Why Do People Have Conferences in London?
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Serious question. There seems to be no worse venue in western or central Europe. It is, along with Paris and Rome, the most expensive destination on the continent and anything but centrally located. It is one of the hardest cities to get around anywhere, mostly due to size. And its primary airport is the most problematic airport to use anywhere in the development world. Cost, logistics, location all say that London should be the most avoided destination for conferences. They are expensive to host, expensive to attend and frustrating to deal with logistically.
Even if you limit yourself to the English speaking world, London is not a good choice. There are plenty of lower cost, easier to deal with cities in the UK (English, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have decent options) and Ireland has a few great options too. All lower cost for conference holders, attendees and much lower stress to deal with.
And going outside of the English speaking world there are so many really attractive, very low cost, very easy to deal with options. I just can't believe that London is ever selected.
Other than sounding "cool" to people who don't know better (e.g. not the people who will actually attend) and maybe at a stretch being more "local" to more people, are there any benefits to it?
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It sure is expensive that's for sure.
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Company paid for sight seeing I presume has some influence on it.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Company paid for sight seeing I presume has some influence on it.
See, I would think that that would be a negative. And here is why....
- London is not a very touristy city. It's a huge city so has stuff, but for tourists it's anything but ideal.
- Doing anything "extra" is so much logistical overhead that London is one of the worst possible options for sightseeing "on the side" at a conference.
- It's so expensive that doing anything like that is pretty costly unless you just want to walk around.
- If you are doing a conference in English, who would attend that hasn't been stuck working in London already? So it's not a tourist destination but just "more of that big city I have to go work in."
- People from the UK and Ireland will do just about anything to head to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, etc.
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Ok figuring out my costs and it really is crazy expensive just to get from the airport to my hotel alone is going to cost almost $100!!
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@Minion-Queen said:
Ok figuring out my costs and it really is crazy expensive just to get from the airport to my hotel alone is going to cost almost $100!!
Yup, all the little "incidentals" in London are insane. You can live in Spain for a month for the cost of a weekend in London.
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Prestige
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Nic said:
Prestige
What's prestigious about bad planning?
People think it's a fancy city/good tourism place whether it actually is or not.
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@scottalanmiller it makes the org look good. And most of the people going are getting their costs covered by their company, so they don't give a crap how much it costs. You get to make a vacation out of it on the company dime. SpiceWorld Skegness just doesn't have the same cachet
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@Nic said:
@scottalanmiller it makes the org look good. And most of the people going are getting their costs covered by their company, so they don't give a crap how much it costs. You get to make a vacation out of it on the company dime. SpiceWorld Skegness just doesn't have the same cachet
Spiceworks Paris?
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Nic said:
Prestige
What's prestigious about bad planning?
People think it's a fancy city/good tourism place whether it actually is or not.
Maybe it's because I worked in banking, but I was completely unaware that London had a fancy city vibe. It's so often famous for having to "overcome" the bad feelings about it and actually surprises people by being a little fancy.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@Nic said:
@scottalanmiller it makes the org look good. And most of the people going are getting their costs covered by their company, so they don't give a crap how much it costs. You get to make a vacation out of it on the company dime. SpiceWorld Skegness just doesn't have the same cachet
Spiceworks Paris?
The cheap and interesting places are the warm, waterfront ones. Like Malaga, the "Costa del Sol".
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I guess that the UK location has a lot to do with the fact the SW has an office there... only guessing
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@Minion-Queen said:
Ok figuring out my costs and it really is crazy expensive just to get from the airport to my hotel alone is going to cost almost $100!!
Where are you flying into? The airport express train to Gatwick and Heathrow is about $30 one-way or $50 return, I think.
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@scottalanmiller said:
- London is not a very touristy city. It's a huge city so has stuff, but for tourists it's anything but ideal.
- Doing anything "extra" is so much logistical overhead that London is one of the worst possible options for sightseeing "on the side" at a conference.
- It's so expensive that doing anything like that is pretty costly unless you just want to walk around.
- If you are doing a conference in English, who would attend that hasn't been stuck working in London already? So it's not a tourist destination but just "more of that big city I have to go work in."
- People from the UK and Ireland will do just about anything to head to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, etc.
Not touristy? What are you on about? It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world! World class museums, architecture, history, restaurants...
A perfect day for me is an IT seminar in the morning followed by an afternoon in the The National Gallery. Well, a better day would be a morning and afternoon in The National Gallery but my work won't pay for that. And it's free! Without doubt one of the best things you can do for free in the world.
London is expensive, but I haven't found a massive difference between London and Rome or Paris or Zurich or Copenhagen or many other capital cities. Madrid and Lisbon are cheaper for sure.
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Anyway, to answer the OP question, I'm assuming you're talking referring to Spiceworks? I assume their conferences are one of their major revenue streams so I'm sure they've thought things through.
I don't know how popular the Spiceworks software is in mainland Europe, but the majority of European posters on the forums appear to be British and London is always going to be the best location for any conference that is dominated by Brits for two basic reasons:
- Transport links. All roads lead to London, as they say... You can get to London and back in a few hours from most of England. Getting to other cities can be a ball-ache. Birmingham is also good, and that's why so many conferences at the NEC there. But there's a bigger choice of venues in London.
- The majority of British IT is based in London and the South East, so it's local.
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@nadnerB said:
I guess that the UK location has a lot to do with the fact the SW has an office there... only guessing
In that particular case, the conference came before the office, I believe.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Ok figuring out my costs and it really is crazy expensive just to get from the airport to my hotel alone is going to cost almost $100!!
Where are you flying into? The airport express train to Gatwick and Heathrow is about $30 one-way or $50 return, I think.
She is going into Heathrow.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
- London is not a very touristy city. It's a huge city so has stuff, but for tourists it's anything but ideal.
- Doing anything "extra" is so much logistical overhead that London is one of the worst possible options for sightseeing "on the side" at a conference.
- It's so expensive that doing anything like that is pretty costly unless you just want to walk around.
- If you are doing a conference in English, who would attend that hasn't been stuck working in London already? So it's not a tourist destination but just "more of that big city I have to go work in."
- People from the UK and Ireland will do just about anything to head to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, etc.
Not touristy? What are you on about? It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world! World class museums, architecture, history, restaurants...
A perfect day for me is an IT seminar in the morning followed by an afternoon in the The National Gallery. Well, a better day would be a morning and afternoon in The National Gallery but my work won't pay for that. And it's free! Without doubt one of the best things you can do for free in the world.
London is expensive, but I haven't found a massive difference between London and Rome or Paris or Zurich or Copenhagen or many other capital cities. Madrid and Lisbon are cheaper for sure.
That's why I listed several of those as also bad choices. Just like you don't do conferences in NYC or Washington, D.C. in the US. Some do, and tons of people avoid them because they are so costly to attend.
