Tag: instagram

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Choose an instagrammable venue for your corporate event

We love an instagrammable venue! The word ‘Instagrammable’ has made its way into the Cambridge Dictionary. Its definition? ‘Attractive or interesting enough to be suitable for photographing and posting on the social media service Instagram’.

With the modern-day requirement to be aesthetically pleasing, venues must pull out all the stops to make themselves insta-worthy.

If you’re on the hunt for an instagrammable venue, here’s a list of some of our favourites.

Your next instagrammable venue:

Edwardian Manchester

The Edwardian Manchester oozes in modern luxury and style. Set in Manchester’s historic Free Trade Hall, it has elegant rooms and suites. It offers a luxurious spa, large swimming pool, and free high-speed Wi-Fi on unlimited devices.

Guests can experience shared dining in Manchester with contemporary Japanese and Mexican small plates at Peter Street Kitchen.

The hotel sits next to Manchester Central and Conference Quarter. And, close to buzzing Deansgate, each of Manchester’s rail stations is links here by a free shuttle bus. 

This 5-star hotel has 22 fully-equipped meeting rooms and one spectacular event room with a capacity for 550 people. It is ideal for board meetings, training courses, exhibitions, and private dining, with each room offering maximum flexibility. The Halle Suite is Manchester’s largest venue with natural daylight. 

All rooms offer air conditioning, the latest technology, and complimentary Wi-Fi.

The Queens Hotel

One of the most iconic buildings in Leeds city centre, The Queens Leeds has been welcoming guests since 1937. Its guests follow in the illustrious footsteps of Princess Grace of Monaco, Cary Grant, Nelson Mandela, and Laurel and Hardy.

The Queens Hotel’s 13 meeting and event rooms have all recently had investment and have been completely modernised. However, all still pay homage to the hotel’s 1930s art deco styling. The hotel is home to 232 bedrooms and suite – refurbished in 2021 – and the Grand Pacific restaurant and bar.

Whether you’re here for a drinks reception or business meeting, the team ensures a fabulous stay. The hotel has a private entrance from Leeds Station concourse, making it easily accessible. 

Oulton Hall Leeds

Oulton Hall is four miles south of Leeds city centre. It is home to 152 bedrooms and a luxury spa with ten treatment rooms for ultimate relaxation.

There are ample grounds for team building days, making Oulton Hall the perfect location for all event types. They offer a highly acclaimed 27-hole golf course, beautifully maintained and preened to perfection.

Check out the spa for relaxing after a hard day. Or dine and drink in the hotel’s AA Rosette award-winning restaurant and Champagne Bar.

Oulton Hall has nine flexible rooms, some small and intimate, others large and spectacular. The spaces include the grand Oulton Suite, which can accommodate up to 350 people. And chefs can cook a feast for a few hundred or provide coffee and snacks at just the right time. Private dining is available on request, and the bar is always open.

The Londoner

The Londoner is described as boutique in feel yet staggering in scale; individual, intimate, eclectic and curated. It is a perfect collection of spaces, tastes, and textures brought to life over 15 floors in London’s legendary square. The hotel is home to 350 exquisite bedrooms and suites, each with unique views of London. 

The Londoner has a wide collection of restaurants and bars. They include alfresco dining on the ground floor and a rooftop bar. It boasts a magnificent ballroom, private meeting and events spaces, an urban spa experience and two Odeon Luxe screening theatres.

Guests have exclusive access to The Residence, a 24-hour residents-only club. Professionals can enjoy the alluring change in the Y Bar. From a place to work during the day to a nightly scene for socialising, cocktails and light bites. Or they can follow a secret passage to The Whiskey Room.

There is plenty of space for meetings and events. The Londoner’s Ballroom accommodates up to 864 guests. The Green Room hosts bespoke events for up to 150 guests. The Gallery’s seven private meeting rooms complement The Londoner meeting and events offering. The spaces can be used for individual events, private dining and additional break-out areas.

What lies at the heart of its event delivery? A commitment to exceptional service, bespoke planning, the latest technology, and in-house AV portfolio.

Bloomsbury Hotel

The Bloomsbury is close to London’s West End – Theatreland, Covent Garden and Soho. It sits in the 18th-century neighbourhood by the same name. And the instagrammable venue’s restored Grade II-listed neo-Georgian architecture reflects its rich heritage.

The property was designed in the 1930s by Sir Edwin Lutyens, one of the greatest British architects of his time. Its signature features include a magnificent stone frontage, stunning double-height bar and Lutyens-designed ironwork. 

A recent transformation makes for an even more spectacular aesthetic. The entrance was relocated to the side of the hotel. Guests now enter a new Lutyens-influenced sitting room complete with heritage-inspired botanical wallpaper via a private lane. The Bloomsbury Hotel was the Number 3 hotel in London in the 2018 Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards.

