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How to Handle Traffic Flow
One important thing meeting planners usually overlook is the movement of attendees between venues. Traffic or flow planning is absolutely critical in certain situations and the way meeting planners direct the movement of attendees into different rooms (meeting rooms, cocktail receptions, and banquet functions) separates the professional from the amateur planner. What follows is a list of already tested techniques and hints on handling different scenarios.
Scenario 1 – Meeting Room
How to make sure that no one will be standing in the back of the room without a seat available nearby.
What to do
In order to ensure that everyone will be seated in an efficient and courteous manner you should load the front room first making sure that seats for VIPs and speakers are set aside. Open only the front-most side door to direct people to the front seats. Stand in the middle of the room directing people where you want them to go. Be polite and never argue with them. When the front fills, you should close the front-most side door and open the next one. Carry on with this procedure until the back of the room is left to be filled. In order to make sure that no one will go to the back of the room you can use ribbons and tapes to make it inaccessible. Once all the other seats are taken and the meeting has begun remove all tapes and ribbons the back of the room for late arrivals (use signage to direct them).
If you deal with very large groups of people, you need to have staff members sitting in front of doors and communicating with each other via walkie-talkies. One staff member needs to sit in front of the doors that need to stay close and another should be in front of the entrance that is to be used first. The latter will automatically direct people to the desired door. Every time a new door needs to open, staff members should communicate via the walkie-talkies and make their way to the new door in order to continue seating people.
Scenario 2 – Coffee Breaks
How to make sure that open stations won’t disrupt the normal flow of people into the various function rooms.
What to do
Make sure that open stations are not located near the doors of a meeting room or close to a restroom. When you position a station try to make sure that the direction people are coming from should be away from the meeting rooms. When people go from a general session to a breakout session or vice versa, it would be a good idea to locate the coffee break in front of the next chronological destination. The coffee break should be placed in the breakout area if people go into breakouts that are remote from the general session foyer.
You need to organize items in each station in the correct order to ensure that people won’t stop moving until after they get their coffee or hot water. Therefore, regular coffee should be placed first, decaffeinated coffee second, and hot water third. Downstream from coffee, you should place tea bags, sugar and cream. Sodas and snacks should be put on separate tables, first glasses, then ice, then soda. You may hire people to help serve the guests if cost is not a problem. Make sure there is an outlet at the end of the stream.
Scenario 3 – Coffee Breaks
How to make sure that when remote breakouts and the general session are both being used, attendees going to the remote breakouts won’t be attacking the coffee station reserved for the general session breakout.
What to do
You can have the speaker excuse the breakout session attendees first and keep the general station foyer stations closed until these people pass through. When the first group exits the room, send those returning to the general station to the break just outside the room.
Scenario 4 – Cocktail Parties
How to position food stations and bars so that they won’t be affecting the layout design and flow pattern of the room.
What to do
Position bars away from doors and make sure they don’t overlap or flow into food stations. Don’t place four or more bars in the same area and keep seating together and away from high-traffic areas. Beer and wine bars are better suited at large events and outdoor events. If you want to move large groups to the back of the room, don’t open the bars and food stations that are closest to the entrance until the majority of people have entered.
Scenario 5 – Move guests into dinners
How to move people from reception functions to buffet dinners without having long lines.
What to do
Firstly, you need to keep in mind that whatever your plan is you should to discuss it with the hotel staff to make sure you control the traffic. You should start telling people closest to the exit of the reception that the buffet is now open. As soon as the line gets shorter you should let the next group closest to the exit know about the buffet. This way you move as many people as necessary to keep buffet lines full. You should never do something that will result in most guests leaving the reception at the same time. Don’t forget to keep all the bars open until the buffet line is finished.
Scenario 6 – Move guests into dinners
How to make sure that people sit quickly so food service can start.
What to do
You can either close all bars at the same time or signal guests that dinner is served by flashing lights or playing exit music. You should tell people farthest from the exit doors to leave the event first in order for the others to notice the movement and make their way toward the dining room. Always be polite when directing to people.
Scenario 7 – Seat people at food functions
How to sit larger groups at food functions.
What to do
Make use of as many entrances as possible so that traffic won’t be disrupted. Use larger aisles and line up members of staff in them to direct people to the back of the room first.
Scenario 8 – Reserved Events
How to handle reserved seating events.
What to do
In order to make sure that people will find the correct door and they won’t be wandering around the room in search of their seats you will definitely need to use many staff members and numerous signs in the room. A reproduction of the room layout should be placed in the reception area and outside each door. Also a member of the staff should be outside each door as well as a sign that displays the table numbers that can be found by entering through that particular door. A good idea would be to have a colour code for each area of the room and affix a corresponding colour sticker to each attendee’s name badge.
