A few months ago, Joan Eisenstodt made a great observation on Jeff Hurt‘s blog, Midcourse Corrections, about how difficult it can be to sit through a presentation when the house lights are set so low it’s impossible to take notes, use a laptop, etc. And Jeff was spot-on when he agreed that these days a good projector (and, yes, that is a caveat…a crummy lamp will completely negate what I’m about to say), properly specified for the size of the room and audience should have no problem illuminating the image on the screen even with the house lights at full power.

So, just for fun, at one of my speaking engagements, I requested the AV crew not dim the house lights.  With Joan’s comment running through my head, I stood my ground as they repeatedly tried to turn down the house lights. I finally had to throw out the “I am the CEO of an AV Company” line to get them to take me seriously (oh, that’s so frustrating, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog!!).

After all was said and done, Joan was certainly right (gee, go figure haha). See, I had requested of my audience to Tweet, use their phones for live polling and do some interactive group exercises. How could I ask them to do all of this in the dark? And I knew that the front-projected, 6k projector on a 9×12 screen in an intimate 80-person room set would be more than sufficient. Ultimately we had not one complaint that the audience couldn’t read the screen, I was able to clearly see and assess the feedback from my audience and I’m sure everyone had a much easier time tapping away at their little phone keypads thanks to decent lighting! Kudos and Thank You Joan!

So, here are a few considerations when thinking about what is appropriate and how to accomplish your goals when it comes to your lighting:

• First of all, check the room lighting when evaluating your site. How flexible are the lighting options? Can you dim one quadrant or one half of the room at a time? If so, maybe inform your attendees that they have some options when it comes to overhead lighting. After all, I’m sure there are some people who feel more comfortable with darker lights overhead. I was appalled at a recent load-in when I discovered a brand-new, extremely high-end property had only two light settings. Yep, good old “on” and “off”
• For really large, non-traditional venues or a convention center type of setting, it’s often buzzing mercury lamps or nothing. As pin spots on tables can be an exorbitant cost, see what kind of effects you might achieve with blasting the walls (or preferably pipe & drape) with bright uplights. This creates a nice diffused light, but may not reach the center of the room. Or, if getting a little creative, how about something fun along the lines of table or desk lights? Battery powered LED lights can be durable and extremely long-lasting (hundreds of hours for reuse). Just be sure they are shaded to throw the light on the table – and not people’s faces!
• Spend a few minutes with your Technical Director or Project Manager reviewing  exactly how you’d like the room lighting to look during each segment of your event. There are certainly times where you’d really rather the audience be enveloped by a low-light setting…it can spark a mood that you’d like to achieve. If your intent is to relax your audience, get them solely focused on the entertainment before them or perhaps create an awards-show type of setting, you’d certainly want a lower house light setting.

Best of luck and don’t be afraid to do what your instinct tells you to. Just try to ignore the patronizing looks of the snooty AV kid (And be sure to read my AVGirl column on planyourmeetings.com for some empowering knowledge.) If you’re not happy with the results, there’s no reason why you can’t make a change mid-stride (or midcourse, eh Jeff?).