Re: WG meeting structure

[Fred Baker <[e-mail]>]

> On May 14, 2019, at 5:16 PM, Pete Resnick <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
>> Am I willing? Yes. Do I think it's a wonderful idea? I don't. Why? Because I already have little trouble getting people to come to the microphone when they care about something, and I already instruct speakers to leave at least half of their slot for discussion.
> 
> I find this one interesting: I always find that interacting in the U shape is much easier than from a floor mic, depending on the size of the room, especially when multiple people are in on the discussion. If you have someone leading the discussion (or presenting), you can always put them at the top-center of the U for that part of the discussion. But either way, I'm not clear how having the people up at the table would make it harder to get them to participate than getting them to walk up to the mic in a lecture-style room.

I didn't say it would make it harder. I said it was a solution to a problem that I don't know that I have in my working group. We also have tables in the front of the lecture-style room, and people tend to sit where they have easy access to a microphone. So if we're solving problems, I don't see this as a solution to a problem I have.

>> The one thing I would request is that breakout rooms not have large
>> visual blockages in them that prevent people from coming to the microphone,
>> or interacting with the speaker.
> 
> Do you think this somehow makes that worse?

I think we had rather a problem with that in Prague. If we're solving problems, that's a problem we did have.