55. If You are Out of Sight, You Might Be Out of Mind

When you are the presenter, you tend to think about the arrangement of the furniture at the front of the room. Do you have a place to put your laptop? Does anything block your access to move around? But don’t forget about the effect that the arrangement of furniture in the room has on your participants.

In some cases, you may not be able to influence or control the arrangement of furniture—for example, if you are speaking in an auditorium where the seats are fixed (Figure 55.1). But in many rooms the furniture can be moved around.

Figure 55.1. Auditorium layout

Check the Line of Sight

Make sure that everyone in the room can see you without physical discomfort; if they cannot, rearrange the furniture to fix it.

Some standard seating layouts have a lot of seats with poor sightlines. Figure 55.2 shows a “banquet” seating arrangement and highlights the seats with poor sightlines.

Figure 55.2. Banquet layout

Figure 55.3 shows a “banquet rounds” seating arrangement and highlights the seats with poor sightlines.

Figure 55.3. Banquet rounds layout

Both of these seating arrangements have a lot of seats with poor lines of sight. If you are giving a short presentation, then people might be willing to turn their seats around to see you. But you might want to consider a different layout so people don’t have to move chairs to see you.

A “modified banquet” layout (Figure 55.4) improves the line of sight.

Figure 55.4. Modified banquet layout

You can send a diagram of your preferred layout ahead of time. But don’t rely on the diagram. Even when I send a preferred layout ahead of time, more than half of the time the actual layout of the room is not what I sent in the diagram. Make sure you show up early so that you or the staff can change the setup before participants arrive.