How to Choose the Right Venue for Training, Learning & Development Events

Corporate event planning is a delicate art that marries conflicting elements. Between balancing creating space for presentations with networking and peer-to-peer engagement, tailoring seminar venue spaces into the perfect environment to fit your company or industry event naturally requires a discerning eye – and perhaps the support of some seasoned event planners!

Thankfully, our passionate team at Canvas House have oodles of experience in tailoring our lovingly maintained venue space to suit a vast variety of corporate events – including training, learning, and development events.

Unlike more celebratory industry events like product launches that can get pretty noisy and colourful, training events are characterised more by their curated collection of learning environments – providing eventgoers with spaces that inspire engagement and spark their curiosity.

The age-old question is how can you find a corporate venue that offers the right environment not only for training but also for effective learning and development? Our team at Canvas House is here to answer this question today, by sharing in greater detail what considerations you should make when choosing the right venue for your next training, learning, and development event.

Key Considerations when Booking a Venue for Training, Learning & Development Events

Ready to get started on planning your next training, learning, and development event? Here are the key considerations you should make when finding the optimal venue for any professional training and development event.

Venue Capacity

How many people are likely to attend your event? Is it just an internal company affair, or are you extending invitations out to your wider industry network? Depending on the scope of your training and development event, you may likely even require multiple learning environments across your event space (think simultaneously running seminars and tutorials, etc.).

If you are anticipating having upwards of 50 attendees, for instance, you may choose to create two distinct learning environments in your event space, with a capacity of ~25 people per each training room.

Event Budget

As is the case with any event planning project, your budget will dictate what kind of venue you end up selecting for your event. However, if your budget likely won’t cover the estimated attendee list for your event, then you may either have to look for a lower cost venue, or even revisit the funding model for your event itself.

Practical budgeting is fundamental to planning a successful corporate event. So if you start to suspect your budget may not be working, it’s best to act as promptly as possible to either adapt your funding model (if it’s not too late!), or secure a venue space that best aligns with your spending power.

Amenities & Accessibility

Oftentimes, conference venues will come fitted with projectors and TV screens to support presentations for larger audiences – but what if you need to bring in your own equipment too? Here, amenities like loading door access and technological infrastructure can be worth their weight in gold.

Of course, venue accessibility naturally also includes disability access and support considerations. If you’re expecting attendees that require wheelchair access, for instance, then you’ll want to book a venue space that comes fitted with ramps, lifts, and other necessary accessibility infrastructure.

The same goes for stage setup and space configurations for other accessibility considerations, like ASL interpreters. Are there screens that allow ASL interpreters to be seen from across the entire venue space? Are there braille directions on all interior signs, and support infrastructure for attendees with service animals? Is there a quiet space for accommodating guests who may be experiencing a sensory overload? These are all questions you’ll need to ask when assessing the accessibility of your venue space.

Access to Multimedia Equipment

For event planners who don’t necessarily want to bring more equipment than just a laptop or an SD card or two, you’ll naturally also want to consider whether your shortlisted venues come fitted with their own catalogue of multimedia equipment.

For instance, at Canvas House, we offer both fixed screens in our boardroom spaces as well as a portable TV, plus a full Bluetooth-enabled AV system with microphones, so you don’t have to bring your own equipment.

Layouts for Training/Learning Environments

For training, learning and development events, you’ll naturally also need to find a venue space that actually accommodates the creation of different zones. That way, you can run multiple sessions/seminars/workshops without any programs interfering with one another.

This is actually why we’ve curated our space at Canvas House to include multiple different enclosed and open plan zones. Our venue space includes multiple private boardrooms and meeting rooms (including the Nook and the Study), an outdoor courtyard area in the rear and front of the venue space, as well as the pièce de résistance, our stunning Gallery space, complete with its showstopping 6m high vaulted Cathedral-style ceiling.

Look through our gallery to see our space from all angles, or better still – get in touch with us to schedule your own private walkthrough before your event!

Top Tips for Setting up your Venue for Training, Learning & Development Events

Now that you know how to choose the right venue for your next training, learning, and development event, let our event planners give you a few extra expert tips on how to make sure your development workshops, seminars, and tutorials all go smoothly on the day.

Finalise Your Attendee List Promptly

The most important part of planning any kind of corporate party is making sure you’ve planned for the right amount of people. After all, you don’t want to be spending unnecessarily if you’re paying cost per head for your venue or catering booking.

You can help yourself out here by implementing a strict date for RSVPs. For internal corporate training events, finalising guest lists is as easy as just sending out office memos or email alerts to confirm event attendance by a specific deadline. For training, learning and development events that open to other industry connections, however, implementing event ticket sales may help reduce your risks of paying unnecessarily for no-shows and last minute cancellations.

Book Catering & Support Staff in Advance

Seasoned event planners know that a million things can go wrong in the leadup to your event. And for training, learning and development events, it’s natural to want to make sure that your venue is set up with zero distractions and glitches – just to support the quality of your training materials and workshop planning.

This is why it’s essential that you finalise all agreements with your catering team and support staff at least two weeks before your event. Doing so will provide ample time to iron out any potential issues well in advance, reducing risks of any unexpected issues on the day.

Check out our cuisines and catering ideas for corporate lunches for some inspo when booking your event catering.

Practice Zoning When Setting up Learning Environments

If you’re looking to include both traditional sit-down learning environments (i.e. seminar-style with seats all facing one stage) plus more interactive learning environments (i.e. hands-on workshops with circular group seating, physical movement, etc.), then you’ll want to make sure your venue zoning is tight and precise.

This design planning is also vital when preparing venues for team building exercises. If you’re expecting different people to be doing different activities simultaneously, then we highly recommend working with your venue manager to ensure your final space designs are practical and fit to accommodate all the day’s many activities.

Maintain a ‘Safety First’ Approach to Equipment Setup

Finally, multiple screens and presentations naturally means you’ll need your equipment setup to be meticulously planned – both to avoid any technical difficulties on the day, but also to reduce risks of injuries caused by unsecured cables or haphazardly moving equipment from room to room.

Here, work with your venue managers to make sure that all equipment is set up securely and out of traffic areas between learning environments. You’ll also want to invest in cable management solutions like cable runners if you are planning on running wires/cables through traffic areas.

Book Your Next Professional Event at Canvas House

With thorough planning and practical design considerations, you really can transform any venue into the optimal space for your next training, learning, and development event. But for hosts who want to enjoy a more streamlined planning process, booking a venue space that comes fitted with suitable seminar and learning environments can help make your development event planning a lot easier.

Want to book your next training, learning and development event here at Canvas House? Then get in touch with our team at Canvas House to get the ball rolling on your next corporate event, or check out our other corporate event planning tips for some extra guidance.