PLANNER’S WORKSHOP
education
By Paul O. Radde, Ph.D.
Conquer the Chairs
Rethinking room setups to maximize audience comfort and capacity
oes your seating arrangement serve you? Or do you serve the chair? How many meeting room setups have you experienced in which your eyes are the only thing you have to move in order to follow the pres-
D
entation? Someone seated in the outer front row of an opening general session often has to turn his or her neck up to 85 degrees to follow the action. Within 20 minutes, you find that person reviewing the program, unable to keep watching at
that extreme angle. Why is the chair facing the front wall and not positioned toward the presentation? This comment from a C-level executive of a Fortune 100 firm indicates frustration with the seating setup at a recent meeting:
“When I take a look at the meeting room, I dread going in. When I am in there, I can’t see, I can’t hear, and I’m uncomfortable. I’m all twisted up. My lower body is facing one direction, while my upper body is facing the other. Next year, when I get
What’s Inside 17
Getting hotels to give sleeping room rebates
18
Five steps to boost incentive program participation
24
Social media lessons from Obama’s election campaign
28
The benefits of locally sourced spa treatments
40
What’s the future of international meetings? Find out
14
I SM I May 2010 I SuccessfulMeetings.com
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - May 2010