When a Conference Becomes a Festival
Business events are borrowing the festival's shape, with many stages, open ground and fringe venues, and the plan has to change with it.
This guide covers business conferences run as festivals, with many stages, open ground and fringe venues. It shows what changes on the plan, from planning by draw and keeping stages apart to routes, weather and quiet meeting places. It ends with a seven-question test of whether the format suits your audience.
A festival-style conference trades one hall and one fixed agenda for a site. There are several stages, open ground between them and side venues people drift to. The format can draw crowds a ballroom never would. It also breaks most habits of conference planning. This guide shows what changes on the plan, and how to test whether your audience wants it.
More festival than event
UKREiiF is a property and infrastructure forum held each May in Leeds. It began in 2022 and drew 9,500 official and fringe delegates in 2023. Its shape is closer to a festival than a conference.
The shape explains the label. The forum uses the Royal Armouries museum and a series of marquees, with fringe events across the city. People choose their own route through the day. The program is a menu, not a timetable. The ground between venues is part of the event.
That changes the planner's job. In a hall, you plan rooms. On a festival site, you plan choices.
A site map instead of a room plan
A conference plan lists rooms and how many each holds. A festival-style conference needs a site map. It shows every stage and venue, the walking routes and the time each walk takes. Show minutes, not meters, because people decide by time.
Capacity works differently too. In a hall, registration tells you roughly who goes where. On a site, people follow names and word of mouth. So plan by draw. Rate each session as high, medium or low draw, and put high-draw sessions in the largest venues. Never put a big name in a small tent, or the crowd outside becomes the event. When two high-draw sessions clash, keep them far apart, so their crowds do not meet on one path.
- High, medium or low. Overflow plan: Screen, repeat or stream.
When fringe events spread into buildings across a city, the city is the venue covers the routes between them.
Keep stages from bleeding into each other
A marquee wall does not stop sound. Two stages close together will hear each other, and a quiet panel will lose to a band every time. Separate stages by distance first. Then point them away from each other, so neither sound system fires toward the other crowd. Where the stage should face covers this in detail.
Then separate by schedule. Do not run a loud stage next to a talk. Some formats put talks on wireless headphones, so a session can run in open space with no speakers at all. Inside a hall, the same problem shows up between breakouts, and pipe and drape is not a wall explains why.
Routes and places to pause
The space between stages is where a festival-style conference does its networking. Plan it like a street, not a corridor. Size routes for the wave that leaves the biggest stage. Put places to pause along them, with shade, seats, power and coffee.
Use food and bars as anchors. In a hall, catering serves the break. On a site, it pulls people along a route. Put the best coffee at the far end of a path you want people to walk. Put food where several routes meet. Give each anchor a name people can use to meet.
Put signs with walking times at every junction. A guest who knows a session is six minutes away will go. One who has to guess will stay put.
Weather, licenses and the outdoors
Open ground and marquees bring problems a hall never has. Plan a covered or short route between venues for rain. Plan shade and water for heat. Check the wind limit of every temporary structure, and agree who decides to close one. Outdoor areas usually need their own licenses too, for example for alcohol and music.
The outdoor parts need their own to-scale site plan, with zones, routes, capacity, welfare and fire points. Space planning for festivals and outdoor events sets out how to draw one.
Quiet places for meetings
A business festival still runs on meetings. Guests come to do deals, and deals need quiet, seats and a table. Do not leave them to find a corner.
Plan meeting places on purpose. Offer tables people can book in short slots, near the main entrance, with power and steady Wi-Fi. Add small rooms with doors for private talks. Keep them a short walk from the main stage, so a meeting does not cost a session. Mark them all on the site map.
Does your audience want a festival-style conference?
The format suits some audiences and wears out others. Run this test before you commit.
- Do people come mainly to meet each other, rather than to sit in sessions?
- Will they walk between venues, in any weather?
- Can key sessions be repeated or streamed, so nobody misses the one they came for?
- Do sponsors want stages or fringe events of their own?
- Are there venues within walking distance of each other?
- Can the site serve people who need step-free routes, quiet or a seat?
- Can your team run many venues at once?
Plan the site first
If most answers are no, keep one venue and borrow one festival idea, such as a fringe evening. If most are yes, plan the site before the program, because the site decides what the program can do.
Frequently asked questions
What is a festival-style conference?
It is a business event run on a site rather than in one hall. There are several stages, open ground and fringe venues, and guests choose their own route. The program works like a menu, and the space between venues is where much of the networking happens.
How is a festival-style conference planned differently?
You plan a site map with walking times instead of a room plan. Sessions are placed by how many people they will draw. Stages are kept apart by distance, direction and schedule, and food, shade, seats and meeting places are set along the routes between them.
Does the festival format suit every business audience?
No. It suits audiences who come mainly to meet each other and will walk between venues. It wears out audiences who come for sessions, need a seat or have little time. Some events borrow one festival idea, such as a fringe evening, and keep one venue.
Each hall and meeting room in a festival-style conference still needs its own to-scale plan. Monet lays out each indoor space from the venue plan and a brief, and re-runs its exit clearance and crowd-flow checks after every change.