Why hosting a mini conference in a university rocks?

In 2026 the Swiss Service Design Day was hosted at HSLU, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Hosting this small event there made the work much easier for the volunteers. As everything is already set up for conference and workshop modes.

• Atmosphere: universities often have nice spaces, both inside and outside that are optimized for learning.
• Rooms: you can just reserve rooms, and they are already setup by default in a setting that can be used for a workshop or a talk with all the material.
• Cafeteria: you have a cafeteria with cheap enough prices, and with the possibility to warm your meal that you brought from home.
• Cleaning: the final cleaning is taken care of by cleaning staff who already does the cleaning.

Compared to hosting a community event in a lab, or in an agency, being in an university is much easier for the organizing team. There is nearly no room setup needed and all the infrastructure is already optimized for learning and working.

And univiersities are very happy to host events for free when they have someone of the community who is part of the staff of the university and when the topic of the day links with programs they have.