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Set-Up Tips

Speaker/Audience
1. Avoid a center aisle. The best seats in the house are directly in front of the speaker which are often wasted in a large empty aisle. The speaker is forced to run stage left, stage right, to address a "divided" audience. Use two smaller side aisles on either side of center.

2. Keep the audience responding as a group. Keep the front row as close to the stage as is comfortable. Reduce the distance between the speaker and participants in the last row. If the room is rectangular, set the stage in the center of the long wall. Cut single-chair access lanes into long rows every sixth chair.

3. Rope off the back 10 rows until ten minutes into the presentation. Have a door host direct participants to take the seats up front.

4. Curve or angle your seating. Audience responds better when individuals can see each other. Straight row seating requires additional concentration to absorb the message.

5. Stagger the chairs. Eliminate audiences twisting, bobbing and craning to see around the head in front of them.

6. Do not overset the room. If you are planning on 200 people, set the room for 180 not 250. Stack extra chairs at the back of the room. Otherwise, the front rows will be empty. Better to have every seat taken than large empty spots throughout the audience.

7. If you know some attendees will be in wheelchairs, you might remove a few chairs at the ends of the rows near the front, to provide space for them to wheel their chairs to the ends of these aisles. This allows for easy entry/exit, and it’s nice change for those often relegated to the back row in an audience. (If they are see over them.)

8. If side or back doors close loudly, please have a door stop handy or tape the lock to avoid noisy distractions.

Audio/Visual
9. The most overlooked (and damaging) glitch – ceiling lights which shine directly on the screen and wash out the visuals. After 5 minutes of eye strain, the audience gives up even trying to follow along. The solution is not to dim all the lights, which will throw your speaker in the shadows. If possible remove the offending lights that shine directly above the screen.

10. Use an additional light source on the presenter. Studies have proven that when an audience cannot see the presenter clearly, they also believe they cannot hear him or her clearly!

11. The eye follows movement, not sound. If photos are to be taken, avoid doing so during the first fifteen minutes of the presentation. It will be too much of distraction for both your audience and speaker. Try and take a posed "action" shot during the break.

Information provided by : Scott McKain, Meeting Planner and writer of “All Business is Show Business”.
The following room capacities and diagrams offer a variety of set up options depending on need and the nature of the program or type of event/meeting.

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