The meeting room — and how it is set up — sets the tone for your event . Whether you are conducting a training session or holding an association conference, each meeting room needs to be thoroughly evaluated.

There are 3 important characteristics of any room set up: The room itself, the seating arrangements and the conference equipment rentals. Lets focus on these indicators and give you a better checklist when evaluating venue spaces.

THE ROOM

Whether you are using one meeting room or several, you need to make certain the space is just right for your group — not too large or too small. When evaluating space, take into account whether or not you are going to have the following inside the room :
Staging
Event audio visual equipment
AV technician
Food and beverage
Registration Table
How does the room look? Is it warm and inviting? Is it clean from top to bottom? Is the ceiling showing signs of water damage or dirt? Are the windows clean? What about the tables and chairs? All of these elements demonstrate an overall picture of how well the venue takes care of their property.

Are you sharing a wall with another group? How is the sound level? What sort of group will be next door?

Can you control the air conditioning or heating in the room without calling anyone? Important element since many complaints of attendees is the room is too hot or too cold.

If you are holding a large conference, is the room hard to find? Putting in digital signage through Video Wall rentals or computer kiosks can be of great help if your rooms are difficult to locate within the venue.

SEATING ARRANGEMENTS

If there will be extensive note taking, your meeting runs longer than 2 hours, and/or you are serving food and beverage — you will need to have tables in the meeting room. There are many setups to consider, but classroom style and U-Shape limit networking while rounds encourage it.

If you want people to move toward the front of the room, set “Reserved” signs on the tables of the last 2 rows…take them away as the room fills up.

If the meeting is short and there is no food and beverage, consider removing the tables and having everyone in a circle environment…including the speaker. This cultivates a “living room” setting and is a growing trend in the event meeting services industry.

CONFERENCE EQUIPMENT RENTALS

Set up the presentation services audio visual equipment so everyone in the room can see what is on the screen or Plasma display rentals. In addition, everyone should have a good view of the speaker and other attendees.

What is the natural lighting in the room? Are all the venue lights working? Consider adding lighting from your AV company to create a sense of ambiance in the room, to add impact to your speaker or highlight your new product or service.

Having the right sound system is very important to making your meeting work. The right number of mics, both for the speaker and the attendees, will help connect the group. Having the AV technician on hand to complete a sound check before the meeting starts should be part of your plan.

(aveventsolutions.com)