The psychology of people placement

This is a basic psychological response that I’m sure many people in the room shared. We’ll have to assume that the opposite is also true. If you have more people show up for the seminar than you expected, you must be good at what you do. This is the response we are looking for.

It’s important to understand group dynamics and the psychological response you want to get. That’s why I always set the room up for just a little fewer than I expect. Don’t forget to have additional seating available when needed so you can accommodate everyone. One important thing you also need to understand about group dynamics is never have more that four people per table. Some restaurants may have big round tables that will seat eight people. If one person is negative at the table, it impacts the other seven people. You certainly don’t want to lose eight potential clients because of one negative person.

The last thing you need to do to complete the room setup is to number the tables. I simply use index cards, folded over so they stand up, with the table number on each side of the card. The reason you need to number the tables is that your assistant will be picking up the seminar worksheets at the end of the seminar but before you serve the meal. I forgot to do that once and it really impacted our ability to appear very organized and professional.