With goals and objectives at the forefront, next look at audiovisual requirements, speaker needs and traffic flow, taking into consideration participant safety, comfort and accommodation for people with disabilities. If your program includes a food and beverage function, review your meeting room’s access to this service and decide if you will need these functions outside your meeting room or included within.

When deciding on a room setup, keep in mind three principles to guide choice of configuration:

1. Set to the long side of the room. For a rectangular room, placing the speaker on the long side will put more of the audience closer to the presentation. If you are lacking space or using rear-screen projection, you may have to set the stage on the short side of the room to be more space efficient.

2. Minimize straight-row seating. Set chairs in a semi-circle or herringbone (V-shape) to give the audience the best view of the presentation. With straight-row seating, you can only see the people next to you and the backs of heads of those in front of you. A semi-circle set enables viewing between persons.

3. Avoid center aisles. The center of the room is the best viewing of the presentation and should not be wasted on an aisle. A center aisle would be necessary if you have entertainers entering or leaving through the center of the room.

With these principles in mind, it’s time to choose the ultimate setup for your meeting.

Theater or Auditorium Style

This is the best setup for a large group where writing is not necessary and food is not served. Chairs are set in rows facing the speaker, stage or focal point of the room. Remember that a standard meeting room chair is narrower than most people’s bodies. Ask the hotel or venue not to set the chairs touching side-by-side and allow at least 2 inches between (4-6 inches for optimal comfort). This reduces the capacity of your room because not all chairs are used. You may not have a choice in chair spacing, however. Capacity restrictions and fire codes can dictate space between chairs, distance between rows and the number and width of aisles. Some hotels may use chairs that interlock to meet spacing requirements. Ask what the hotel’s regulations are up front and to provide diagrams of the various setups available. A last-minute change of setup due to fire code regulations can cost additional man hours.

Schoolroom or Classroom Style 

This setup is best for meetings where attendees need to write or use a computer. It allows for minimal interaction between attendees and is best used for lectures and training meetings. Chairs are set at 6-foot or 8-foot tables facing the presenter. Standard seating is three people per 6-foot table and four people per 8-foot table. To allow for more workspace between attendees, ask the hotel to reduce this to two chairs per 6-foot table and three chairs per 8-foot table. This setup is most optimal for breakout sessions where entertainment is not used and thus center aisles create the best access for attendees entering and exiting the room.

Conference Style  

This format is ideal for smaller groups where attendee interaction is a main objective. Seated around tables, participants have a direct view of their colleagues to facilitate discussions. Specify what type of table arrangements you need based on the objectives of your meeting:

1. Boardroom: One solid, rectangular table that can be an existing table in a hotel meeting room or created by putting together 30-inch tables. This setup is best for a board of directors meeting with heavy discussions as participants are in closest reach to each other.

2. U-Shape: Tables are arranged in a horseshoe, which is ideal for meetings that need to facilitate discussion between attendees but also include an audiovisual presentation set at the opening of the “U.”

3. T-Shape: Best for a panel, presenters or lead management that needs to sit at the top of the “T” and direct the discussion down the length of the tables.

4. Hollow Square: Best for meetings that do not require an audiovisual presentation. If the hotel has serpentine tables, request a rounded hollow square setup to maximize seating on the ends. If these are not available, straight tables can be placed at an angle creating an angled hollow square setup.

5. Multi-Sided Shapes: Multi-sided shapes such as a diamond or octagonal are best for larger groups of 20 or more. They comfortably seat nearly every attendee at the end of a table and provide direct sight and voice communication to participants.

Banquet Style 

This setup works best for meetings that require food and beverage service and where participants are asked to break out into small groups. Setup includes 60-, 66- or 72-inch round tables with chairs around the entire table or only on one side—a crescent-round or half-moon setup. If your function includes a speaker or audiovisual presentation, the crescent-round setup allows for better viewing of the presentation while still facilitating discussion between attendees.

Combination Setups  

For large conventions with a quick turnaround between meeting and meal functions, consider combining a theater-style setup with banquet tables at the back of the room. Attendees can easily move from one function to the next without major changes to the room setup.

No matter what setup you choose, remember to consult with your conference services manager on what setup has worked the best in his or her facility and any challenges that need to be overcome such as columns restricting sight lines or fire marshal restrictions. Facilitating a learning environment in accordance with your meeting’s objectives should take top priority. The more comfortable the room can be for attendees, from the width of the chairs to the temperature in the room, the more likely they will learn and interact on a higher level.

