5 unusual venues for your next Glasgow business meeting

Looking for a place in Glasgow to hold your next business meeting? These quirky and stylish venues may help get the creative juices flowing more smoothly than the usual serviced offices or airport hotels.

The Clyde Maritime Trust's Tall Ship will show you the ropes

Alea Casino, Springfield Quay. This luxury casino off Paisley Road, owned by Caesars Entertainment, says its versatile function space is the ideal location for a wide range of private and corporate events, including product launches and conferences. The Face-to-Face room is perhaps better suited to larger events such as presentations and team-building exercises, while its Red Leaf private dining room, capable of holding up to 18 guests, boasts its own balcony with views over the river.

The Tall Ship at Riverside, 150 Pointhouse Place. Billed as Glasgow’s “most original” venue for corporate entertaining, the Glenlee was built in 1896 and is now the only Clydebuilt sailing ship still afloat in the UK. Owned by the Clyde Maritime Trust, the vessel mixes 19th century charm with modern facilities and can accommodate up to 150 people for dining and up to 200 for a reception. The flexible space allows organisers to use their imagination while the Encore catering company can provide all the facilities required to ensure a smooth event.

Blythswood Square Hotel, 11 Blythswood Square. Behind the doors of this five-star spa hotel, which was once the home of the Royal Scottish Automobile Club, lie a variety of meeting spaces – including a 40-seater cinema that its owner, The Town House Collection, says is ideal for private film screenings, product launches or presentations. The hotel also includes the Monte Carlo Suite, which can accommodate 52 guests – either around one “magnificent” centre table or at individual tables – and the Rally Bar, named after the Monte Carlo rally that started from Blythswood Square in 1955. The bar has been restored using the original wood-panelled walls and fireplace and is available to hire for private events or to complement the Monte Carlo Suite for larger gatherings.

Alea Casino has a private dining room with views over the Clyde. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

SocietyM, 60 Renfrew Street. The sister brand to citizenM hotels offers meeting rooms that can hold up to 50 people, offering WiFi, flatscreens and “wipe-clean walls” – presumably for flowcharts, brain storming and other business doodles. Half- and full-day packages are available that include breakfast pastries, lunch and unlimited tea and coffee. SocietyM, which also has outposts in Amsterdam, London, New York, Paris and Rotterdam, says it welcomes “slick suits, entrepreneurs, scruffy designers, big time CEOs and small time start-ups”.

Teacher Building, 14 St Enoch Square. A short walk from Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations, this venue – built in the 1870s as the home of Teacher’s Whisky – has 14 multi-use rooms, the largest of which can accommodate 200 guests. Keeping with the whisky theme, its Laphroaig Lecture Theatre boasts tiered seating and a “cutting-edge” AV control room that enables filming, web streaming and MP3 recording. As part of a not-for-profit organisation, the venue stresses that it knows the “importance of keeping events well within budget”.