Town Hall Meeting Setup

All planning is NOT the same. This infographic shows demand vs supply vs capacity planning: Main Objective ↳ Demand: forecast customer demand ↳ Supply: plan how to meet forecasted demand ↳ Capacity: ensure resources can meet the supply plan Type of Planning ↳ Demand: unconstrained ↳ Supply: constrained by materials, suppliers, production ↳ Capacity: constrained by labor, equipment, shifts, plant availability When in the S&OP Cycle ↳ Demand: demand review ↳ Supply: supply review ↳ Capacity: supply review Input ↳ Demand: sales data, market trends, promotions, historical demand ↳ Supply: demand forecast, inventory levels, supply constraints ↳ Capacity: supply plan, production rates, shift schedules, resource calendars Output ↳ Demand: forecasted demand  ↳ Supply: supply plan including procurement and production schedules ↳ Capacity: capacity plan (available vs. required capacity by period) Key Deliverable to S&OP ↳ Demand: aligned consensus forecast ↳ Supply: feasible supply plan ↳ Capacity: confirmation of capacity readiness or gaps Metrics ↳ Demand: forecast accuracy (MAPE, WMAPE), bias ↳ Supply: OTIF, inventory turns, service level ↳ Capacity: capacity utilization %, available hours, OEE Any others to add?

7 Icebreakers That Actually Work At Networking Events: 1. “What’s Something Exciting You’re Working On?” This is so much better than "So, what do you do?" This shows genuine curiosity and invites people to talk about what matters to them. You’ll often uncover hidden projects, side hustles, or cool trends in their industry. 2. “What Inspired You To Attend This Event?” This question gets past the surface quickly and helps you understand their goals. And that gives you a window to offer meaningful value. This shows genuine curiosity and invites people to talk about what matters to them. You’ll often uncover hidden projects, side hustles, or cool trends in their industry. 3. “How Did You Get Into Your Field?” People love telling their origin story. It gives them a chance to reflect and helps you learn something valuable. Bonus: It opens the door to career path tips or industry insights. Use it to start meaningful convos instead of awkward intros. 4. “What’s A Challenge You’re Facing Right Now?” This one is powerful if asked appropriately. Frame it lightly, “anything you’re trying to figure out these days?” If you can help them solve it or connect them to someone who can? They’ll owe you one big time. 5. “What’s Something People Misunderstand About Your Role?” This sparks a surprisingly fun convo, especially with folks in niche or technical roles. It lets them vent (in a good way) and gives you interesting insights. Plus, it shows you care enough to go deeper than surface-level stuff. 6. “Who Should I Meet Before I Leave?” This is a networking power move. It creates a flywheel where every conversation turns into two. And it helps narrow the focus of your networking to the people who matter most. Bonus: Ask them if they’d be willing to make an introduction! 7. Comment On The Moment If all else fails, comment on what’s around you or a potential shared experience from the event. “Did you try the [insert snack or drink]? Surprisingly good for one of these events.” “Not sure how I feel about these name tags, kind of feel like I'm at prom.” Humor = connection. —— ➕ Follow Austin Belcak for more 🔵 Ready to land your dream job? Click here to learn more about how we help people land amazing jobs in ~3.5 months with a $44k raise: https://lnkd.in/gdysHr-r

💡 Rethinking Classroom Seating: It’s More Than Just Desks and Chairs! As educators, we know that the way students sit can affect the way they learn. Choosing the right seating arrangement isn't just about space it's about creating an environment that supports interaction, focus, collaboration, and engagement. 🎯 Here are some popular classroom seating arrangements and how they can be effective: 🔹 Rows (Traditional Layout) Best for: Direct instruction, tests, minimizing distractions. Effectiveness: Promotes focus and discipline, especially for individual work or when teacher-led instruction is the goal. 🔹 U-Shape / Horseshoe Best for: Discussions, presentations, eye contact. Effectiveness: Builds community and allows all students to see each other and the teacher ideal for whole class discussions and active participation. 🔹 Groups / Clusters (Pods) Best for: Collaborative work, peer learning. Effectiveness: Encourages teamwork, communication, and problem-solving—great for projects and hands-on activities. 🔹 Circle or Semi-Circle Best for: Open dialogue, storytelling, peer sharing. Effectiveness: Creates a safe space for sharing ideas and supports inclusive discussion. 🔹 Flexible Seating Best for: Student choice, comfort, engagement. Effectiveness: Promotes autonomy and comfort students can choose how and where they work best. 🔹 Stadium or Tiered Seating Best for: Presentations, large classes. Effectiveness: All students can see the front clearly great for visibility and participation in large groups. ✨ There’s no one-size-fits-all! The best arrangement depends on the activity, lesson objective, age group, and learning needs. As teachers, experimenting with different layouts can help us find what truly works for our unique learners. 🙌

