Planning a leadership away day in Birmingham
The best Birmingham venues for a leadership planning day have daylight, wall space for paper and room to break into groups of four. These are ten we'd shortlist, with restaurants and evening ideas.
Birmingham sits within two hours of most of England, which makes it the obvious middle ground when the leadership team is spread across the country. These are the venues we'd shortlist for a planning day in and around the city.
Ten venues we'd shortlist in and around Birmingham
What we look for: daylight, walls you can stick paper to, space to break into fours, and somewhere else to have lunch. A U-shaped table looks smart and kills conversation.
Hotel and boardroom
The Exchange
Centenary Square
The University of Birmingham's venue in the 1933 Municipal Bank, with boardroom-style rooms and a grand Assembly Room.
Hyatt Regency Birmingham
Broad Street
A city centre hotel with meeting rooms and bedrooms on site, for an overnight two-day session.
The ICC
Broad Street
The convention centre. Right when the planning day is part of a larger leadership event.
Characterful space
Birmingham & Midland Institute
City centre
A Victorian institute with heritage rooms at very good value.
Library of Birmingham
Centenary Square
A meeting suite with daylight and views over Centenary Square, plus a garden terrace.
Fazeley Studios
Digbeth
A refurbished chapel with several spaces, in Birmingham's creative quarter.
Innovation and tech
Innovation Birmingham Campus
Knowledge Quarter
Bruntwood SciTech's tech campus by Aston University, with meeting rooms from £25 an hour and a 180-seat auditorium.
Good value
Edgbaston Stadium
Edgbaston
Conference suites overlooking the cricket ground, with parking, which is rare in the city.
Country house within an hour
Hampton Manor
Hampton-in-Arden
A restaurant-with-rooms country house near Birmingham International, suited to exclusive use by a small senior team.
Coombe Abbey
Near Coventry
A former abbey in parkland, about 30 minutes from Birmingham, for a residential retreat.
Dinner for the team
Somewhere that takes a group of eight to fifteen without splitting the table.
Dishoom
Chamberlain Square
Group feasts by Centenary Square, walkable from The Exchange and the Library.
Opheem
Summer Row
Progressive Indian cooking. A board dinner people remember.
Digbeth Dining Club
Digbeth
Street food traders on Thursday to Saturday nights. Relaxed and cheap.
Hotel du Vin
Church Street
Private dining rooms in a converted Victorian eye hospital.
Gaucho
Colmore Row
Steak and private dining in the business district.
Evening activities that aren't cheesy
Short, a bit competitive, and over in an hour, so nobody feels trapped.
Flight Club
Temple Street
Social darts across 13 oches, with food and drinks.
Roxy Ball Room
Victoria Square
Pool, crazy golf and shuffleboard, with bookable group areas. Roxy Lanes in Digbeth adds bowling.
Golf Fang
Custard Factory, Digbeth
Graffiti crazy golf, formerly Ghetto Golf, with karaoke and AR darts.
NQ64
Custard Factory, Digbeth
A retro arcade bar for a nostalgic, low-stakes evening.
Boom Battle Bar
Broad Street
Augmented reality axe throwing, shuffleboard and karaoke rooms.
Getting there
New Street is a 10 to 15 minute walk from Centenary Square, The Exchange and the Library of Birmingham. Innovation Birmingham Campus is about 15 minutes' walk from New Street. Hampton Manor is a few minutes from Birmingham International, by the airport.
Planning facilitation in Birmingham
We run strategy days, away days and ai strategy workshops in Birmingham, at any of these venues or your own.
Questions people ask first
Do you get paid for recommending these venues?
No. We don't take commission from any venue, restaurant or activity on this page. They're here because they suit a leadership planning day.
Can you run our day at a venue that isn't listed?
Yes. Tell us the room and we'll plan around it, anywhere in or around Birmingham. What matters most is daylight, wall space for paper and room to break into groups of four.
How many people should be in the room?
Eight to fifteen is the sweet spot for making decisions. Everyone there should be deciding, informing a decision or owning the work that follows. We run larger groups too, with more structure.
Where do you work?
Anywhere in the UK, including London, Manchester and Birmingham, plus Europe and the US. In person or online.
Researched October 2026. We don't take commission, and listing a venue doesn't mean we've run a session there. Check availability and prices direct.
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Tell us what has to be decided.
Thirty minutes with Matt Roberts. Tell us who'll be in the room and what you need by the end, and we'll tell you how we'd run it.