subject: Setting Up The Meeting Room [print this page] Aside from worrying about where to hold your meeting, you would also need to worry about how you are going to set up the venue so that all the participants are able to hear well what the facilitator is saying as well as join in during discussions.
Depending on the size of the room where you would be holding the meeting, you actually have five options on how you are going to set up the chairs and the tables. These five styles include classroom style, theater style, conference style, U-shaped, and hallow square.
The first style, the classroom style, is, as the name suggest, set up like a classroom. Rows of chairs and tables are placed on both sides of the room facing the facilitator. This type of set up can be used on any room size and allows almost all of the attendees to see the facilitator. The downside to this is that the attendees seated in front would have to turn around in order to see and hear any participant from the back of the columns.
The theater style, on the other hand, is perfect for a large meeting space Washington DC offices usually have. The seats are arranged in a semicircular manner with the facilitator located on the middle of the semicircle. This allows the attendees on either side of the room to see the rest of the group. Unfortunately, just like with the classroom type, the attendees in front would still have to turn around.
The conference style as well as the hallow square style looks almost the same except for the fact that the latter, as the name implies, has a large hole in the middle. If you are using a small meeting space Washington DC offices have, then you should go for the conference style as it usually eats up less space. The conference style is also recommended for brainstorming sessions as it allows each participant to see one another. There is also no focal point for where the facilitator could stand so everyone gets to feel that they are on equal footing.
Lastly, the U-shape, also similar in style to the conference set-up, is where the chairs and tables are arranged in a rigid U-shape. Most meeting space Washing DC users go for this set up when they need the attendees to have an open discussion with the facilitator. The facilitator usually stays on the middle of the U.
