Every year Arup brings together most of its most senior staff members in what is called its Annual General Meeting. When i joined the firm about ten years ago it was hosted in our Bristol, England office which has a small theatre on the premises. That was when the numbers were around one hundred. Now, we need a place to suit a group closer to twice that and Bristol is simply too small. So what did we do?

Arup could really choose hundreds of venues around the London area. So, we found a conference centre that is directly on the flight path from Heathrow Airport. Not only is it on the flight path, but it is directly near the point where the jets do a 180 degree turn just to make sure that we get a double dose and don’t sleep in late. Additionally, the rooms have no air conditioning of any kind so that in order to breathe the windows need to be open. which is fine normally, but on the flight path……gads!

Such a meeting should be designed, not simply held. I really hate it when potential is wasted.