Add this thought to you event planner checklist: Does your event space help the keynote speaker to succeed?

The purpose of this article is to provide valuable tips for your event planner checklist. When it comes to booking event keynote speakers, almost nothing is as important to your ROI than the event space. Any event planner checklist should include a few key elements relating to the room and how well it enhances or interferes with the presentations of the keynotes speakers you’ve hired.

Here is some advice straight from the keynotes speakers themselves to consider before booking Your next event venue.

Avoid the outdoors

“Probably the worst was a talk I gave on one of those dinner cruise ships. This was a fairly small group, maybe 30 or 40, and the ship’s dining room was barely big enough to hold them. When I checked it out before the cruise departed, the air conditioning was so loud that I knew I couldn’t be heard — there was no sound system — so I asked that they shut off the AC when I started my talk. When the time actually came, however, the ship was underway and the engines were MUCH louder than the air conditioning.  When the staff obediently shut off the AC at the beginning of my talk, it didn’t make a bit of difference to the noise level, but it did cause the crowded dining room to become very hot. I tried to yell my remarks over the sound of the engines, but I doubt if more than half the audience could hear anything. Perhaps the one saving grace was that by that time pretty much everybody, except me, was drunk.”

– Geoff Colvin, Fortune magazine, Author, Talent is Overrated

Odd sized rooms need extra sound reinforcement to compensate

“One time I was invited to speak and receive an award from a university during a reunion. The room was laid out in the shape of a long skinny rectangle, and the acoustics were terrible — so the only people who could hear me were the people at the top of the rectangle. The rest, I imagine, carried on happily reuniting with their former classmates — what else could they have done?”

– Susan Cain, Author, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Fear the big room half-full

“1,000 people can generate great energy, unless they’re spread out in an NFL football stadium or an arena. I had that experience once. The stage was on the 50-yard line – mid-field and a LONG way from the audience. A great sound system was in place but it was a strange vibe overall in an otherwise empty stadium.

“If you want to meet somewhere like that, fine; give people a tour but then cluster them in a place that can sort of make sense, like behind where the team would sit during the game, and have the speaker up close, not far away and high in the sky.  Whenever the room is much bigger than the size of the crowd, rope off the seating area and have the ushers send people forward. It enhances the crowd energy tremendously and makes for a much more successful audience experience.”

–Tom Morris, Noted Philosopher and author, If Aristotle Ran General Motors

Event planner checklist priority: eliminate “the gulf”

“Ask comedians, entertainers, and motivational speakers about the biggest challenge to connecting with an audience and they’ll tell you it’s “the gulf” – the distance from the front of the stage to the first row of seats. The greater the distance, the harder it is to connect, and the lower the energy. It’s no different with speakers. Many of the stories here make that point. Whenever possible, have your audience seated as close to the action as possible. The energy will start up front and ripple through the room. It can literally change the outcome of the presentations and should be a critical goal on any event planner checklist.”

– Tony D’Amelio, Principal, D’Amelio Network