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Arriving at the Gig
Look
At the Room
Being told to, “Look at the room”
might sound ridiculously simple, but there’s a good
explanation for this. One thing that can throw a speaker
off their game immediately is the shock of looking into
a sea of faces looking back at them from the audience.
The room has a different view from the stage, and it can
be highly intimidating.
One way to minimize this stage
shock is to walk up to the front area of the room, even
if it’s off the stage, and peer into the room to get a
feel for what the vista looks like. Even if the room is
empty at the time, examine the area the audience will
soon be occupying, so you can familiarize yourself with
anything that might cause a distraction.
In the fall of 2010, I was hired
to conduct a workshop for an accounting firm. One of the
owners of the firm is also a martial arts instructor,
and he’d purchased the neighboring office space to
create a dojo for the staff to train in, as an
extracurricular perk. They also use the dojo as a
training room, where they hold workshops and seminars.
When I arrived to do my workshop, the seats had been
arranged in a fashion that left me facing a long wall
that was essentially a huge mirror. Because I arrived
early, I stood at the front of the room and considered
whether or not I’d be distracted by the mirrored wall. I
decided I should be facing the other way, so I
rearranged the entire room. Now, I was facing the back
wall and the audience was facing the mirrored wall. I
felt the risk of having some of the audience members
distracted by the mirror was a lesser evil than having
me distracted by the mirror. I was being paid for my
services. The client deserved my very best.
So, what’s the lesson? Get a
visual of the room in advance, that way there are no
surprises when you take the stage. |