Down Hall Hotel

Down Hall Hotel is one of England’s most established country house hotels dating back to 1322. This instagrammable venue is grand and ornate, yet light and airy. It is in a great location! It’s nine miles from Stansted Airport, 40 minutes from central London by train, and close to the M11 and M25.

It has grounds big enough for every imaginable team build activity. From laser clays and Segway challenges to 4×4 driving experiences, archery and more! With 14 private dining and meeting spaces, it can host everything from boardroom meetings to functions for up to 200.

Its four private rooms within the Mansion House all have high ceilings and natural light. And they combine with original characteristics – open fireplaces and Edwardian-style doorways – to give comfortable surroundings and a homely feel. What’s more, ten private rooms in the West Wing include a ballroom cater for 180, or 200 theatre style.

voco Grand Central Station

Right in the heart of Glasgow is the outstanding voco Grand Central Station. This is a venue beyond compare. It offers a stunning setting for intimate meals with business partners or extravagant parties for up to 400 guests.

Each space offers its character and style – choose what works best for you. The Grand Room is its showstopper space, blending rich architecture with 21st-century touches.

This instagrammable venue offers a warm, unstuffy and modern place to host your meeting. You can focus on the bigger picture and let the hotel take care of the details. Your guests will enjoy getting to know each other and learning in an unpretentious and inspirational setting. 

Does an instagrammable venue in our list stand out for your event or meeting? Follow the links in the feature to check out the full venue profile pages, and to book. Or contact us to find out more.

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Social media: our guide to before, during and after your event

Which social media channels should you use? The best thing is to use all of the ones that you think will reach your target audience and tailor the messages to the audiences on different channels. You’ll quickly find out which ones work best for your event and after an initial campaign, you’ll know which ones to focus on. Don’t disregard Pintrest which has 250 million active users every month.

The objective is to make your event a great experience for attendees from beginning to end and to achieve that you’ll need to be creative.

Here are our tips for social media activity before, during and after the event.

Before the event

  • Create a unique #, or if it is a repeat event continue to use the previous one to maintain momentum and pick up previous attendees
  • Make your social media schedule available to everyone, so that they know what is going on and like, share etc, to get your message to as many people as possible
  • Consider if it would help to work with an influencer, who can endorse your event and bring it to a wider audience
  • Boost posts – look at what’s working and target that audience
  • Create a Facebook Event page
  • Share good content – a constant drip feed of information works well

Content

  • Tailor content to each platform
  • Tell everyone what’s new and why they should attend
  • Publish interviews with speakers
  • Become a guest on a relevant podcast
  • Use videos, particularly with speakers, particularly if they have controversial views
  • Do something different to attract attention

During the event

  • Run a social media contest to get everyone involved and active
  • Feature interviews with speakers
  • Use testimonials from attendees and quotes from speakers
  • Carry out live podcasting
  • Publish photos of the day
  • Post a video recap of the day

After the event

  • Publish testimonials from attendees
  • Use comments, responses and answers to questions from speakers
  • Post an event podcast
  • Circulate a video of the event and round up of photos

Throughout the process it’s a good idea to monitor Return on Investment. You’ll be able to see what has worked and what hasn’t ready for other events or if you are repeating this one at a later date. Eventbrite’s research has shown that 30% of people who watch a livestream of an event will attend the same event the following year, so it’s well worth incorporating some live streaming in your activity.

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Using video to promote an event, have you tried it yet?

Videos on social media are users’ favourite content and are twice as popular as photos and four times more popular than text posts. A report from the US video company Animoto has revealed that video content has the best return on investment for marketers on social media. 88% of people surveyed were pleased with the ROI of their video marketing efforts and 93% percent said that they gained a new customer or client thanks to a video on social media.

Many event organisers still haven’t tried video, but it’s a good idea to build it in to the marketing strategy, in the following ways:

  • Launch video: this will drive awareness and create excitement – let everyone know what is happening and when.
  • Run-up to the event: share details of speakers, the programme, exhibitors and any additions to the event
  • About the event: answer the key basics – what time is the event starting, where is it and how to get there, what they should expect, things to remember or bring
  • Afterwards: relive the excitement and successes for attendees and let people who didn’t attend know that they missed out. Invite people back next year and thank everyone involved.

Video formats

In social media feeds, square videos are most popular as they take up to 78% more space in a mobile feed than horizontal shots. Instagram stories uses a vertical format of Instagram Stories and as a result vertical video is growing. So, make your news feed videos are square to get the most screen coverage. Also look at Instagram Stories for tips. Instagram is deisgned to be instant and personal, so it’s not necessary to have expensive, professional videos and content filmed on a phone works fine.

