The choice of venue for a Conference is so important but a lot of people never think outside the square when considering alternatives. Sticking to the same venue you have used in the past may be a safe approach but can lead to a feeling of the “same old same old” amongst delegates.
Many smaller associations are looking to Regional Venues as an interesting and often cheaper alternative. You’ll find great support from local Government & Tourism authorities for the event with many incentives to get events into their reqion.
Travel to the venue is a little more complicated than big city events, but a fun approach is to provide a bus service from a major airport or city hub. If you treat this as part of the event, with entertainment, networking and perhaps some fun stops along the way it can really work towards a great fun atmosphere.
Allowing the delegates to largely set the agenda for conferences and conventions is a common trend these days. Going well beyond a Feedback form distributed at the previous years conclusion, there are ways to really involve the delegates into content, topics, speakers and activities.
Interactive websites and discussion boards can easily be used to collect ideas on Topics and Areas of Interest.
Delegates who then register early for the event are then enabled to influence the final choice of agenda.
Not only does this give more ownership of the content but also is an incentive to book early.
A search of UnConference, Open Space and BarCamps will reveal many approaches to this.
Here are a few links to get you started
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/05/technology/business2_unconference0606/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference
http://www.unconference.net/
