Webupon

http://www.venues.org.uk/

Very simply, this is a directory of places in the United Kingdom you can book in which you can hold celebrations, meeting, events or any other gathering for which a venue is required.  In scope it covers just about everything from stag parties to sporting venues to business meetings and includes such things as wedding receptions and even motor racing courses for that ultimate corporate event! 

Until we looked at this site, we really had no idea that were so many categories, let alone individual venues!

So what would you use it for?  Let’s say you want to organise a seminar for up to 100 people in Bradford.  You choose ‘Meeting’ from the left hand menu and, when the page opens, enter ‘Bradford’ as the venue type and choose the capacity and then let the webpage find you a venue.

This brings up a sizeable list of possible venues and clicking on an individual one brings up the page on this site that gives more details along with a map and a link to even more information.  As a member you can, of course, add this to your shortlist.

We spent a little time here looking at the various venues and were impressed with the professionalism of the information presented which is both clear and comprehensive.  We were also impressed with the scope and number of venues that are listed.

For anyone who has to book rooms or venues for meetings on a regular basis or who, say, books events in different parts of the country, then this could save a lot of time.  But it works, too, for the less formal and more one-off things in life like weddings or maybe arranging the firm’s Christmas lunch.  In fact, for just about any event imaginable there seems to be a category and each category is well stocked with possible places to choose.

In addition, choosing ‘Events’ from the tab in the left hand menu brings you a long list of possible event venues but this is obviously a new feature as, on the day we looked, many of the categories were blank.  However, this may be a feature to keep an eye on.

In use, the site is pleasant to look at, simple to navigate, well laid out and every part works in a logical and easy to follow manner while all the pages are quick to load.

If this is your first visit, make a point of going to the bottom of the page and choosing the ‘FAQ’ to get some important information and then read the ‘Testimonials’ to see that we were not the only people who were impressed.

So, the concept is very simple, you want to find a place for an event or a room for a particular purpose and the webpage software matches your need with a list of possible venues from which you can choose the one that you want. 

We are not, we think, easily impressed but this is a good and useful site that works quickly, efficiently and well so that it makes light work of what can otherwise be a difficult and time consuming task.  A definite bookmark!