12 Going beyond
BEYOND THE CAPITAL CITY WALLS ...
Four event planners discuss the benefits and challenges of staging their events outside of London
Sarah Thackray , founder and director of BeaconHouse Events : Around 80 % of our clients ’ events take place in the Northeast of England . The main reason is that corporate headquarters are based there .
With ESG now a priority , events must still be held in central , accessible locations . People don ’ t want to have to drive into the middle of nowhere , so we ’ ll always push easy-to-reach cities outside of London such as Birmingham , Manchester or Newcastle . But we first look at where the audience is based . If the audience is outside of London , we ’ ll opt for the most sustainable destination options from a travel perspective .
Post-Covid , a lot of people decided to move away from the capital , which has driven the trend for remote workforces . Events are important to keep disparate employees connected but organisations have realised that asking staff to always travel to London to attend events in person is neither viable nor sustainable .
Some people who work and live in cities such as Leeds or Newcastle may also be intimidated by the thought of having to attend events in London . They may be more comfortable networking with more local businesses and not having to spend a night away from their families .
Staging events outside of London also provides access to a more diverse range of speakers and different voices . At the same time , you may find that northern audiences want to hear from London speakers so there ’ s the opportunity to take knowledge and inspiration from the UK capital to other parts of the country as well .
But if you ’ re asking a London-based audience to travel to an event in Birmingham , for example , you ’ ll need to factor in a later start or a reason for them to come up the night before such as a dinner . Otherwise , everyone will opt for off-peak travel and arrive late to your conference .
You certainly have to be more strategic about where you stage events these days so that you ’ re more inclusive while providing attendees with unique experiences and more reasons to attend .
Satellite events are growing in popularity whereby you might have a main conference in London and then smaller events held in other parts of the UK . This not only helps audience inclusivity , but it can also provide
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