area surrounding your carefully chosen venue. If you want people to attend your event again next year, they will remember it for the leisure activities or time as much as the programme.

Supporting the local culture and economy of your hosting city is also a great thing to do, and can help to put your organisation, venue or city on the map as a thriving destination.