When you’re hosting an event on behalf of your company, you want every to go as smoothly as possible. Whilst you can’t stop your CEO making any gaffs or two clients exchanging heated words, you can ensure the event itself is successful by choosing the correct venue.

But with so many business facilities to choose from, how do you pick the right one? Knowing you want to arrange the event outside of the office is one thing but where do you go from there?

One of the first questions to ask yourself is, ‘who is attending this event’. Business facilities vary from massive 500 capacity theatre rooms to small 20 pax round tables. If the meeting is with other members of staff – perhaps from a different department – then you might want to choose something low key in a fashionable hotel, with a restaurant for you all to decamp to afterwards.

If you’re looking for something with a bit more wow factor, business facilities in unusual and inspiring venues can be surprisingly effective. Enquire about historic town houses, museums, art galleries, all of which can be rented out for the day. Alternatively look to hotels that have larger rooms with a flexible floor plan so you can customise the venue according to your requirements.

Once your room hire is finalised, the question of catering inevitably arises. Business facilities vary in what they offer regarding food and drink and it is important to check what it is they provide. Unusual venues will have to hire in a catering team to provide refreshments; if you’re watching the pennies be sure to check how many staff they are hiring and ask for a wide range of menu options and prices so you’re not duty bound to the most expensive package.

Hotels on the other hand will be able to provide catering in-house; either offering you exclusive use of the restaurant or hiring a second room to act as the refreshment hall. Again, with both of these options, check the price as it will vary according to what they propose in terms of the food itself and where it is served.

Most importantly, check the business facilities you are considering using have the requisite technology. Projectors, internet access (preferably WiFi), microphones and speakers – professional stand alone business venues will have these built in as standard; venues that also double as restaurants or wedding venues might not.