Read the Room

The Art and Science of Event Flow

If you have a conversation with me about running events, you'll usually hear me drop one of my many clever catch phrases, "Anyone can read a script. It takes a professional to read the room." If a person has the ability to read, they can step up to a microphone and read your script. They can read speaker introductions, make announcements and communicate important information. Many emcees read scripts exceptionally well. Newscasters are phenomenal at this, and often when hosts are considering bringing on an emcee, their local news station is the first place they look. News people are trained to read scripts into a camera, though, so not all of them have developed the skill of reading rooms.

Also? Your event is NOT the news.

What's the difference between reading a script and reading a room? You probably have a sense of what I mean already, but let's dive in a little bit deeper.

When it comes to your audience, you are positioning yourself as their leader. It's your job to interpret energy, match it and move people where they need to go. You're responsible for the mental, emotional and physical experience of your event. You need to manage expectations and train a random group of people to become the kind of audience that you want. Experts in event experiences can craft great scripts that will deliver 90% without much extra thought or effort on the part of the emcee. However, even the best scripts alone can't bridge that last 10% because they can never accurately predict the thoughts and emotions of the actual humans in front of you. That's why the best room readers are both artfully aware of the human elements and have a working knowledge of the science behind effective communication.

The Science of Reading a Room

The majority of our communication is nonverbal. That means things like vocal tone and body language are crucial to your own performance as well as massive clues to help you read your audience. Most people have plenty of bandwidth to read nonverbal cues when having intimate one-on-one or small group conversations. When it comes to bigger rooms, however, you'll have to expand your capacity and watch for certain patterns.

Here are a few examples:

EYES

In a large room, look for people's eyes. When your guests are paying attention, in general, their eyes will be on the stage. You may have a handful of people checking phones or looking down at their notebooks to take notes, which is to be expected. Overall, you want to see more eyes on the stage or speaker than not. When you notice that more than half of your audience's eyes have wandered off to the exit doors, phones or snack table in the back, it's a good indication that you're losing them and it's time to make a shift.

POSTURE

An engaged group of people will be sitting upright or leaning slightly forward while maintaining eye contact or actively taking notes. A disengaged audience may be slouching or shifting in their seats. Maybe they've crossed their arms over their chests, they're checking their phones, getting up to grab coffee or leaving to use the restroom. You may notice people getting antsy close to break times or when a speaker has taken more than their allotted time (or isn't very engaging or coherent with their talk or presentation). Whether you're on stage or off, take note of these changes in posture and adjust accordingly.

MICRO EXPRESSIONS

Have you ever been going about your day pretending like everything was fine when it really wasn't and then had some observant person have the nerve to ask you what's wrong? Micro expressions are small, rapid and often involuntary responses to emotions. If you can see them, they're excellent tools for checking the pulse of your audience.

At your event, you want to see things like upturned mouths (smiles), nodding heads, open eyes and raised eyebrows. When you start to notice downturned mouths (frowns), furrowed eyebrows, avoidant eye contact, cocked heads or quick glances to others, it's an indication that something about your program is confusing, boring or frustrating.

The Art of Responding

When you notice any of these nonverbal cues that your audience is not fully engaging with you or the speaker, when you're on the microphone, it's your job to change direction, shift your energy, stop and clarify something or pivot and pick up the pace. If you're in the audience noticing these signals of disengagement, there's not a lot you can do until you return to the stage. What you can do is start to think about what it will take to bring them back and prepare to implement one or more of those ideas once you're back on the microphone again.

The average noise level of a crowded conference room or office is somewhere between 70 and 90 decibels. The average human voice is around 60. When the noise level in the room begins to rise, this is another sign you could be losing control of the crowd. It might start with a few polite whispers here and there, hopefully related to the content being presented. Gradually, you'll notice a ripple of sound and movement throughout the entire room. When people start turning to one another and having side conversations, it usually means they're ready for a break or some other physical or mental reset.

I hate to admit how many times I've seen an emcee come up to the stage to quiet an unruly crowd and shush them as though they were preschoolers. There are many ways to reset an audience, so consider your approach carefully. When I'm at a conference surrounded by high level professionals and entrepreneurs, the last thing I want to feel like is a toddler who needs to ask permission to address my own basic needs. Two simple ways to grab attention when you need to silence the noise are to increase your own volume or draw out the length of the vowel sound in a single syllable. Either of these approaches provides enough of a pattern interruption to refocus their attention on you.

Leveling Up Your Room-Reading Skills

Each room has its own personality, its own baseline energy. As an empath, I'm naturally attuned to the energy of the people around me, whether it's one person face-to-face or a room of a thousand. If you're not like me, you may find it more difficult to tune into the energy of a room. It's not impossible. You can develop the skill if you are willing to learn and practice. Even the most oblivious of hosts can get there.

Awareness is key. Notice the shifts in micro expressions, body language, noise and movement. As you find yourself in more and more rooms, whether you're leading from the stage or enjoying an audience experience, your awareness will expand to the point that eventually you won't have to think so much about precisely what you're noticing. From there, you'll develop the ability to anticipate the shifts before they happen. It's not so much about being intuitive or empathetic as it is about building the habit of keen observation.

Courage follows awareness. Reading the room is one thing. Responding and directing a room is the next level. Most people are too nice. They don't want to seem too aggressive or obnoxious. They want to be liked. They want to be nice.

Your audience isn't showing up for nice.

They're not showing up to be coddled and stay comfortable. They're at your event because they know it will challenge them, change them and help them be different. They want to make a difference and leave as better people than they were when they came in. It's not kind to be nice to them. They need you to lead them and guide them and confront them.

Have the courage to be kind. Call them out. Name the bullshit. If the room is too cold, acknowledge that the room is cold and remind them to grab a sweater at the next break. If the energy in the room is shifting, acknowledge the shift, name what you notice and if it's appropriate, let them know why you're doing what you're doing to bring their focus back.

Most people don't have the courage to name what they notice. The truth is that you're not the only one noticing, and if you ignore what everyone else in the room is aware of, even if it's not conscious on their part, you'll lose their trust. You're all in this together, so stay with them and make sure you're really in it together.

Name what you notice with courage and confidence.

Keep doing this, and you will show up consistently for and with your audience. People want to engage with you when you practice noticing. Practice naming what you notice. People relate to you because you're challenging them for the purpose of their own growth. Have the integrity to keep showing up as your beautiful imperfect self, doing your best to have fun, engage and relate. Keep noticing. Keep practicing courage in service to your audience, and you'll level up both your emceeing skills as well as develop an impeccable reputation among your peers.

Ready to take your event hosting skills to the next level?

This article features information from my book, Welcome to the Stage: The 360° Approach to Hosting Events Like a Pro NOW AVAILABLE! If you enjoyed it, you'll love the comprehensive guidance, practical strategies and insider techniques I share in the full book.

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Sara DeaconComment