Scenario 1 – Meeting Room
How to make sure that no one will be standing in the back of the room without a seat available nearby.
What to do
In order to ensure that everyone will be seated in an efficient and courteous manner you should load the front room first making sure that seats for VIPs and speakers are set aside. Open only the front-most side door to direct people to the front seats. Stand in the middle of the room directing people where you want them to go. Be polite and never argue with them. When the front fills, you should close the front-most side door and open the next one. Carry on with this procedure until the back of the room is left to be filled. In order to make sure that no one will go to the back of the room you can use ribbons and tapes to make it inaccessible. Once all the other seats are taken and the meeting has begun remove all tapes and ribbons the back of the room for late arrivals (use signage to direct them).
If you deal with very large groups of people, you need to have staff members sitting in front of doors and communicating with each other via walkie-talkies. One staff member needs to sit in front of the doors that need to stay close and another should be in front of the entrance that is to be used first. The latter will automatically direct people to the desired door. Every time a new door needs to open, staff members should communicate via the walkie-talkies and make their way to the new door in order to continue seating people.
Scenario 2 – Coffee Breaks
How to make sure that open stations won’t disrupt the normal flow of people into the various function rooms.
What to do
Make sure that open stations are not located near the doors of a meeting room or close to a restroom. When you position a station try to make sure that the direction people are coming from should be away from the meeting rooms. When people go from a general session to a breakout session or vice versa, it would be a good idea to locate the coffee break in front of the next chronological destination. The coffee break should be placed in the breakout area if people go into breakouts that are remote from the general session foyer.
You need to organize items in each station in the correct order to ensure that people won’t stop moving until after they get their coffee or hot water. Therefore, regular coffee should be placed first, decaffeinated coffee second, and hot water third. Downstream from coffee, you should place tea bags, sugar and cream. Sodas and snacks should be put on separate tables, first glasses, then ice, then soda. You may hire people to help serve the guests if cost is not a problem. Make sure there is an outlet at the end of the stream.
Scenario 3 – Coffee Breaks
How to make sure that when remote breakouts and the general session are both being used, attendees going to the remote breakouts won’t be attacking the coffee station reserved for the general session breakout.
What to do
You can have the speaker excuse the breakout session attendees first and keep the general station foyer stations closed until these people pass through. When the first group exits the room, send those returning to the general station to the break just outside the room.
Scenario 4 – Cocktail Parties
How to position food stations and bars so that they won’t be affecting the layout design and flow pattern of the room.
What to do
Position bars away from doors and make sure they don’t overlap or flow into food stations. Don’t place four or more bars in the same area and keep seating together and away from high-traffic areas. Beer and wine bars are better suited at large events and outdoor events. If you want to move large groups to the back of the room, don’t open the bars and food stations that are closest to the entrance until the majority of people have entered.
Scenario 5 – Move guests into dinners
How to move people from reception functions to buffet dinners without having long lines.
What to do
Firstly, you need to keep in mind that whatever your plan is you should to discuss it with the hotel staff to make sure you control the traffic. You should start telling people closest to the exit of the reception that the buffet is now open. As soon as the line gets shorter you should let the next group closest to the exit know about the buffet. This way you move as many people as necessary to keep buffet lines full. You should never do something that will result in most guests leaving the reception at the same time. Don’t forget to keep all the bars open until the buffet line is finished.
Scenario 6 – Move guests into dinners
How to make sure that people sit quickly so food service can start.
What to do
You can either close all bars at the same time or signal guests that dinner is served by flashing lights or playing exit music. You should tell people farthest from the exit doors to leave the event first in order for the others to notice the movement and make their way toward the dining room. Always be polite when directing to people.
Scenario 7 – Seat people at food functions
How to sit larger groups at food functions.
What to do
Make use of as many entrances as possible so that traffic won’t be disrupted. Use larger aisles and line up members of staff in them to direct people to the back of the room first.
Scenario 8 – Reserved Events
How to handle reserved seating events.
What to do
In order to make sure that people will find the correct door and they won’t be wandering around the room in search of their seats you will definitely need to use many staff members and numerous signs in the room. A reproduction of the room layout should be placed in the reception area and outside each door. Also a member of the staff should be outside each door as well as a sign that displays the table numbers that can be found by entering through that particular door. A good idea would be to have a colour code for each area of the room and affix a corresponding colour sticker to each attendee’s name badge.
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