159159
Know the Venue
and Schedule
Scoping out the room in advance will help you navigate
it. If you can’t check it out in person, look for details
online or ask the host to describe it. Sometimes, if you
get this information early enough, you can change the
setup to meet your preferences. If you’re leading an off-
site meeting for a team of six, for example, and you’ve
been assigned a large conference space, see if you can get
a cozier room—or at least a smaller table to encourage
discussion.
Don’t make any assumptions about the space. When I
was invited to speak to 70 people at Google, in my head
I pictured rows of chairs. But when I got there, I was
taken to a tiny conference room with 20 people crammed
in—and 50 small faces of webcam participants ...