We work with venues of all types. In this article I want to highlight some of the more unusual.
You do have to remember that hosting events may not be their primary business. However, many “Unsusal Venues” offer amazing spaces and often great food and even onsite entertainment. But you may have to bring in your own AV, or expect to have fewer staff looking after you!
Here are just some of the spaces we have worked with recently:
A Manor House
Histon Manor – this is a private home in the outskirts of Cambridgeshire. It is so special I have written a whole article about them click here to read it. They have space for 12 people and the lovely thing is that you will be the only people onsite!
Bars with an Activity Theme
Junkyard Golf (in major UK cities), Tivoli (Cambridge) and Swingers (in London only currently) are chains that offer crazy golf and food. You can book as a group and have a private/semi-private space for food. Tivoli also has Shuffle Board.
Flight Club is similar, but the activity is Darts, where large groups play against each other – they have locations throughout the UK with more opening.
Bounce are cocktail bars that call themselves the home of Ping Pong. They have three branches in London and they do offer separate meeting rooms.
Fair Game is in Canary Wharf and offers a selection of Fairground stall type games and street food. It is very popular so it is quite hard to find slots, but if you can it is great fun.
New venues are opening all the time and there are many more that we have not mentioned here (many are in London)
Pubs with Private Rooms
We work with a number of pub chains around the country that have private spaces that can be used for informal meetings and of course private dining. These can offer provide you with a more relaxed environment for an internal meeting.
Cottages for Hire
If you team just want to get away and are happy to cook for themselves we do work with a number of cottages for hire. A great example is Knockerdown Cottages in Derbyshire. They offer a number of cottages all in the same location and they even have a communal social space that can be used for a meeting – Read more here
Holiday Camps
Both Centre Parcs and Butlins can be used for meetings and residential conferences. In peak holiday season there may be minimum night stays required, but in the quieter months, you can book residential meetings with 1 night stays. Butlins Bognor Regis has just won an award as the best residential meeting venue at the C&IT Awards. Centre Parcs at both Sherwood and Woburn have conference space and are set up to take residential meetings.
Colleges, Sport Grounds and Museums
I think that colleges, sports grounds and museums are not that unusual anymore, so perhaps should not be in this article! We have been working with Cambridge Colleges, sports grounds and museums around the country for years. But I thought it was worth mentioning that many of them now also offer tours and talks as an addition to the meeting packages – so really ensuring that your delegates get the most out of meeting somewhere that’s first purpose is not as a meeting space!