The primary reason most people attend conferences is the educational content. So why is it so many sessions are disappointing? Why are the most fundamental aspects of content development so hard when the premise is so simple? The answer is easy: Too much focus is placed on the subject matter and basic principles of engagement are forgotten.

You need to create a buzz; the content needs to be in line with the buzz. The delivery needs to be engaging and interactive. The presenter needs to tell a story that connects emotionally. The material needs to be user-friendly and distributed online for various audiences.

Keeping content engaging can be difficult since the demographics of an audience can be so diverse, ranging from Baby Boomers to Gen-Xers to Millennials. Keeping the content delivery conducive to the make-up of the audience is important. Today’s presenter must engage the audience by making the session interactive, either by soliciting participation or by breaking the audience into groups to discuss the content.

The format is crucial as well. Too many presenters still make the mistake of using PowerPoint as the crux of their presentations, reading directly off the slides rather than using them as a guide. Weaving storytelling into the presentation engages the audience on an emotional and personal level. People remember good stories, especially when compelling and thought-provoking.

Conference materials should be accessible in a format that is user-friendly. If the conference content is placed online in different formats and levels of detail, it will appeal to at least three different audiences: Participants who attended the conference; prospective attendees; and sponsors who can associate their brand with a site that reaches a wider audience over a period of several weeks or months.

Since many organizations are cutting back on the number of people sent to a conference, it is crucial to ensure the content is on point. Attendees and their decision makers are demanding a higher, more tangible return on their investment. The goal is for the attendee to bring back information that can be shared with the rest of the team.

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Amita Patel, CHSP, has been a leader in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years. Her experience includes destination and facility management as well as hotel sales and marketing. For the past 10 years, she has championed sales and marketing efforts at the Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau/Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, Calif. 

I was thrilled to hear Bill Buxton of Microsoft talking about ideas and innovation on NPR’s morning show. It reinforced my own experience with ideas, creativity and problem solving. And it reminds me of a phrase I use during my keynote presentations, “Date, but don’t marry your ideas.”

In the interview, Buxton talks about ideas, lots of them—how we tend to get attached to one idea and pursue it even when it might not be the best idea. Part of the creative process is coming up with lots of ideas, turning them over, sharing them, discarding them and coming up with more ideas.

As a professional songwriter, I’m used to trying out new ideas almost every day. I’ve learned that some ideas turn out to be terrific and grow into real things, like hit songs. I’ve also learned some ideas are not so great, and it’s best to get rid of them and move on to the next brainstorming session.

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Billy Kirsch is a Grammy and Emmy-nominated, CMA and ACM award-winning songwriter. His abilities as facilitator, leader and performer are the foundation of his highly successful corporate event programs: Team Building Through Song, Harnessing Your Creative Power and Everyday Team Building. The presentations help people rediscover their creativity encouraging them to be more innovative and engaged in their work.

As director for constituent resources for the Mennonite Church USA, Glen Guyton was especially interested in feedback from Pittsburgh 2011, the biennial convention held this past July, where an alternative format was incorporated as part of the goal to encourage discussion and an increased sense of belonging and ownership for the constituents. Here, he shares some notes on the experience and reactions.

We had more than 6,500 people at Pittsburgh 2011. It balanced out to more adults, fewer youth. We incorporate service projects and had two things going on—adult delegate sessions and a youth gathering. There was joint daily worship and workshops split between adults and youth. Adults also have business sessions; youth just have worship, workshops and service projects.

New this year was a conversation room where we talked about hot topics. We used what they call a Samoan circle. Before the convention we had an outline of topics we would address. We had a schedule posted on the wall and slots where people could come and have discussion. There were mediators present, and we used a variety of discussion techniques. Controversial subjects could be discussed in a safe space.

People said they felt like they were heard. They felt like they had the opportunity to discuss controversial issues in the church but didn’t feel like they were being attacked. There was an openness and safety within the discussion; people enjoyed it and we may do something like that again.

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As director for constituent resources for the Mennonite Church USA, Glen Guyton was especially interested in feedback from Pittsburgh 2011, the biennial convention held this past July, where an alternative format was incorporated as part of the goal to encourage discussion and an increased sense of belonging and ownership for the constituents. Here, he shares some notes on the experience and reactions.

The term “strategic event marketers” is common within the events industry, yet some planners remain hesitant to embrace a strategic event planning process. Acting as a strategist does not require one to understand or recite the corporate go-to-market plans or financial earnings. Rather, it is about understanding the event objectives and developing innovative tactics to create memorable attendee experiences.

If there is one thing I could change within the events industry, I would challenge all planners to become strategists and focus their attention on the attendee engagement versus merely logistics.

