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Billions of Seated Hours, One Hour of Pain at a Time That compulsion to set straight rows causes more pain and suffering than medieval torture techniques. Yet a straight-row mind-set and compulsion prevails throughout the meetings industry. The basic belief is that the way to maximize seating in any meeting room is to set the chairs in traditional straight-row, theater or classroom/schoolroom style. In smaller board meetings that translates into hollow square, u-shape and boardroom rectangular table sets. Here is what straight-row seating costs your presentation as a speaker. What Straight-Row Seating Costs Your Presentation Audience Dynamics Straight-row sets bleed the voltage from your presentation and require additional energy just to get your message across. Tom Antion, humorist, reports a major increase in audience response to humor when individuals can see each other in curved-row seating. Straight rows allow each person in the row to see only one person on either side. Be aware that the room set by itself may be negatively impacting your presentation. At the recent NSA Platform Skills Lab, audience member Max Dixon reported that he was beginning to feel irritation, even anger, toward the person seated directly in front of him for blocking his view of the presentation. That configuration was simple straight-row theater style, similar to the each- chair-right-behind-another mode from interlocking or ganged chairs. More Depends on the Presenter in Straight-Row Sets You better be good. The success of your presentation depends more totally and pointedly on you when you are in front of a straight-row set, for there you are in a 1:1 relationship with each person in the audience. They can see only a person on either side and a rug of heads in front of them, so you are the sole stimulus presenting to a group that is visually bombarded daily by the media. So, even if a revered, seasoned member of your audience lurches at a comment, responds heartily or eagerly 'takes notes, that person's response to your presentation is seen by only a few others in a straight-row set. And even when audience members find your presentation interesting, from 30 to 70 percent of those in straight-row theater-style sets (for the larger keynotes or general sessions) report physical discomfort just to be able to see the presenter on stage. After 15 to 20 minutes, those seated on the extreme outside quit looking at you. They pull out their program and start reading it, not because they aren't interested in what you are saying, but rather because it hurts too much in neck or back strain to look at you. Ouch! Turning one's neck more than 15 degrees to either side restricts blood flow along the vertibular arteries to the brain. That limits individual learning. Many of those in straight-row seats, especially those in the orchestra seats front row far right and far left, have to turn their heads up to 80 degrees to see the presenter. When the presenter wishes closer contact with the audience with a Donahue-like walk up the center aisle, those seated on the front inner aisle may have to turn their necks and bodies up to 180 degrees to follow the presentation. Continued twisting takes its toll on the lower back, blood flow to the legs, ability to breath deeply, fully, and provide the 25 to 30 percent of oxygen the brain requires to function normally. The audience member's internal learning mechanisms are impaired by the direction the chairs are facing. Thrival.com |