Posted on November 17, 2023
Blog
Conferences
Event Management
Flexibility, a holistic approach, exclusivity and more
Choosing the right venue for your event can be a minefield. Do you go with a hotel, a conference centre, or a function room of a restaurant? The options are overwhelming. Not to mention, many event venues are perfect for occasions like weddings and birthday parties but less equipped for the multi-faceted requirements of business meetings and events. That's where a dedicated business event venue like Cliftons can help to make it easy for you, with a range of built-in options. Plus, we have a comprehensive event services team to help you find the best-fit venue for your event and business goals. We sat down with Cliftons new Head of Operations, Michael Nicholls, who brings a 20+ year career in hospitality, to share why dedicated business event venues like Cliftons can sometimes provide clients more options and the ability to do more with their events.
The integrated tech that drives modern events
Today's events are tech-heavy, with various multimedia presentations and comprehensive AV requirements. "A huge advantage I see with Cliftons is our dedicated, in-house AV and tech support team," says Michael. "This is an offering many other venues can't provide in-house, often needing you to outsource to a third party or preferred supplier."
These technical capabilities give clients a far greater degree of flexibility. For example, Cliftons can provide services like video recordings of presentations, multi-city coordination with live AV connections between venues and more. Some locations also have in-house studio capabilities for an extended range of quality recording and transmission options.
Multi-city events with one point of contact
Cliftons capacity to deliver seamless multi-city events is also a considerable benefit over many hotels and function centres. With our in-house team of business event management professionals, we can easily coordinate events across multiple locations, using our own venues and partner sites, all with a single point of contact to coordinate all the logistics.
"In my experience, this provides a massive time saving for clients. Most venues that cater for business events don't usually have the capacity to coordinate an event across locations. The client will typically need to engage with each property's catering and event manager. If you need to organise live crosses and connectivity between locations, you'll typically need to engage a technical consultant to liaise with each property on your behalf," says Michael. "In contrast, Cliftons can manage this centrally – whether you're using our venues or a mix of other venues – and ensure everyone gets a consistently good event experience, no matter which venue."
"This is also a huge benefit for organisations addressing sustainability and carbon footprint issues. Instead of flying 400 of your 600 delegates to Sydney, you can have smaller events across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, all connected with a single, cohesive experience." Of course, if you do decide to bring delegates to a single event location, our PCO and event services team can coordinate all travel and accommodation logistics.
Exclusive and secure access options – without the hassle
With our smaller and more boutique venues, Cliftons can provide clients with the flexibility to make your event as exclusive as required. Whether it's as extreme as needing to provide top-level security for a high-profile delegate or just wanting to ensure limited access for your company AGM, we can manage this seamlessly.
For example, hotels can face balancing leisure guest experience with conference and event facilities. Similarly, function rooms of restaurants also have other diners to manage. Areas such as hotel lobbies, restaurants and bars are often impacted significantly by the arrival of major events, resulting in a compromised experience for hotel guests and guests attending the conference or event.
Security concerns are also a consideration when selecting the best venue for your event. Because of the competing priorities in hotels, limiting access to conference floors and providing the secure environment required for media briefings or AGMs for high-profile guests and presenters can be challenging.
For many events, this may not be a concern. But for occasions where you need to limit access, this is something Cliftons can do easily. "Our spaces are generally more restricted in who can access the venue, and we can easily provide additional layers of security to lockdown your event," says Michael.
Flexibility without the premium price tag
Cliftons provide a comprehensive event management and coordination service that is more than just venues. Many venues like hotels and function rooms typically have event spaces designed as a blank canvas and can require a great deal of theming to create the character you may be looking for. Cliftons have a variety of spaces and can work with you from the position of 'What do you need? Great, these are the spaces we think will work.'
This also extends to a comprehensive service around event theming. While other venues can give you a fantastic blank space to style, this often means working with multiple suppliers (and sometimes supplier and venue access restrictions) to get your desired result. At Cliftons, our team can manage all aspects of event theming, right down to creating bespoke menus with our in-house food and beverage team.
"The customisation we can provide is unmatched by many other event venue options. For a similar service, event coordinators will typically be restricted to five-star hotels and need to work to a higher price point. Cliftons can provide far more flexibility for most client budgets," says Michael.
Is a specialist business meeting and events venue a better fit for you?
With our flexible and comprehensive approach to business meetings and events, combining people, places and technology, we know that Cliftons has much to offer. Our team of business event management specialists can help you explore various possibilities, helping you balance all your diverse event goals. We'd love to help you find the right venue for your event and show you how easy we can make planning your next business event. Book a time to talk with one of our friendly team about your event goals.
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