During an online CPD session, the energy was flat. Cameras off. Chat silent. Then the facilitator shared a strange photo and asked, “What’s happening here?” Within seconds, the chat lit up. “Looks like a llama in a Zoom meeting!” “Definitely a metaphor for burnout.” Laughter. Curiosity. Connection. That one image transformed the room...virtually. Openers aren't just warm-ups. They're doorways to engagement. Whether in lessons, staff meetings, training sessions or assemblies, the right opener sets the emotional and intellectual tone. You don’t need magic, just something thought-provoking, relatable or surprising. Here are a few that work across settings: 📍 Quote of the day – invite interpretation or reflection 📍 Picture prompt – ask “What’s going on here?” 📍 Mini-debate – “One minute. For or against?” 📍 3-2-1 starter – 3 things you know, 2 you want to know, 1 question 📍 Mystery object – always a hit with everyone Whatever your context: student, teacher, leader, facilitator, don’t underestimate the power of a purposeful start. Start strong. The room will follow. #ZippysClassroom #MakeTeachingGreat #LessonOpeners #IceBreakers #WorkshopStarters

Walk into most corporate meeting rooms and you'll see presentation layouts. But most meetings are discussions. Why? The Presentation Room Bias. Rectangular tables facing displays. Theatre-style seating. Cameras positioned for passive viewing. Everything optimised for one person speaking to many - which represents perhaps a fifth of actual meeting activity. The Hybrid Tension. Decision-making meetings need configurations where all participants can see each other and contribute equally. But traditional round tables leave remote participants watching backs and profiles. U-shaped arrangements work better when the open end faces the camera, but this creates 'premium seats' closest to the screen. Microsoft's guitar-pick shaped tables address this: curved arrangements bringing everyone into camera view while maintaining conversational sightlines. But furniture alone doesn't solve it. * You need acoustic design supporting overlapping speech patterns. * Lighting that works for both faces and screens. * Camera positioning that doesn't create a barrier between in-room and remote participants. The Technical Cascade. * Design for the wrong meeting type and everything fails systematically. * DISCAS calculations assume viewing distances that don't account for participants needing to see faces. * Audio systems optimised for amplification struggle with natural discussion patterns. * Acoustic treatment differs: RT60 0.4-0.5s for conversation versus 0.6-0.8s for presentation. The EASE Solution. Environment comes first in GJC's EASE methodology because we must determine what behaviours the space supports - and how to balance in-room and remote needs - before specifying technology. At GJC, we audit meeting room portfolios against actual usage patterns, then redesign spaces to match how teams work. Sometimes converting three presentation rooms into one presentation space and two collaboration spaces with furniture systems that transform based on meeting type. My bi-weekly newsletter 'Industry Standard' explores room design challenges like meeting type mismatches. Subscribe via link in Comments section below. What percentage of your meeting rooms are designed for the workflows and events that actually happen in them? #MicrosoftTeamsRooms #EASEMethodology #AVTweeps #HybridMeetings #AVUserGroup #LTSMG #Schoms #AVIXA #AVMag #InAVate #InstallationMagazine

The Silent Project Killers: Inadequate Resource Planning and Overloaded Teams A few years ago, I was leading a high-stakes project in the energy sector. We had all the right resources—on paper. A well-funded budget, top-tier consultants, and cutting-edge technology. But as we moved into execution, cracks started to show. 💡 The team was stretched too thin—brilliant minds, but not enough capacity to execute efficiently. 💡 Materials arrived late, disrupting workflows and causing delays. 💡 The budget was burning faster than expected, yet progress was slow. That was when I had my aha moment: resource management is not just about having enough—balancing capability and capacity.   ✅The WHAT – Do we have the right resources or just more resources? ✅The WHEN – Are resources available when needed, or are bottlenecks forming? ✅The HOW MUCH – Are we optimizing costs, or just throwing money at inefficiencies? Once we restructured our approach, aligning skills, time, and materials strategically, execution transformed. Productivity skyrocketed, and we delivered on time and under budget. Lesson learned? Having resources means nothing if they’re not deployed at the right time, with the right people, at the right cost. Plan with purpose. Balance capability and capacity. Deliver with precision. ♻️ Repost to help your network build their hidden advantage 🔔 Follow🎙️Fola F. Alabi for strategic insights and project value delivery #FolaElevates #strategicleadreship #resourcemanagement #projectmanagement #PMtoCsuite

