Want your next meeting or event to be dull, lifeless, and disorganized? Just follow the tips and techniques below and I can guarantee your attendees will be totally dissatisfied with your event. Okay, okay I’m not going to leave you hanging. At the bottom of each faux pas, I will give you best practices for a great meeting.

1. Set up your presentation services audio visual and have the talk during the meal.

Don’t give your attendees any chance to network without outside distractions. Have the AV technician wheel in and test all the equipment and make certain to have the speaker run through all their slides while the meal is going on. Make as much noise and create as many distractions as possible.

Best Practice: Have the powerpoint presentation equipment, sound system, and speaker in the room 1 to 2 hours prior to the talk and make certain everything is set up and tested prior to letting anyone in the room. Use the meal time for maximum networking opportunity and encourage business card exchange. Consider having a table captain that can ask a series of networking questions to keep the conversation moving along.

2. Don’t test the sound system.

Hook up all the mics to the sound system and put the lavaliere mic on the presenter. Don’t test the wireless mics in various parts of the room. If you do test, save it for last and rush through it. After all it is simple technology, and the speaker can shout if they need to, right?

Best Practice: Often times, the sound system is the life and breath of your meeting. In a large meeting, it is a must have. Make certain the AV technician and your staff test all parts of the system, from the speaker’s lavaliere mic to any and all wireless mics you might use with a panel discussion or audience participation. Test them in all parts of the room. Make certain the AV company has batteries and backups in the meeting room, ready to go with a moment’s notice.

3. Have more chairs than people: Set for 75, when you are expecting 25

Give your attendees every chance to sit in the very last row of your meeting so they can not view the presentation or hear the speaker. Let them easily sleep or nod off, check their email on their smartphone, talk to the person next to them, or make an easy exit.

Best Practice: Look at your attendance at the conference and assume your breakouts will be equally divided with participants. So if your conference is 200 people and you have 4 breakouts, assume that 50 people will attend each breakout. Then, add 10% to that number. Then the MOST your room should be set for is 55 people. Make the room size work for your set up.  If there is too much space in the room (like having 55 people in a ballroom), the meeting looks poorly attended.

4. Use the same screen size for every room, regardless of room size.

Don’t measure the room, look at your attendance numbers, or the challenges of the room (oblong, pillars, etc). Just order the cheapest projector and screen rentals you can get. Let your budget dictate what equipment you rent.

Best Practice: The cheapest screen is not solution, the right sized screen for the room is. The best presentation in the world isn’t going to make a bit of difference if the attendees cannot see the presentation. A quality AV company will spend time in the room configuring the right projector and screen rental to maximize the visual ability of audience members.

Whether it is Powerpoint presentation equipment, sound and lighting rentals, or screen rentals, AV Event Solutions is available to assist you with event planning in California.