Video is getting shorter and shorter, because of the power of Instagram Stories which encourages stories to be told in moments. By making a video short, viewers are most likely to watch all of it. Between 10-30 seconds is ideal, using 2 second clips to get the message across quickly. There’s only a second or two to capture a viewer’s attention as they are scrolling down a page.

Check for news about your event, industry information, the speakers, attendees and react to it quickly. Use anything relevant in a video summary to keep promoting your messages.

Use a mobile phone to collect quick clips immediately and try to get the right shots, some of the ones you’ll need are:

Close-up shots that capture emotion — people having fun, cheering, concentrating, networking
Crowd shots – showing the volume of people, as well as the venue and what’s happening
Shots of performers, speakers, presenters on stage — try to capture questions, applause or laughter from the audience
Testimonials and soundbites from attendees sharing what they get out of your event
Shots from the stage, showing the audience from the presenter’s view
Use a drone to capture aerial shots of the entire event, but make sure you are insured if you are flying over people.
Product and merchandise clips, which can be used to set the scene

Create the video

You can either use a template or create the video from scratch. Firstly, decide the order of the clips, but don’t use a logo at the beginning. Use the first few seconds to capture the viewer’s attention with something exciting and stop them scrolling further.

Tests show that text at the top of the video clip work best on opening clips. Think about asking a question to keep people watching. Put your call to action in the middle of the video, as well as other places, in case viewers don’t get to the end.

Build your video promotion strategy

Facebook and Instagram prioritise video in their algorithm, which means that your organic posts will reach a greater audience. If you are paying for ads it should result in more sales.

Facebook

There are more than 1.47 billion daily users of Facebook and can be used successfully if you:

  • Target a defined market
  • Have a Facebook Events page
  • Use Facebook’s targeted advertising options
  • Avoid a hard sell because Facebook is a personal space for friends, conversation, not sales pitches
  • Create square videos, which appear bigger in the news feed
  • Make videos that work without sound, because 85% of viewers scroll through their feeds with sound disabled

Instagram

This site is about images and stunning visuals to build your brand. It’s good if:

  • Your audience is young and your event imagery visually enticing
  • You can work with influencers who have a big following on this platform and can help you cross-promote
  • You have more than 10,000 followers, which means that you can use the “swipe up” function of Instagram Stories to connect to your registration page
  • Include a call to action button to convert interest to sales.

As well as the social media platforms, videos can be used elsewhere too …

  • On email: if you use the word “video” in a subject line it will increase open rates.
  • Website: make sure the latest video is embedded on your Home Page.
  • YouTube: it’s the world’s second-largest search engine (after Google), so posting a video there increases your chances of being seen with little effort.
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Why choose an unusual venue for your event?

There are lots of good reasons to choose a different or unusual venue for your event. Somewhere that has the ‘wow’ factor or is popular on social media will boost attendance because people want to go there. We all know about museums, sporting venues, castles etc, but now it’s all about what’s new. It’s not always easy to find a desirable venue, but look at Instagram and check which have created a great brand.

Of course, you need to follow the normal rules and consider the overall capacity, whether the space will work, access for production and caterers etc as well as the objectives and finding somewhere to match your brand. But if you’ve got the creative juices going then it’s time to think outside the box and find a venue to match your message.

Create an amazing first impression

This will start with the event invitation, people will want to attend and be part of your experience. Don’t only think about the venue, but what about the entrance and is there outside space? Build the excitement before people arrive.

Hire a bar or restaurant

There are new places launching all the time, some have private dining and some can be hired privately. Rooftops are really popular, so how about the B&H Garden Room on a rooftop in Leicester Square which has great views. Or Ours in South Kensington and Sushi Samba both have private dining rooms for small groups and are places that people want to be seen.

Hotels

The ME London can now privatise the Atrium area on their 1st floor for events and Zela is a new restaurant on the ground floor. The Curtain in Shoreditch can privatise their Lido Deck restaurant at some times of the year.

Cafés

The café culture has exploded in recent years and these destination venues are particularly good for a breakfast or lunch event. Take a look at
Feya and Butterscotch as well as the Elan Café, which has flower walls and LED lighting. Just one thing to watch for is that not all cafés are licensed so you may not be able to serve alcohol.

Blank canvass

Think about a warehouse, car park, ice rink, church and farm buildings as these venues can offer a large space to create the mood you wish. The ambiance is important, but also having flexibility to do what you want.

The warning signs

There is a risk if you work with a venue whose normal business is not events. You’ll need to keep on top of the communication, check their insurance, contracts and KPIs carefully to make sure the venue can deliver as agreed. If the venue is open to the public, there may be restrictions when you can have access and when you need to return it to them.