Please stop with the BORING zoom meetings! For anyone who hosts virtual meetings, please add one little thing. At the beginning of a meeting with a group of 4 or more, ask an icebreaker question in the chat to get the good vibes going. This can replace small talk and can serve as a knife to cut any tension. Use this if you usually have meeting participants slowly trickle in for the first few minutes, or if you're waiting for one particular attendee. Icebreaker questions in the meeting chat can be especially useful to get creative juices flowing and get people feeling comfortable speaking up if you're hosting a brainstorming session. Here are a few questions you can steal: --> If you could time travel, would you prefer to go forward or backward? --> What's a great book you've read recently? --> What city would you love to travel to next? --> What would be your strategy in a zombie apocalypse? --> What was the first concert you saw live? --> Which famous person would you invite to dinner? --> Favorite quote? --> Favorite food to eat? Asking icebreaker questions like these is exactly what Ryan K. and I did in my podcast this week. I really like his management style and I took a page out of his book and brought some fun into my workday :) Life is short. Office life can be dry. Introduce some fun. Let's give it a shot. Find a question in the comments below that makes you smile and leave a reply (or comment your own question that people can answer!)

Big Myth: Media Relationships / Friendships are make or break to getting clients coverage: Reality: Relationships matter, but not in the way many non-PR people think they do. When I speak about reporter relationships and trust to prospects and current clients, I’m talking about: ➡ Doing deep homework on the journalist's current beat (which can and does change frequently given the massive shift/restructurings at many outlets). The story can be great, but if its not in the person's wheelhouse, its usually not getting written; ➡Publishing cadence, style; ➡Pitch preferences (email, DM, text). One preference that nearly every journalist I work with shares: Brevity, minimal attachments and deep hatred of all caps and exclamation points. ➡Responsiveness to interview requests; and in generally being viewed as someone who doesn't waste their time. ➡Being respectful with the “I’ll pass on this one” or "now's not the right timing, try me next week/month." Unethical PR hacks frequently tout their personal relationships, implying that that will make a big difference in coverage. This rarely happens, because in earned media, quality of the story and timing of the pitch are paramount. It's called earned for a reason. Otherwise it would be called "entitled media" or "call in the favors media." Doesn't have the same ring does it? A reporter could be my best friend or even my spouse, but if the story isn’t great, timely, beat appropriate, and tightly pitched, it’s not getting coverage. We are communications counselors and strategists, not snap our finger magicians. How many folks on here have had to clarify these points in the past month? Enjoyed what you read here? Please follow me and ring the little gold 🔔.

Every year, right on cue at the end of the year, the declaration that “PR is dead” makes its rounds. Below is this year’s version, which claims, “There’s no such thing as PR anymore.” The teaser headline misses the point about how much the public relations function has evolved and advanced. PR hasn’t disappeared; instead, it has moved closer to the center of business strategy, governance, and stakeholder trust. What was described is the demise of a narrow, media relations, or publicity-only approach, not the irrelevance of PR’s core value. The claim hinges on the assumptions that PR is only newsroom work, that paid digital and performance marketing have made it obsolete, and that communications can be fully absorbed into marketing. In reality, modern and business-critical PR encompasses corporate and brand reputation, stakeholder engagement, issues and crisis management, public affairs, internal communications, and thought leadership - all of which sit upstream of traditional marketing activity and often answer to the CEO and board. Reducing PR to “there’s no such thing as PR” ignores the way organizations are structured and governed today. Insights from the PR Council show that clients are not walking away from PR; they are seeking greater accountability and integration from it. In a recent survey conducted by the PR Council and AMEC Measurement and Evaluation, more than two-thirds of agencies reported that most or all of their clients now require formal measurement and reporting to showcase the value and impact of PR and communications initiatives, indicating that PR is being held to business metrics rather than activity outputs. Reputation, share of voice, and thought leadership emerged as the top metrics, strategic indicators of market positioning and executive authority, not mere media vanity metrics. Page Society, the leading professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications executives and educators, also continued to emphasize that the function today is key to corporate brand reputation and stakeholder engagement. Today, we (along with our clients) operate in a high-stakes, high‑expectation environment where employees, regulators, communities, and investors judge companies on purpose, behavior, and transparency. This requires sustained, strategic communication embedded in how companies show up. Collectively, PR manages relationships and trust with all stakeholders, something that no ad buy can replace. You cannot media buy your way out of a trust or reputation deficit. Company values, both tangible and intangible, are shaped by reputation, trust, and corporate character, which PR helps manifest or enhance. So, how about telling a story that illustrates how the outdated "hits” by the pound approach is no longer how PR should be characterized? Are you with me?