Pros and Cons

Small-town businesses sometimes have a harder time than businesses based in bigger cities. Hosting a business conference is one of these times. When you live in a small town it can be difficult to decide whether to host your business conference in town or somewhere bigger nearby. If you're talking about building luxury homes, Toronto probably has more examples you can point to than say, the city of Ajax, even if your factory is located there, so where do you hold it? Toronto or Ajax? If you're struggling with a similar decision, perhaps we can help by listing the pros and cons of hosting a business conference in the small town there it is based.

Pro: Lack of Competition

If you're hosting your business conference in a small town, there's a much smaller chance that a visiting sport team or or other conference goers will be wanting to book rooms at the same time as your conference date. Unless it's tourist season and your town is a hotspot, your need to book up every hotel room in town could go completely unchallenged, which is one less headache you need to worry about in the planning phase.

Con: Lack of Venues

However, the reason you won't have any competition is that your town isn't a popular gathering spot due to its lack of venues capable of hosting large events. Odds are there aren't any skyscrapers or major hotels to rent conference rooms from, so you may end up meeting in a high school gymnasium that smells vaguely of old sweat and is decorated with hand-painted signs cheering on the local team. More specialized conferences on information technology or computers may not even find a local fire hall or school classroom that can support their presentation software.

Pro: Having All Your Resources At Hand

If you're going to be giving a presentation at a conference it helps to be only a short drive away from the factory where you make it all happen. That way if you forget your notes in your office or the projector you brought with you craps out, you can send an aide to get them without holding the whole process up for hours or days. If the presentation generates enough interest, you also have the option of giving your attendees a tour of the facilities.

Con: Limited After Hours Options

After talking about stock trading tips, and real estate market trends all day, your attendees are going to need a break. If you're in a large city, you can take them out for drinks or to a show, whereas if you're stuck in a small town you might end up eating greasy fried food at a not-so classy diner. After-hours boredom is a major conference killer, so if you're planning on making your conferences a regular thing, make sure there's something fun to do after hours or no one will be back next year.