Cheaper to use a conference center in Christchurch than in London

Some things are not cheap.Take the price of a conference venue. In the middle of St James, in London, a smallish room for a day at the Royal Academy of Engineering will set you back US$1300. And that is the smallest of the academy’s conference facilities, seating just 80 people. If you need something bigger, expect to write a substantially bigger check.But it is also true that we cannot avoid some costs. There will be many occasions when the most appropriate purchase will have to be the most expensive or at least considerably more pricey than the cheapest. And this conference center would be a good example. While we’d all like to arrange an engineering conference on the industry in Great Britain in the Bahamas, so delegates can make the most of out-of-conference times on pristine tropical beaches or snorkeling through magnificent coral reefs. But it is not even remotely probable that the bodies sending those delegates — the university research units, government organizations and commercial engineering businesses — would countenance giving the time and money needed to send their engineers to the resort hotel for the days of the conference. Alas, St James will have to do.Makes a conference center in christchurch, the English look-alike city down here in New Zealand, remarkably attractive. Conference facilities here, even set in spacious parklands, can still be only minutes from the city center and international airport.