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If you organise conferences for a living, you can probably picture the all-too-familiar beige function room without trying. Theatre-style rows, a lectern stage left, and coffee and biscuits on a table by the door. It works, and that’s exactly why it gets booked. Nobody on the leadership team is going to question booking somewhere with the right capacity and the basics covered.
Plenty of excellent conferences happen in rooms just like that. The content, the speakers and the people carry the day, and a good hotel knows how to stay out of their way.
But a venue can either contribute to the experience or simply contain it, and the familiar function room is built to do the latter well.
That difference matters more than ever, and it’s why a growing number of businesses are looking past the default and choosing sporting venues for their conferences.
Why the venue matters more than you think
For years, venue choice came down to price and availability, but the measures have changed. Cvent’s 2026 Global Planner Sourcing Report, which surveyed 1,650 event professionals, found that attendee engagement is now the leading measure of a successful event, with 63% of planners citing it as their primary KPI.
That changes what you’re paying for with conference venue hire. No venue makes a conference engaging on its own, but if engagement is what your event will be judged on, it’s worth choosing a setting that pulls in the same direction.
The “safe” choice that isn’t as common as it feels
Part of what makes the conference hotel feel safe is the sense that everyone else is booking one too, and it feels like the default. The same Cvent report paints a more mixed picture, with almost half of planners (48%) now sourcing non-hotel venues, which Cvent describe as a “dramatic increase over recent years”.
This doesn’t make the hotel the wrong call. For plenty of events, it’s the right one. Just don’t mistake familiarity for fit, or feel that looking beyond the hotel is going out on a limb.
Why organisers usually choose between character and capacity
For a conference, the natural first step is a purpose-built convention or conference centre, which 40% of planners are sourcing. They’re flexible and cost-effective, and like hotels, conference centres are familiar choices for good reasons. A sporting venue can offer much of the same infrastructure while adding a setting delegates don’t encounter every week.
Stadiums and arenas are on the same list, with more than one in five organisers already counting a sporting ground among the venues worth shortlisting. Of the unique conference venues on that list, they’re among the few that can match a conference centre on scale.
A sporting ground is designed to move thousands of people through on a match day. Its stands are lined with hospitality suites, committee rooms and bars, so the same site can run a 310-strong conference and a board meeting for twelve down the corridor. A room overlooking the pitch needs very little help from a theming company too.
Making your next conference one to remember
The Cooper Associates County Ground is the home of Somerset Cricket, a club founded in 1875 that has played at the ground since 1882. It’s still a working international ground that has hosted World Cup cricket, and it runs conferences, exhibitions and business events alongside the cricket. Within the same ground sit nine separate spaces, from intimate Meeting Rooms for up to 15 to The 1875 Club (120), The Long Room (150) and The County Room, which seats 310 for a conference and flexes down to a boardroom of 80. Book The Pitch itself and the ceiling disappears altogether, with room for up to 15,000.
That range holds its character while it scales. The Long Room’s glass frontage opens onto a balcony over the ground, with views looking out across Taunton’s church spires. Most of the other suites are pitch-facing too, with views towards the Quantock Hills. Each of the main rooms, The 1875 Club, The Long Room and The County Room, has its own bar, so a session can move straight into a drinks reception without anyone changing rooms.
Every main space comes with the infrastructure a conference needs: a video wall in The County Room, 86-inch screens in The 1875 Club and The Long Room, and the option to link The Long Room and The County Room’s AV together for a session that needs to run across both. Wi-Fi is free and covers the whole site. For anything that needs breakout space alongside a main session, the Meeting Rooms double as breakout space for larger events on-site, so groups can split off without ever leaving the building
Day delegate catering starts from £40 a head, with morning and afternoon refreshments and a working lunch included as standard, and the venue’s catering partner, Thomas Franks, handling the food. On-site parking can be built straight into the booking, useful given the venue is seven minutes from junction 25 of the M5 and under a mile’s walk from Taunton railway station. For delegates staying over, the area is well served by local hotels and guest houses too.
Explore our spaces host a conferences at CACG
Speak to an event coordinator
Planning a conference in Somerset? Talk to the events team about what you need the day to do and we’ll build from there. We’ll match you with the right space and take care of the catering and practical details around it.
Get in touch with the events team on 01823 425301 or at events@somersetcountycc.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
Booking a working international cricket ground raises a few practical questions that a hotel conference suite never has to answer. Here’s what planners usually want settled before they commit a date.
Will our event clash with a match day or another event on-site?
Not without you knowing. When you enquire, our events team checks your date against the ground’s fixtures and events calendar and comes back to you before anything is confirmed.
Is the catering geared towards matchday crowds, or proper business dining?
Proper business dining. Conference and event catering runs separately from match days, through our catering partner, Thomas Franks, who builds menus around fresh, locally sourced ingredients and tailors them to the audience in the room. Day delegate packages include a working lunch, not concession food, and for private dining we offer three set banqueting menus, from £30 a head for two courses, running to dishes like salmon en croûte and duck cooked two ways. It’s built for a client dinner, not a pie and a pint at the lunch interval.
Can the venue support a hybrid or livestreamed event?
Yes. Our events team can build a livestreamed or hybrid element into a conference, seminar or workshop, so anyone who isn’t on site can still take part. Video conferencing is also available as an add-on rather than a standard inclusion, so it’s subject to availability and comes with an additional charge.
Is a sporting venue only worth it for large events, or does it work for a boardroom meeting too?
It works just as well for small meetings as it does for a conference of 310. Our intimate Meeting Rooms hold up to 15 for a boardroom-style session, with a 43-inch Hi-Def screen, full video conferencing and the same pitch-facing views and free Wi-Fi as the larger spaces. At the other end of the scale, The County Room seats 310 theatre-style for a full conference, with its own video wall and bar. A small meeting doesn’t get a scaled-down version of the venue’s identity, just a smaller room on the same ground.
Is the venue fully accessible?
Yes. The venue is fully accessible, with lifts to additional floors across every building. Our main spaces, from the Meeting Rooms up to The County Room, have disabled access as standard. Step-free routes and accessible facilities are built in, not treated as a special request.
