When choosing the right venue for your company meeting, it helps for small-business owners to take a quick personality test: Are you a minimalist who works and learns best with no more than a yellow notepad and No. 2 pencil? Or are you a technology aficionado who totes the latest wireless gadgets?
Are you a get-down-to-business type, or one who is willing to weave leisure and fun into an event?
The answers — along with an honest assessment of how much money and time you’re willing to spend — can help you determine where you should host your next company meeting, say meeting and event planners.
Choosing the right venue for your meetings
If you’re that no-frills, business-only type who wants to focus on dispensing information quickly and inexpensively, you might want to settle on a neighborhood community center.
“That venue works best if you want just a meeting room with no bells and whistles, with a projector,” says Lynn Rivera, event manager at Minnetonka-based Twin City Catering Inc.
Rental prices at community centers, she says, are minimal compared to hotels and convention centers. Their meeting rooms offer basic amenities; any extra equipment or technical staff usually comes at an “à la carte” extra cost.
If you’re the type who sees a meeting as an opportunity for a change of pace, or as a forum for making a tech-savvy presentation, there are plenty of options.
Sandy Smith, an account executive at Minneapolis-based event planner firm Event Lab, recommends “getting creative” with the venue. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, she says, and employees will appreciate the company taking the time to do something out-of-the-ordinary.
There are dozens of unconventional venues, including restaurants, museums, country clubs, libraries, sports arenas. Each has different amenities that appeal to the varied personalities of small-business owners and their companies’ cultures. Business event and catering magazines are reliable resources for finding the contact information, space size and rates of local venues, say event experts.
During these belt-tightening times, many companies simply opt to hold meetings at their own headquarters or local offices. Others rely on hotels, a tried-and-true standard.
Several hotels, including Radisson Hotel and Conference Center, have spruced up their guest rooms and meeting rooms with wireless and high-speed Internet access. Marquette Hotel and Windows on Minnesota, located on the 50th floor of IDS Center in Minneapolis, also have completed renovations and expansion.
But hotels, for all their convenience, also have some down sides. Small businesses in particular should consider the annoyance factor as hotels tend to attract large corporate gatherings of hundreds of people. A modest group of 50 may be renting a guest room or meeting room with a noisy crowd next door, says David Graves, senior vice president-events at metroConnections, a Minneapolis-based destination management company and event producer.
“You’ll want to pick a venue that fits the size of your group,” he says.
Some conference centers have a rustic, backwoods atmosphere without being too far off the beaten path. Jeff Prouty, managing partner of Eden Prairie-based The Prouty Project, a small management consulting firm, says he regularly chooses the Conference and Retreat Center at YMCA Camp Ihduhapi, a boys and girls camp on the edge of Lake Independence in Loretto. Many corporate guests combine a stay at Ihduhapi with a custom-tailored team-building program, which uses climbing challenges to test communication and problem-solving skills, at the camp’s Adventure Learning Center.
Prouty also likes Oak Ridge Conference Center in Chaska for company meetings. “It has an away-from-the-city retreat feel, plus all the stuff you need for a great meeting — technology, whiteboards, flip charts, good wall space, good food, good accommodations,” he says.
Historic ties
Old mansions, especially those dotting the Summit Avenue neighborhood in St. Paul, and other historic sites are popular meeting locations.
“They’re good for smaller, off-site corporate outings where you want to be in a different environment,” says Graves of metroConnections.
One drawback is these sites often cannot support or lack the state-of-the-art technology and lighting of modern sites, says Graves. But that might appeal to those minimalist business owners who prefer wooden podiums to elaborate stages decked out with audio-visual gizmos.
If a change of scenery is part of your meeting, then consider many of the local tourist attractions, such as Science Museum of Minnesota and Minnesota Zoo, which rent space for meetings and other special events.
Minnesota Zoo’s Discovery Bay, in Apple Valley, has a marine exhibit featuring a 500,000-gallon dolphin pool, a 200,000-gallon shark pool and interactive touch tanks. Rental fees vary by day of the week: Saturdays, for example, rent for $1,950 and Fridays for $1,750. During the rest of the week, the area rents out at $1,500 a day. The Zoo plans to expand its meeting and exhibit space within the next 10 years.
The Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, offers four private meeting spaces for corporate lunches, retreats, planning sessions and presentations. The largest, Discovery Hall, has a capacity of 325 and overlooks the Mississippi River; the smallest, the Neon Room, holds up to 16. Catering is performed by Lancer Catering and all guests get a complimentary admission to the museum’s eight acres of indoor exhibits.
Other spots have just opened their premises to outside events as an added revenue stream. The Zuhrah Shrine Center/Harrington Mansion recently began to allow non-members to host events at the site. The James J. Hill Reference Library, based in St. Paul, houses a collection of business information resources, but also moonlights as a reception hall for weddings, meetings and other special events. A half-day costs $110 for library members, and $150 for nonmembers. Rent for a full day is $220 for members and $275 for nonmembers. The Hill Library has an open food catering policy, and guests can linger among shelves of century-old books.
Extras cost extra
Some number crunching will help fine-tune your search for the right venue, says Graves. How many people will be attending? How far away are these people, and how long will it take them to reach the meeting spot? Where can they park, and how much will it cost? You might want to pick a central site that’s equidistant for all parties to drive to, say meeting planners.
But don’t get too exotic with your meeting location, or you’ll risk losing your employees’ attention. “You’ve got to be careful to have the environment intact,” says Graves. “You don’t want them getting distracted by things going on around them. Find a place that’s conducive to learning.”
Determine all your needs beforehand so you don’t rack up extra costs. At the Minneapolis Convention Center, for example, it’s the little things that add up. The hosted coat check charges two dollars a coat. Photocopies are 25 cents each, facsimiles are a dollar a page, pencils are $3.50 a dozen and transparencies are each a dollar.
“Get a clear idea of what you’re getting,” says Rivera.
Shop around for the best deal. “It’s sometimes beneficial to keep your eyes and ears open,” says Rivera. Owners “shouldn’t be afraid to ask for a special package, especially if you’re having several meetings a year. Do some competitive shopping. Negotiate.”
