Trials and tribulations of small businesses finding the right meeting room or conference venue

Looking for a meeting room or conference venue in London? For owners of small and medium-sized businesses, client meetings can sometimes represent something of a challenge, especially when looking for somewhere in London, according to Holiday Inn, a leading hotel group.

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10th June 2013 at 8:13 pm

For owners of small and medium-sized businesses, client meetings can sometimes represent something of a challenge, especially when looking for somewhere in London, according to Holiday Inn, a leading hotel group.

If your office is situated some distance from the client’s workplace, they may not be amenable to traveling long distances – particularly if they are based in central London (or another city), while you are located in a small provincial town.

Even if your office is located conveniently, it may be the case that your complex is too small, or too scruffy, to hold corporate meetings or functions in. A lot of business owners deal with situations such as these by renting meeting rooms in central London. Usually based within a hotel like the Holiday Inn in Kensington, these are smart and convenient, with a host of facilities to ensure comfort and promote an image of professionalism.

Hosting a larger meeting – like a business conference or corporate function – can be particularly challenging for a business. Although there are a range of business conference venues and exhibition centres for hire in London, they are not all of the same quality; nor do they offer the same services or degree of support. Knowing that a meeting venue will take care of the diverse tiny details of an event can be massively reassuring.

Holiday Inn has launched The Academy, to give businesses looking to rent a meeting room or function venue a standardised product that could deliver a consistent level of service, plus support in managing an event. They work across self-contained sites, with their own reception area and rooms for smaller, break-out meetings.

The staff are there to facilitate a meeting from first contact to delivery and will assist with selecting an appropriate size, extent of catering and sufficient seating, as well as setting up technical support and ensuring that things like microphones, speakers and air conditioning functions properly and is managed throughout.

The aim of The Academy network of facilities is to provide meeting rooms of varying sizes and capacities, in which business owners may have confidence that their choice of venue will deliver and not be the cause of any potential embarrassment.

Holiday Inn offer London meeting rooms and halls for hire in a range of locations across the city, including Kensington and Mayfair.

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Jane Tchan is editor of SmallBizPod. She has more than 30 years of experience gained from working across a diverse range of industries, including tourism and leisure, retailing, sports sponsorship and food. During that time she has edited a variety of publications and online media http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk

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