Where to Host Your Next Corporate Event in Zurich

NZZ Bar — Bahnhofplatz 15, 8001 Zürich

The most useful new opening of the year for anyone who books meetings. Behind the bar on the first floor of the Hauptbahnhof are two rooms, Debatte and Perspektive, each taking 10 to 15 people, with projector, motorised screen, flipchart, WiFi, coffee and water included. Half a day is CHF 425 and a full day CHF 850 — which for a room this central is close to unreasonable.

The real argument for it is the arrival. Everyone coming in from Basel, Bern or St. Gallen walks up one flight of stairs and is in the room, and the debrief afterwards happens at the bar with a view of the platforms. We list it in full on our new openings page.

Best for: half-day workshops and board meetings where half the room is arriving by train.

societyM at citizenM — Talacker 42, 8001 Zürich

Five meeting rooms, each seating up to twelve, ten minutes on foot from the Hauptbahnhof. They are properly designed rooms rather than converted hotel bedrooms — Eames chairs around a round table, a smart TV with ClickShare so nobody hunts for an adapter, and enough daylight that a full day in one is survivable.

Booking is deliberately frictionless: rooms go by the hour, and the whole floor holds 37 people if you take everything.

Best for: recurring workshops and interview days — the format you book monthly rather than once.

Mama Shelter Zürich — Schulstrasse 44, 8050 Zürich

Ten event rooms at one address in Oerlikon, which is why it sits this early in a list ordered by size — it starts smaller than everything above it and ends larger than most of what follows. Mama Creates is 28 m² for eight, the four Studios take 12 to 20, the three Ateliers hold 75 to 80 each, and Atelier 1+2+3 opens into 260 m² for 250. Every room has a 75" screen, Bose sound and ClickShare, so nobody spends the first ten minutes hunting for an adapter.

The other half of the argument is what happens when the working part ends. The banquet room is 232 m² for 140, with billiards, foosball, arcade machines and the option of a DJ, and the restaurant and Mama's Garden are downstairs. Bahnhof Oerlikon is a few minutes on foot, and the airport is under ten minutes from there by train — which matters more than a central postcode when half the room is flying in.

Best for: offsites and team days that start in a meeting room and are not meant to end in one.

Zunfthaus zur Saffran — Limmatquai 55, 8001 Zürich

The formal option, and unapologetic about it. A guild house on the Limmatquai with three rooms — the Zunftsaal and the Saal zur Weissen Rose each take about 50 seated in rows or 40 at tables, and the Ratstube 24 — combining to around 250 across the house.

Coffered ceilings, brass chandeliers, parquet. It is the right room for an AGM, an anniversary or anything where the institution itself is part of the message, and the wrong room for a hackathon.

Best for: AGMs, anniversaries and formal client receptions in the old city.

Au Premier — Bahnhofplatz 15, 8001 Zürich

The other half of the station, and run by Candrian — the same operator as the NZZ Bar at the top of this list. The historic south wing reopened with a bar and five flexible rooms that combine as needed, covering anything from two people to a hundred and fifty.

That range is the point: one address that handles the confidential four-person lunch and the 150-guest reception, with the same kitchen behind both.

Best for: events where the guest count is still moving, and everyone is coming by train.

Westhive Zurich Hardturm — Hardturmstrasse 161, 8005 Zürich

A thousand square metres of event floor built by people who run a coworking business, which shows in the details. The Hall of Fame takes up to 200 with a stage and screen; Think Big is a workshop room of over 100 m²; four breakout rooms sit alongside for group work, and there is a rooftop on the sixth floor with an event kitchen and a terrace facing the Uetliberg.

The reason to book it is the day that changes shape — plenary, then breakouts, then dinner upstairs — without moving anyone into a taxi.

Best for: strategy offsites and all-day workshops that need plenary and breakout space at once.

Kaufleuten — Pelikanplatz 18, 8001 Zürich

The Zurich institution that happens to be an excellent conference venue before dark. The Klubsaal takes 500 theatre-style or 330 at tables; the Festsaal 280 and 175; the courtyard and terrace add another 200 for a summer apéro. Rooms combine, and there is a restaurant and the Pelikanbar in the same building.

Its real advantage is the shape of the evening. A conference that finishes at six turns into a party at nine without a transfer, in a room that already knows how to run one.

Best for: day conferences with a proper evening attached.

SOHO Zurich — Hardstrasse 260, 8005 Zürich

The rooftop from our terraces list works just as well on a Tuesday morning. The layout flexes from a structured all-hands to a loose client event, and the rooftop bar handles the part of the evening nobody schedules.

Best for: client events and team days that should not look like a conference.

Papiersaal — Kalanderplatz 6, 8045 Zürich

Industrial character without the trek out of town — the old Sihl paper factory at Sihlcity, holding 180 seated theatre-style, 160 at a banquet, or 480 standing for a reception. Concrete, exposed pipework and a long curved bar that photographs extremely well under coloured light.

Best for: product launches and receptions that want atmosphere rather than a hotel ballroom.

Lake Side — Bellerivestrasse 170, 8008 Zürich

On the water at Zürichhorn, with floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides and the lake and the Alps doing the decorating. Five halls run from 40 up to 250 seated, about 600 across the house, and the entire property can be taken for up to 1,800.

Best for: summer conferences, galas and anything where you want the view to be the venue.

JED Events — Zürcherstrasse 39, 8952 Schlieren

The former NZZ printing works, which is a satisfying bookend to a list that opens at the NZZ Bar. Roughly 2,500 m² across five rooms, scaling from a vaulted cellar for twenty up to 840 guests in the main hall, with a restaurant and outdoor area attached.

One correction worth making, since it appears everywhere: this is Schlieren, not Zurich West. It is about nine minutes from the Hauptbahnhof by train, which is often faster than crossing town to a venue with a Zurich postcode.

Best for: conferences and product launches that need scale and an unmistakably industrial backdrop.

Kongresshaus Zürich — Gotthardstrasse 5, 8002 Zürich

The top of the range, on the lake and sharing its complex with the Tonhalle. This is the one you reach for when the guest list runs to the hundreds and you need infrastructure rather than a nice room — staging, breakout space, catering logistics, a loading dock, and people who have run congresses before.

If it helps to see it from the other side: the LUX terrace on our rooftop list sits directly above these halls, so the apéro is one floor up.

Best for: multi-day congresses, AGMs and any programme with a hundreds-strong guest list.

And if the brief allows leaving the city

Two hours by train gets you to the Appenzeller Huus, GaultMillau's Hotel of the Year, with two function rooms, two boardrooms and a chef's table in the wine cellar. For a two-day offsite, the journey is the part people remember.

Telling us the group size, the date and the two things that actually matter gets you a shortlist instead of a long search — including the rooms that never make a list like this one.

Photo credits

• NZZ Bar — nzzbar.ch
• societyM at citizenM — Zürich Tourismus
• Mama Shelter Zürich — mamashelter.com
• Zunfthaus zur Saffran — Zürich Tourismus
• Au Premier — aupremier.ch
• Westhive — westhive.com
• Kaufleuten — Zürich Tourismus
• SOHO Zürich — soho-zurich.ch
• Papiersaal — papiersaal-loc.ch
• Lake Side — Zürich Tourismus
• JED Events — Zürich Tourismus
• Kongresshaus Zürich — Wikimedia Commons