What we’ve learned about choosing venues for activities

A venue isn’t just the space where you hold an event or an activity – it’s part of the planning about how the session will run. A good venue will enhance the experience of participants and that likely benefits what you get out of it too. A poorly selected venue can be a barrier to engagement – if people even come at all. At CONNECTED by DATA we’ve tried to be intentional in our venue selection for every in person event or activity we’ve hosted (or in fact even if it is in person or online and where online…more on that later).

As a starter of course a venue has to meet your requirements: can it hold enough people, in a seating format that you would like, can it provide (or allow) food and can it provide any tech that you need? Beyond that though the decision making can feel more subtle but, our experiences would argue, is just as important.

Who is in the room?

We aim to design our events to be as inclusive and accessible as possible to all kinds of participants. This can include providing materials in accessible formats, providing ex-gratia payments for those who are otherwise unfunded, negotiating event times to meet most participants’ needs, among other adjustments. (You can read a couple of Weeknotes from Emily where she’s captured some of our approach to this – in participatory events and our unconference).

In terms of venue selection there’s the need to have it physically accessible for all mobility levels, but also consider how sound works in the space. Large rooms with high ceilings – particularly if you then have table-based discussions – can be challenging for those with hearing impairment. We always try to provide a ‘quiet’ room – a space for prayer / decompression (particularly for those with religious or neurodiverse needs).

If you’re holding an event that a good number of people are attending and you haven’t been to the venue before – try to. It’ll help you visualise how the space will work and we always do signage for our events directing people to toilets, food, the ‘quiet’ room, other spaces that we’re using etc.

Who is getting your money?

We started by ensuring any venue we consider is values aligned with us as an organisation. Generally this meant it was a charity or social enterprise, having social impact in a local or national setting. We used universities, research institutions or hotels on occasion, usually when holding events outside the UK.

We are a not-for-profit organisation and will always seek at least three options for venues. We won’t always choose the cheapest if we think a slightly more expensive one will provide the best experience, but we won’t unnecessarily overspend.

Sometimes we asked for spaces from partners – either as a form of ‘sponsorship’ or because they were involved in the work we were doing. Sometimes we were offered spaces by organisations wanting to support the work. It is always worth chatting with others before accepting these offers though. There’s something about ensuring it still meets your needs (not just making it work because the space is free of charge) but it is also worth considering how it may appear using the space. For example we had a workshop to run about how people felt about a particular implementation of AI. We were offered space by a tech company who we were working with in the project. After discussion we felt using the space may suggest a bias, or imply a preference, that we didn’t want to frame the discussions. In that example we used a local community-owned space instead.

What’s the vibe of the space?

There’s lots of different types of venue of course and the ‘vibe’ changes with each of them. We’ve never used high-end/hosted spaces but they do have a place. Community-owned spaces are great for knowing your money is going back into local needs, but they’re often slightly less glossy. They likely won’t have up-to-date tech options; they may not have matching chairs. Depending on your event this won’t matter and in fact a more ‘relaxed’ space can enhance the feeling of the session and encourage attendees to be slightly more participatory in how they engage (rather than just sitting back and being hosted).

We held an unconference in March 2026 in a community hall in a community-owned building. In addition to the relaxed vibe, the building was constantly in use by the local community. If – like us – you’re an organisation that believes in community involvement then this feels even more aligned (and in this specific case we invited the community to attend the event too).

One thing to consider when deciding what end of the ‘hosted’ spectrum to select is how much support you need when running the event. The more ‘hosted’, the more support and the more someone else is holding the support then the more you can focus on delivering a great session. (Of course if you have team members you can take along to do the ‘ops’ then you get that support without needing the venue to be hosting).

London? Or beyond…

The reality is that the UK is designed to get people into and out of London. Often this will mean that London is the best place to hold a meeting that includes people from across the country. However this can result in an actual or perceived London-centrism and so holding sessions outside of London can be appealing.

Most of our events (unless they needed a specific geography) have been held in London. In March 2026 we held a conference in Manchester. The travel related costs were a lot higher than normal (lots of London/SE based people travelling to the NW) but the feedback suggested that London-based attendees enjoyed being pulled out of their city and Northern-based attendees enjoyed not having to travel as far.

How can you reduce the carbon cost?

We have an organisational policy to seek to minimise the carbon costs of our events so we want to enable people to travel by train to our events. We won’t book a venue that’s not walking distance from a train station (we did this once for a residential event as our requirements had to be driven by the residential provision…but we organised taxis and car shares to transfer people from the station to the venue). Proximity to public-transport infrastructure also improves the general accessibility of an event.

We also offer vegan meals by default at our events (as well as catering for other dietary requirements on a person-by-person basis). This can be a varied experience. We’ve had great vegan food – usually from venues with an aligned aim to reduce their carbon cost so they’ve invested energy in developing a good vegan offer. In others we’ve had poorly developed vegan menus. The feedback from our participants is also interesting on this default position (which we are always clear about up-front). Some love the approach and the prompt to try vegan food (if it isn’t their own default). Others have criticised it (some quite strongly) and suggested it negatively impacted on their enjoyment of and engagement with the day.

In person or online?

Most people feel that in-person connection at events is a preference, that it enhances an event. However when balanced against travel time, convenience, and cost the balance can tip more towards holding an event online. We’ve found that hybrid events don’t tend to serve either need and can cause people to join online when, if online wasn’t an option, they’d be in the room.

Online facilitation of sessions is a skill. Although it is a version of the general facilitation skill, it is a specific skill and you need it if you’re going to run a session online. There’s a plethora of online platforms (or venues!) to hold events and who your audience is will need to impact the option you choose. Some organisations don’t allow Zoom access; for many that aren’t Microsoft/Teams based, the Teams experience can be less user friendly; and Google Meet tends not to have the range of ‘host’ tools.

Generally our principle has been to have short (<2 hours) or international audience sessions online, and try to have as much else as possible in person.

We have also experimented with more immersive online experiences including GatherTown and SpatialChat. Whilst both add value around informal and ‘corridor conversations’, attendees are less likely to be familiar with it and this may be a barrier to easy attendance and engagement. In testing people enjoyed the experience but it was felt it required too much “how to use this space” support to create a welcoming space.

And finally…

You won’t get it right for every attendee. Every event we’ve done has had positive and less positive feedback about the venue. We try to listen and learn each time and reflect on feedback when we’re booking another venue, but sometimes different people want opposing things. As the saying goes, you can’t please everybody.

Shoutouts

We’ve used some great venues over the years of CONNECTED BY DATA and here are some of our favourites that we happily recommend:

• Toynbee Hall, London
• Coram, London
• Churchill Hall, London
• Mechanics Institute, Manchester
• Hawkwood, The Centre for Future Thinking, Stroud (the venue we used for our residential)