Once you have an idea of how much interest there is in your meeting, choose a room with more than enough space to accommodate the estimated attendee count with ample social distancing.

For "open house" meetings longer than 2 hours, it's unlikely that all attendees will all be in attendance at the same time, but it's best to err on the side of caution and plan for full attendance.

If you've had prior meetings, using the Participant map on the meeting admin page can be a great way to gauge where attendees are coming from. When used in conjunction with the Environmental Data Module, you can select a meeting venue close to the communities most likely to have an interest in your meeting.

In addition to the facility size and location, other factors to consider include:

-Proximity to transit options

-Parking availability

-Accessibility of sidewalks and entryways

-Availability of restrooms

-Building ADA compliance

Flat surfaces reflect sound, so hard floors, doors and walls can distort your voice. This can be remedied by laying carpet, hanging curtains and installing a soft pin-up board or portable office partition.

Reduce lighting behind presenters. Bright backlighting makes it hard to see their faces.

Rooms with built-in microphone and sound systems are ideal, but will require coordination with staff trained to use the equipment.

Smaller meetings with less than 20 concurrent attendees can often rely on a phone conferencing system with auxiliary microphones. Read more on selecting an appropriate Audio/Video setup here.

Online registration is a key element in planning your in-person capacity needs.

Read more on setting up your meeting registration here.

While attendance trends relative to registration vary from community to community, here's a good rule of thumb. If you include the registration form on all public-facing announcements and links, your in-person attendees will likely exceed your in-person registration count by 10-50%.

We recommend over-planning for in-person capacity, and evaluating trends by comparing registration and attendance data in Public Input.