Locked Down & Locked Out of Visiting Venues? 

By Michael Begley Heading up the UK’s no.1 venue finding website is something that Michael takes in his stride and developing new opportunities and innovations is something he thrives on. Achieving this by working with the amazing team at venudirectory.com is what makes him get out of bed every morning. His passion comes through in everything he sets his mind to, working with the leading venue groups, meeting planners or technology partners and working together to move the MICE industry forward and break new ground. LinkedIn.

Meetings Rooms During Lockdown

Behold meeting planners you can use a Venues Virtual Video Showaround to find out all about them even from the comfort of your home office.

As a meeting planner with the world in lockdown, you have still got work to do, you have got to find the next venue for your sales conference,  maybe a product launch for when we're out of this crisis or even the next series of training courses on how to deal with crisis management. As a meeting planner visiting venues to get the look and feel of the place is vital in making the right venue selection, but whilst we are all in lockdown a video play through, or a 3D representation or a combination of both can be a really useful tool. Venuedirectory.com is a great place to start and we have our own YouTube channel that has the largest number of venue videos available to you as a meetings and events planner, and you can do all this right from your home office.

Meeting Rooms from a 360 Perspective

The UK is blessed with some great resources for this and people like Noel Sexton from view it 360 have really taken on board the art of venue videos using the matterport application. Similarly, Keith McMahon at Venue View has a great website rich with content from a whole host of different venues across the UK working with Bars and Restaurants, including teaming up with Brewdog.

Noel and the team have taken things a step further and have combined an internal tour of some really interesting venues with outdoor footage. You can fly above the venue and see its position in the landscape and then fly into the door of the venue and look at the details and see how it can work for your next event. Check out this amazing tour of the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-mere. 

Videos can give you a really great understanding of a venue and of course during the lockdown, we cannot get to them, so let’s transport ourselves there, Star Trek style!  One venue that does this beautifully is New Place Hotel. Located in Southampton, this Grade 1 listed Manor House is set in 32 acres of landscaped gardens and woodlands. And if you are looking for something very different and are anything like me, who appreciates a classic car, then The British Motor Museum in Warwickshire would be the ideal unique venue.

Meeting Space to Hire near the Beach

As the lockdown eases we will all want to see and feel the fresh breeze of the sea and what better place for an event especially if you believe a  spectacular event starts with a stunning location. The exquisite 4 star Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott Hotel is a truly inspirational venue to host your meeting or event. Situated on a dramatic clifftop with unrivalled sea views over the Jurassic Coast and Bournemouth’s seven miles of golden sands. 

Unique Meeting Venues to Escape After the Lockdown 

Hotels and historic meeting venues are great places for events, but sometimes you really do want something different and after being in lockdown for so long, where better to escape to than the beautiful Welsh countryside, if this interests you, then Snowdonia could be the place for you. Adventure Parc Snowdonia is the ideal event and team-building destination for any business that wants to make a big impression. A world-first inland surf lagoon and Adrenaline Indoors adventure facility offer unique team-building opportunities. 

Venue groups have also got on board with the video show around as well, some are more generic like Village Hotels which gives you a really good idea of the brand values whereas Park Plaza has gone for a unique video for each venue, this is a great one of their iconic London property - Park Plaza London Westminster Bridge.

There are some great non-residential venue groups as well who have harnessed the power of video for the meeting paneer and this is a great way to see these highly polished and professional venues, take a look at what ETC venues have done for their video show around. They have a host for each of the videos to talk you through what’s on offer and also vital feedback from users of the venues -  An added bonus if you cannot get there yourself.

So don’t feel locked out of seeing venues just because we are staying at home to protect the NHS, get online and have a look at the next venue you are looking to book via a virtual show around.