As a corporate event manager, it is my responsibility to act as the event strategist when planning events for Symantec Corporation. A successful strategy I use often is one of storytelling. Storytelling is the concept of developing an event around one common message, a storyline, and ensuring every element supporting the event connects the dots back to the main storyline. Whether you are planning a conference, product launch or board of director’s luncheon, the gathering should tell a story. When the attendees can recite the storyline upon the leaving the gathering, you know you have successfully relayed your strategic message. The key to storytelling is being consistent in the delivery. When executed effectively, the storyline should become intuitively obvious and, to double the punch, the attendees should feel inspired by the message.

Storytelling creates a huge opportunity for event strategists to cultivate longevity in the conference objectives and messaging. While the story is unveiled at the event, it can act as the foundation for post-event communications throughout the year.

In addition to storytelling, planners can also act as strategists by leveraging technology throughout their events. The event technology landscape is vast and the options, features and usage can be overwhelming. However, as planners we cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by the immensity of it, but rather see it as an opportunity to customize our specific events. When evaluating how and what technology to incorporate into an event, the handy storytelling strategy can act as a useful tool. Determine how the technology can help tell your story and connect the dots back to the one common event message.

A story used at Symantec’s annual sales conference was based on the need to motivate the attendees to propel their efforts from a successful 2011 into greater achievements in 2012. In an effort to understand the conference objective, the executive team was surveyed with a few key questions: One, how do you want the attendees to feel pre- and post-conference? And two, what is one message you want the attendees to walk away with? The executive responses helped shape the conference storyline into “Fast. Forward. Move fast and move forward into 2012.”

Vibrant, yet visually and tactically appealing, the storyline was carried through every conference element from the signage, website, messaging, evening events and even the technology.

To amplify the forward motion aspect, we used the hottest and latest technology trend of “gaming” in an effort to engage attendees. Mobile device applications are the direction of the future and a gaming experience was yet another opportunity to create a memorable event and drive home the common message.

A good event strategist is the heartbeat of a memorable event, and every planning decision should be leveraged to inspire the attendees and further the conference story. We need to challenge ourselves daily to act as strategists and implement new conference planning technologies.

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Ashely Muntan, CMP, is an event marketing manager for Symantec Corporation and resides in Atlanta. With more than 11 years in the industry, she project manages large events and takes pride in acting as the team “storytelling champion” and seeing projects come to fruition.

Social. It’s a word that strikes fear in some and excites others.

Today it seems that everything is social. From social media to social networking to social technology to social business, the trend is all things social. It’s the new black.

So what is the social conference?

Does it mean adding more social media efforts to our event marketing? Is it allowing people to use social networks to communicate with speakers during the event? Is it integrating face-to-face audiences with live streaming remote audiences?

For me, one of the most critical things a conference organizer can do to appeal to our increasingly sophisticated audience is to design experiences that are more engaging, participatory and social. People are not coming to your conference for the content. (They can get that online.) They are coming for the conference experience, so make it social and less independent.

Humans are essentially social beings. Our meetings and events are complex social experiences. And our conference experiences have the power to alter our attendees’ minds.

When we require our attendees to sit passively and quietly in rows with little or no social interaction, we work against the brain’s natural social systems. We rob attendees of the chance to engage, interact and learn. We create social isolation in the midst of a crowd. In short, we are treating our attendees like robots trying to download data from the speaker into their hard drives: the brain. We think that if our attendees hear the information, they automatically learn it.

In traditional conferences, an expert stands at the front of the room and lectures to an audience that sits passively listening. It’s a one-way monologue. Research is clear that this conventional conference design is directly opposed to how our brains learn.

Conference organizers need to work hard at making a shift from long-established one-way, vertical presentations to more multi-directional education experiences.

Our traditional vertical, one-directional conference experience from the speaker to the audience needs to shift. We need to create multi-directional, horizontal experiences where attendees are invited to talk to each other, talk about the content, talk with the speaker and engage in active learning with one other. This means fewer speaker monologues and more attendee dialogues.

In short, we need more structured and facilitated conversations to create a compelling, irresistible social conference experience that continues to attract today’s sophisticated audiences.

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Jeff Hurt blogs about the convergence of Web 2.0, social media, meetings, events and education. He is the director of education and engagement at Velvet Chainsaw Consulting and an in-demand speaker (he’s at Rejuvenate Marketplace this year). He describes himself on Twitter as a thinker, advocate, progressive, nonprofit junkie, meeting/event planner, educator, change strategist, social media explorer.

