When designing your conference, make sure you make the most out of the areas away from the meeting rooms. Whether they be for greeting, seating, eating, meeting or sharing it’s wise to invest time (and budget) in these ‘social spaces’.

Other than registration and catering, the spaces away from the meeting rooms should allow people to connect. By creating the right environment and layout, socialising can be encouraged. Consider creating an interesting, relaxed and informal space – even a sense of community.

Social Seating. Make the space interesting. Design the area to encourage people to connect, using different seating e.g. pallet seating, box seating, coffee tables, picnic tables, benches, vintage trestle tables and folding chairs. This could be varied for lunch and other times of the day.

Social Activity. Why not have a selection of fun activities? Games such as table football, Batak or crazy golf can be branded and encourage interaction and conversation as well as raising energy levels. And if it's summer and there’s outside space, take them outdoors – even go all out and create a ‘playground’ with your own giant inflatable slide!

Social Eating. Maybe sharing our food doesn’t come naturally, but we think it’s the way to make eating a more social affair. But it’s not just about sharing food. It’s a chance to share ideas, war stories, sales tips, contact details. Create a social dining experience where delegates are seated at picnic tables (or similar) and share a ‘platter’ of food – making it more of a ‘picnic’ feel where the chat is as integral to the experience as the cheese:

• Sharing tables; seated in groups of 6-10

• Outdoor picnic style dining, with appropriate seating or areas to gather

• Opportunity to add branding or messaging through table décor and table cloths

• Topics of conversations can be allocated to tables/groups; iPads could be used to share feedback

• Sharing platters, which could be supplemented by market-inspired food stations