Anyone here organised meetings abroad?

[handyman]

Looking at the costs involved with venues in the UK I'm wondering if I might be better offering my courses in Spain or France.

for example:

10 delegates London course
2 Trainers

£50 per day for meeting inc dinner and coffee £600
Evening meal £15.00 a head £180
B&B Accomadation £70 per person £840

£1620 x 5 days (week 1) £8100
£1620 x 5 days (week 2) £8100

So thats £16200 to have 10 days training in the UK :O (£1350 per head)

Must be cheaper or at least the same price to do it abroad and we have not even taken into account travelling costs in this.?

What do you think? Any travel agents on the forum

[Ramrod]

An other thing to factor into the equation-if you have them abroad- is the extra travelling time the delegates will have to spend getting to the venue....
You can usually get to a venue in the UK by setting off early enough in the morning and get home late at night on the last day.... but if you move the venue to France or Spain then the delegates realistically have to allow a day extra at both ends of the course for travelling......and time is money.

[Nugget]

Who's paying for the accomodation / meals etc? Don't forget that delegates (or their employers) will be paying x amount so, from your point of view, it's fairly academic, as they should be being charged enough to cover your outgoings anyway.

[Ramrod]

Exactly, the employers are probably going to want their staff away for a short a time as possible, cost is probably a secondary consideration.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

An other thing to factor into the equation-if you have them abroad- is the extra travelling time the delegates will have to spend getting to the venue....
You can usually get to a venue in the UK by setting off early enough in the morning and get home late at night on the last day.... but if you move the venue to France or Spain then the delegates realistically have to allow a day extra at both ends of the course for travelling......and time is money.

And this is especially true as you appear to have a ten day course split over 2 consecutive? weeks. So you will have 4 travelling days. Unless people stay the weekend, which they will have to do if it's abroad and 2 consecutive weeks.

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Exactly, the employers are probably going to want their staff away for a short a time as possible, cost is probably a secondary consideration.

Good point - when I worked with the weeman, my boss wanted my to drive to Wales and back in a day (in a Ford Puma!). That only happened once, let me tell you

[marky]

Could this be a cunning plan to move to spain

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by marky

Could this be a cunning plan to move to spain

Just better make sure he doesn't book the course in France then

[Chris]

Unless your clients are from large international companies, you will find a significant psychological barrier in getting them to agree to attend meetings outside the UK. The impression is that it involves a whole lot more cost and hassle. In fact if your customers are all UK based, it probably is a lot more cost and hassle.

(I'm not a travel agent but I work for a global hotel company ).

[handyman]

I just think that to drag people through a course in London in winter could be made better if it was in Spain or France. It must cost the best part of £100 to get to London for some of our customers. One set are coming from Durham on the train which I would guess is a comparable travelling time to europe via plane.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by handyman

I just think that to drag people through a course in London in winter could be made better if it was in Spain or France. It must cost the best part of £100 to get to London for some of our customers. One set are coming from Durham on the train which I would guess is a comparable travelling time to europe via plane.

You need to factor in airport check in times, as well as time to get to the airport. Where would they fly from? How would you arrange transfers to the hotel from the airport in Spain?

[handyman]

That can be arranged with the hotel I hope.

It's just an idea I think It could bring something extra to the course and give the delegates that extra separation from the normal hum drum so they have total concentration on the course.

[Ramrod]

So now that we seem to have demolished Handymans idea......is there any situation/way it would work?

---------- Post added at 17:11 ---------- Previous post was at 17:09 ----------

Originally Posted by handyman

It's just an idea I think It could bring something extra to the course and give the delegates that extra separation from the normal hum drum so they have total concentration on the course.

....as opposed to the beach outside?
The best way to ensure total concentration is to host it in a windowless room in somewhere like Slough or Croydon

I noticed a hotel chain the other day have set up a company called the meeting rooms, I can't for the life of me think who it is???????? I think it was on the A1, they do all the accomodation and sort the meetings out too.