We introduced Jeff Shinabarger to readers in the last issue as one of our under 40 influencers. The young (31) founder of Plywood People, an Atlanta nonprofit that organizes conferences around social issues, and former creative director of the Catalyst conferences, has run 23 events so far and continues to come up with new initiatives. When we talked with him for our young leaders issue, he had plenty to say about how events should be organized. We decided we had to include some of his comments here.

Yeah, related to event planning, I believe everything is going toward more collaboration and more sustainable practices. It’s why TEDx is so popular…because of its collaborative nature and local learning.

Now, the question is with all the opportunities there are, how do you choose what to do? It’s kind of an oversaturated market right now; there are a lot of events. If you’re going to do a new event, there has to be a reason. Before you try to create something new, join with others.

The hardest thing in the world is to get people to show up. With events, a lot of people try to over hype things. I would rather err on the side of under-promising and over-delivering—and add surprise from the backside.

The greatest limitation is me…my time. The more I can get involved in with others, the more I can help them make it happen. Some of the projects we’ve begun can get bigger. Ten years from now there will be 20 to 30 issues we’ve resolved with others [Plywood People’s slogan is “We will be known by the problems we solve.”]

How do you focus on something in your local community? I see more and more localization of those processes [giveback events and opportunities associated with conferences]. Global charity water projects will come back to localized solutions.

My favorite quote is “Influence is gained by doing something.” That’s what we’re looking for at these conferences.

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Meetings are not inventive. In most cases, they look, feel and are delivered as they always have been. I, for one, get bored at most meetings. Given the opportunity to change anything now and for the future, I’d wave my magic wand and…

Make it all more visual—art on walls, sculpture in hallways, places to create art for the spontaneity of creating and using the right side of our brains. Why are meeting spaces so boring? Invest in community and have community artists. Even have items for sale for people who want a bit of the local flavor.

Add water and light in places that allow participants to relax. This means redesign of the traditional buildings we use for hotels. An article in the Sept. 19 issue of The New Yorker, “Laboratory Conditions,” gives insights into how design can change.

Use music, appropriate and thoughtful, designed to stimulate thinking and relaxation.

Play is a bit of art, too. It’s the ability to use different parts of our bodies and brains, and to incorporate creativity differently into what we do. If a game of golf at a meeting is OK, then different play can be. And it can be created to accommodate all.

Create seating that’s not too low or too high—and in places convenient for conversations that bubble up when people gather.

Encourage intentionally created community and spontaneously created community encouraged by the venue and organizers, who may be the community themselves. (We’ve seen it happen with Tweetups. We’ll see it continue to happen and we’ll broaden the access to anyone without prejudice or membership.)

Provide more resources, outside the usual. That is, access to different thinking and the people who do it. This is an easy one; in every venue and virtually, there are people who are subject experts who want to share ideas.

Include reflection time without overcrowded agendas. No one needs that “one more” session or speaker. Having time to reflect, alone or with others (while seated near light and water in appropriate seating) allows us to regroup after filling our heads.

Offer experiences as part of the meeting that are designed to fill our heads differently. For example, I’d like to have an art tour at the D.C. convention center or at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia if I’m in those buildings for other purposes.

Also—because my magic wand is not that powerful—I’d immediately add the following…

Audience-centric room sets—à la Paul Radde (thrival.com). Why, after all these years, are we still seated in the same bad chairs in the same straight rows at the same draped tables? Let’s move stuff around and open it up. Let’s have spaces that allow participants to move and flex and write and talk and listen and learn.

Awareness about those who attend meetings and their needs—not because it’s PC, but because it is empathetic and appropriate. We’re all different and we learn from each other. If we feel—if we are—included, we can fully participate and everyone gains.

Comfort—defined however each of us wants to define it. My comfort includes availability of appropriate seating; bio-needs met including foods and beverages available throughout and not only from 10 to 10:30, at lunch and from 3 to 3:30; adequate restrooms that are near the space used; lighting that allows me to see; sound that allows me to hear; and signs and badges that are the right size to read.

Service from the venue and vendors and the meeting organizers from the minute I arrive until I leave—for example, I loved the story in The New York Times about the Occupy Wall Street protestors ordering pizzas. Who knew that protests could be so organized? There are more great tips and ideas from Occupy Wall Street—really!

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have more spontaneous meetings?

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What would I kick to the curb and flush down the toilet? I have to be honest, there are so many things I would change it took me the better part of a week to come up with an answer, but I looked into the abyss and came up with one thing that we all suffer from in the meetings industry. The one thing that holds us back as a community. The one thing we must change. Fear. As an industry, we need to abandon our fear of anything and everything.

