Speakers are the content of a seminar. Even an excellent room cannot rescue a presenter whose slides will not open or whose microphone keeps cutting out. Most of these problems can be avoided with a little structure before the day.
Presenters arrive with different laptops, adapters and file types. Ask everyone to send slides in one agreed format, either PDF or PowerPoint, and load them onto a single house laptop well before the seminar. Embedded videos and fonts should be checked on that laptop, not on the speaker's own machine.
Test every slide deck from start to finish on the house laptop.
Fit lapel microphones and check levels with each speaker.
Agree how presenters move slides forward, with a clicker or a cue to the AV desk.
Confirm who introduces each speaker and how they reach the stage.
Microphone management is easy to underestimate. A fixed lectern microphone is no use when the questions come from the floor. For audience Q&A you need roving handheld microphones and runners who know where to go. Brief the AV team on the format so they can respond quickly, and decide in advance whether questions are taken live, collected on cards or submitted through a screen.
A good moderator keeps time, introduces speakers properly and steers Q&A when one person takes the microphone for too long. Share the speaker order, pronunciations, session timings and any topics to avoid. Ask the moderator to have two or three prepared questions in case the room is quiet at first.
Give speakers a quiet holding area, water and a printed running order. Tell them where to stand, how the timing signals work and who to find if something goes wrong. Relaxed speakers give better sessions.
Get Out! Events brings its own AV, staging and lighting equipment to venues and coordinates with the venue team, as described in its seminar planning notes for MBS.
About this guide: Seminar at Marina Bay Sands is written and maintained by Get Out! Events, a Singapore corporate event company at 14 Robinson Road #08-01A, Singapore 048545. It contains general planning guidance only; confirm current venue rules, permits and partner requirements before you book anything.