Opening a conference \ training facility...need advise...

[WASH PC]

Opening a conference \ training facility...need advice...

So our business has been very successful over the past year, and the overwhelming need in our area has been for training, and a high tech conference center. by hi tech i mean offering internet access and a projector, as the current conference center has none of these, just a large open room. we have the floor plans, currently just a 1500+ sq ft facility, with rest rooms in the back, and a projector wall. we are thinking of a name, and some ideas as to what we can put inside and offer. suggestions?

tl;dr opening a conference center, need ideas and a name.

 

[minc3d]

Sounds like a great idea! Training is definitely some big money today in the IT field, and here are some of my suggestions:

* Install 2 LCD projectors that can display an image against two walls. This ensures all visitors can see the screen equally well. Just use a splitter to accomplish the setup - cheap.

* Install a nice shock mounted mic for doing any possible recordings of the trainings in the room, and a nice wall mounted webcam for recording as well. Nicer quality units, perhaps something from Axis on the webcam front.

* Ensure that any kind of PCs you offer have a plethora of front access bays, even media card readers on the front is best. Giving people the breadth of choices they need for any kind of training and usage is always best, and not expensive to implement.

* The other important aspect is internet bandwidth. Training sessions that use web apps, especially things like Google products, eat internet juice quick in large numbers. For a room that has maybe 20-30 systems for training needs, I would expect at least a 15-25MB pipeline for clean usage.

Any other thoughts always welcome! But good luck on this!

 

[PC-MOT]

Don't forget as well, when you are dividing up your space, you may need/want to allow room for:

- Your offices
- Whether you are going to offer food and beverages (may increase spend)
- A few different rooms for 2 or more seminars
- Maybe a more private 'executive' type suite or boardroom for 15 or so people only, at a higher rate of hire, fitted with conference calling, video screens etc as well as all the gear the other rooms have

Just a few ideas for you.

 

[bigcuedaddy]

I LOVE the idea! I would like to start something like that in my area as well. My concept for my company from the get-go was to be training-centric, with repair as a supporting convenience for my clients. I still want to go in that direction.

The name needs to be uniquely you, and something the clients in your area will connect with. Dogs are incredibly popular here in Central Oregon, thus my name.

good luck!

 

[minc3d]

I would ideally branch out into something similar one day, given the space was large enough for me to make my office in as well so I could be there onsite when people were using the training room/conf room. Otherwise, I dont know if I could supplant having another rental space unless the income was good enough from it.

 

[WASH PC]

thanks for all the kind words, we are really excited about it. i will have to upload the most recent set of plans for all to see how we have the whole thing setup. we have it attached to our new shop which we signed the lease on this past monday. we are really excited about the new place, very high tech.

 

[minc3d]

WASH PC, def post those layout plans! Curious to see how you are structuring the space.

 

[bigcuedaddy]

Yeah, please do post.

BTW, are you drawing any client business from St Louis?

The reason I ask, my area here is fairly rural, 100,000+- in the county, no big cities close-by. I know of a local company that proctors the Microsoft exams, and their setup is horrible, I took the Server 2008 test on a 14" laptop with a broken keyboard. Training at the local community college is pathetic. But, having the facilities available and having people who want to PAY to use them is two different things. Overall, I'm not completely sure we could get enough traffic to make it profitable here.

 

[WASH PC]

We are actually drawing quite a bit of business from the area about 35 - 40 miles around us. We started with a small 900 sq ft. shop and ran out of room in our server room, sales floor, and office space about 4 months ago, so we are still packed in our old space like sardines.

Our conference area (seen on the left side, labeled as Open Office... haha) is just the floor plan right now. We need to get it setup still and we are mostly looking for small - medium business clients to come and rent the space from us for 4 - 8 hours at a time. There is a local hotel that has an "expo center" that is really just a big open building a bit larger than our 1500 sq ft conference center, but provides no support, no setup, no internet, no phones, no projector, nothing. We are going to offer all of this at about the price as their expo center. Ours should be a bit more professional for business looking to do training \ meetings etc. We also have a lot of larger corporations around us, and medical facilities that have already expressed interest in using our space. We also plan to use this space for our own training purposes, lots of older people in our area that need to learn about technology. One more thing that has been expressed interest (still debating if we will offer this or not) is a LAN party place on weekends. Thoughts?

 

[WASH PC]

...larger image, the upload was shrunk down.

http://i.imgur.com/lPqRG.png

also keep in mind that these 2 entities will be 2 separate facilities, but run and managed by 1. there is a doorway that can be unlocked to enter the lunch room area of our space for catering ans such

 

[bigcuedaddy]

What are you displaying in your showroom?