Fear is paralyzing. Fear is overwhelming and fear has brought down civilizations and I fear (pun intended) that fear is slowly eating away at our industry and making our skills and services nothing more than a commodity that can be done by a trained monkey or an online “meeting planning program.”

Our services used to be special; our services used to be desired and considered essential. However, through our fear of losing that position, we have painted ourselves into a corner.

Our fear takes many shapes. We are afraid of budgets. We are afraid of what the boss thinks. We are afraid of the attendee reaction and we are afraid of our own shadows. Because of this, we are producing meetings that are the same year after year after year because we will only do what has worked in the past. We will only do what is the tried and true. We will no longer take risks and make stakeholders and attendees understand why our talents are necessary.

There is no desire to shake things up because we make a mistake, choose something that one person does not like or have a session that is a bomb. The heavens will tumble if we have one attendee who is unhappy; we fail to realize that is actually what we need to be doing.

Instead of recognizing that it is fear holding us back as an industry, we make excuses. We cannot try Pecha Kucha for our session because our speakers are not prepared for that. We cannot engage through social media—our attendees are not ready for that. We cannot have sponsored lanyards; it would upset the other sponsors. We cannot go from four days to three because it has always been four and it would confuse the attendees. These are all excuses that I hear from the meetings and events community everyday. The true reason is fear; fear of change.

Meeting and event planners need to abandon fear and let go. We, as an industry, need to take the time to learn and grow and not make excuses. Yes, you can have a hybrid event and stream your sessions; technology like WordPress and Livestream has made it affordable and doable so the only reason not too is fear. You are afraid of failing.

You can take the time to learn social media because your attendees are on all of those platforms. The excuse that “our attendees do not do that kind of thing” is a fear reaction. If we abandon fear, we open ourselves to trying new session styles, trying new venues, new programs and new platforms. We open ourselves to running hybrid events and online campaigns. We can be special again. We can be the driving force in face-to-face interaction instead of backseat drivers letting fear rule the road.

References to meeting formats can be found here.

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In fact, you can’t afford not to practice teambuilding. Quite often, taking a break from your habits cuts down on negative energy and creates efficiency and enthusiasm when you return to work, even after an illness. What works on a personal level also works on a team level. There’s real ROI in taking sick days, or alternative days, for a team or organization. It’s important to plan a meaningful break to recharge, gain new perspective, and recognize and address areas within a group’s culture that can be improved. A well-planned, productive teambuilding program can go a long way toward helping.

Qualified teambuilding providers facilitate programs that are catalysts for change within organizations, propelling growth, promoting a positive culture and healing rifts. And it’s OK if there’s fun involved, too. Fun is a necessary component to sustaining a high level of activity, engagement and buy-in for an organization’s mission. The teambuilding event should be engaging, interactive, intelligent and welcoming; it should promote creativity.

Preprogram questionnaires are vital to ascertain what your objectives, challenges and ideals are. They can be as simple as email questionnaires or they can be detailed preprogram assessment tools such as the Herrmann
Brain Dominance Instrument or The Team Dimension Profile. With a preprogram assessment and defined objectives, you can make sure your teambuilding event will key in on areas that need to be addressed. An effective debriefing also is vital to producing lasting results. Questions and discussions might include things like:

• What was learned during the event?

• What new awareness was created?

• What is the plan of action to implement what was learned?

• What support does your workforce need to try to follow those action steps and maintain the new lines of communication established during the teambuilding event?

An effective debrief won’t mean much if there isn’t follow-up by the teambuilding facilitator, such as email reminders to participants, surveys assessing results several months after the event and reports to managers. Objective evaluations of areas of strength and of weakness, especially from the outside, help organizations move from old models and shake things up in the interest of growth and renewed efficiency.

Last, but certainly not least, a teambuilding experience is just that—an experience. Having group experiences to promote engagement and emotional involvement within your organization are vital to sustaining what you do. Think about a past experience you have had, maybe a favorite vacation. You might not remember the hotel room you were in, or even the name of the beach, but the memory will take you back to that emotional place, and you’ll reconnect with the feelings you had at the time. Teambuilding is a great way to accomplish that.

Build Benefits
There are real benefits to incorporating teambuilding activities into your program, including:

• Increased efficiency through sharing of common practices, questions, concerns and challenges

• Better problem solving through networking and sharing solutions to common challenges

• Increased morale leading to higher retention, efficiency and creativity

• A more cohesive, united vision and mission

Billy Kirsch is a Grammy-nominated, CMA and ACM award-winning songwriter. Through his company, Kidbilly Music, he provides teambuilding programs, educational workshops and keynotes, connecting people with their creative abilities to innovate, originate and solve problems. kidbillymusic.com