Dr. Thea has been speaking professionally since 1997. While she is passionate about the delivery of her material, the wrong environment can completely undermine the client’s goals. If clients are making the investment in Dr. Thea’s speaking and travel expenses, it is in their best interest to cultivate a positive environment that fosters learning.

Choosing the right meeting location:

• If participants are expected to drive and return home on the same day, the meeting location should ideally be no more than 2 hours from their home. If individuals have to drive more than 2 hours for the meeting, they are usually tired and unable to perform at their best.
• Meeting planners need to check and see which other groups will be there on the same day. Having a large group in the meeting room next door with loud music and cheering is disruptive.

Room set-up:

• Depends on the number of participants, type of event, and size of room. Theater-style is appropriate for a 1 hour meeting. It is not recommended for extended periods where participants need a writing surface.
• To facilitate interaction among participants and comfort for longer meetings , Dr. Thea prefers ¾ rounds. Dr. Thea places participants in rounds but leave the area facing the stage empty. This way no one has the seats they have to turn around and not have a table surface to write on during the training.
• Tape door latches to prevent them from making noise.

A/V equipment:

• This is the area Dr. Thea has seen the most mistakes made by both meeting planners and speakers. Approximately 8% of the general population of the United States has some type of hearing impairment. As the age of participants increase, the rate of hearing impairments increases substantially. If there are 25 or more participants, the speaker needs a microphone. Sometimes speakers ask “Can everyone hear me? I talk loudly. I don’t think I need a microphone today.” Individuals with hearing impairments are most likely not going to raise their hands and say “I can’t hear you.” They shouldn’t have to self-identify with any type of disability to a room full of possible strangers. Meeting planners and speakers should assume their participants have hearing impairments and use microphones.