[council] Re: LA meeting Seating Arrangement

["Ben Edelman" <edelman@law.harvard.edu>]

Philip,

Given constraints imposed by the size of the room (smaller than we might
have liked, given the size of registration list, publicly accessible at
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/la2000/preregistration/attendees.asp>),
I think the best approach might be to follow the lead set by Esther Dyson as
Chair of meetings of the ICANN Board.

You'll notice that Esther always sits at an extreme end of the "horseshoe"
Board arrangement.  From there, she can easily see everyone across the
horseshoe from her as well as everyone on the long side of the horseshoe
(facing the audience).  One Board member sits immediately next to her, which
means it is difficult for her to see at most one or two Directors.  This
seems a pretty good outcome, given competing goals of camera placement and
audience sight-lines.

All the alternative layouts I can readily imagine -- a V, a semicircle,
etc. -- seem to take up significantly more floor space, reducing the amount
of space available for the audience, and thus undesirably reducing room
capacity.

Accordingly, I'd encourage the NC chair to take a seat at one end of the
U-shaped table arrangement where he or she will find it easiest to see as
many other NC members as possible.


Ben Edelman




> Philip,
>
> THe horseshoe sounds like an inquisition style setup, could be fun:)
>
> I'm not sure how flexible we are in setup, we have issues of space and
> also camera angels etc.. also need to be taken into account.
>
> I can ask the hotel but I expect imagination and flair will not be their
> major skill sets.
>
> At the moment I am more worried about squeezing maximum capacit out of the
> available room.
>
> If you are there the day before the meeting we can always take a look and
> see if we can be creative.
>
> It looks like this meeting is going to be a big one.
>
> John
>
>
> On Thu, 2 Nov 2000, Philip Sheppard wrote:
>
> > John, I understand that you have the unenviable task of the logistical
> arrangements for the next ICANN meeting. At its last meeting the Names
> Council agreed to a set of guidelines for running meetings included in
> which is:
> > "Seating
> >
> > During in-person meetings, the NC Chair should be located so he/she can
> see all members. Specifically, the NC endorses a better seating
arrangement
> for inter-NC communication than the "panel on a platform" favoured to date
> by host venues."
> >
> > When you talk to the hotel about the seating arrangements which will I
guess apply for the NC and the Board could you ask > for this to be taken
into account? A horseshoe arrangement, allowing the
> chair to see all members is one option. A more > imaginative set up would
> be a centrally located hemisphere with audience on two sides. Why not
> challenge the hotel with this > and see if the MdR Marriott can show
> imagination, flair and practicality in its service delivery?
> >
> > Philip Sheppard
> > AIM - European Brands Association
> > 9  av. des Gaulois  B-1040 Brussels
> > Tel +322 736 0305 Fax +322 734 6702