Right angles:
Seating pods
at the Inverness
Some parts of Meeting Planning
101 haven’t changed since time immemorial, especially
regarding room setups. Right?
Not completely, says Bill Hume,
national sales manager for the Inverness Hotel and Conference
Center in Englewood, Colo. Hume suggests making the following
adjustments to liven up room arrangements. (To see some of these in
action, visit www.invernesshotel.com/conferencesRooms.php, and click
on “floor plans.”)
Instead of crescent rounds, try
pods. When attendees need to break into small groups, the
traditional solution is crescent rounds, i.e., round banquet tables
with five or six chairs that form a semicircle around it. Instead,
Hume uses “pods” (also called “clusters” or a “scattered
conference” setup), which are 5-foot by 30-inch rectangular tables
pushed into larger rectangles and scattered about the room, angled
slightly to face the lectern. The pods can be made from just one
table or from as many as six.
“Not only can everybody face one
another,” says Hume, “but they can also, with a 90-degree turn,
face the front of the room as well.”
Instead of school room, try
cybercafe. In situations when attendees need to use
computers and want some privacy, Hume arranges long tables in long
rectangles, almost like boardroom tables, so that no one is
positioned to see more than his or her own screen.
Instead of theater-style, try
amphitheater. Even large groups are arranging seats in
concentric circles. Says Hume, “When you’re looking somebody in the
eye, it’s less nerve-racking to contribute.”