The five questions that change the whole set-up

These are not sales questions: they are the ones that determine whether the event fits. You ask them before giving a capacity and before holding the room.

  • What format do they want the room in? This one weighs most: between theatre and U-shape there is a three-to-one difference in capacity.
  • Will there be projection or a screen? A screen eats metres of depth and creates a front zone where nobody can be seated.
  • Is there food, and of what kind? Coffee inside the room takes floor area; lunch forces a changeover, with its own time and staff.
  • How many hours do they need beforehand to set up and test? This decides whether the previous event can finish on the same day.
  • Does the capacity you have given me include their own people? Organisers, speakers and technicians usually go uncounted, and that is five to fifteen people.

What each format implies, beyond the number

Theatre fits the most people and tolerates columns the least: every obstruction creates a cone of seats with no sightline that has to come off the total. Classroom copes best with an irregular room, because the rows can be broken up. Cabaret — rounds with chairs only on the half facing the stage — asks for the most area per person of any format with tables, and works best when there is a talk and food in the same space.

The U-shape has a trap you only find by laying it out: capacity is limited by the perimeter, not the area, so making the room bigger adds no places. Past about twenty-four people it stops working as a meeting, and it is worth saying so.

AV: what a screen eats

A projection screen does not just take up its own width. It needs distance in front so the first rows are not craning their necks — the usual rule is to seat nobody closer than one and a half times the screen height — and, if it is rear projection, space behind.

In a 200 m² room with a large screen, the dead zone between screen and front row frequently takes twelve to twenty square metres. On the plan you can see it; on a phone call you cannot.

Access and timings: load-in, set-up and sound check

You ask about the three timings separately because different people cover them. The load-in is the AV supplier’s and they need to know where they come in and whether there is a dock or stairs. The room set-up is your team’s. The sound check is the client’s, and it is the one always forgotten when working out the opening time.

The question that settles all three at once: what time does the room have to be finished so they can test. Everything else works backwards from there.

What to sign before holding the room

The agreed format and the maximum capacity of that format, in the same sentence. That is the line that avoids the most common conflict in a conference room: a capacity is agreed in theatre style and three weeks later the client asks for tables, which in the same room is half the places.

It is also worth putting in writing who supplies the screen and who supplies the sound. That is the responsibility most often assumed, and the one that most often surfaces at eight in the morning on the day.