What's the strangest training, seminar or conference room you have worked in?
Most of my mainstream clients usually have a designated training suite or hire a venue.But over the years, some clients have housed me and their staff in:-
- A hairdressing salon
- A snooker hall
- A room above a very noisy jazz club
- A seaside portkabin with noisy seagulls walking on the tin roof all day!
- A first aid room
- A marquee
Church crypts, run down community halls and a converted house with a mattress on the lawn plus a burnt out car near the drive have also featured in my travels! But all positive experiences -eventually!
Have you had any bizarre or quirky training venues?
7 Responses
Quirky venues
Patient's waiting room with a group of receptionists! – the room was the size of a small office with 6 of us in total in the room. A very long day!
Bryan
http://www.abctrainingsolutions.biz
Two stand out for me…
In a meeting room on a train platform, which diesel trains chugging past every 30 minutes
At a football stadium, where most of the group wanted to spend the day looking around the stadium rather then in the conference room learning
my three…
…in the crew room adjoining the armoury on a USAF base; the radio rebro station for the perimeter guard was in the armoury which had a grille door….there were constant crackles between Maverick and Iceman about people trying to cross the fence and can he have a 40mm grenade launcher to his location please.
…in a portacabin forty feet above Whitechapel Tube station platform at 11pm at night doing 1:1 sessions…….creepy!
…in a room from which all the furniture had been removed (from the entire site) the night before, consequently we ran the session sitting cross legged on the floor, very hippy!
not even a room!
A two day seminar in an underground basement whose air-conditioner was out of order and instead of fresh air pumped in the exhaust fumes from the nextdoor hotel kitchen.
A one day seminar on a balcony of a seaside hotel on a windy day. I had a ppt presentation and a screen. The most shocking moment came when the wind started to blow the screen over the rails and two ladies from the first row tried to hold the screen, but the wind gust was too strong and carried them halfway over the rails, so myself held to them, and then more men jumped to help,us and hopefully no one was hurt. Scary!
And the funniest, again not a room, was a day-long seminar in a hotel, where all the conference halls were occupied, so we were given the landing between two stairs, delegates had to sit on the steps and getting up often to give way to guests using the same stairs. Usually my seminars include many activities and group exercises. Consequently the guests were interested and soon I had a group of onlookers, especially children were very enthusiastic and formed their own groups…
Plane crazy
I had to deliver a number of training session at Heathrow Airport. The room I had was in one of the car parks and was about 150 metres away from the runway.
Not only did I have to compete with big and small planes taking off and landing all day (landing aircraft surprisingly make a bit of noise as well), but after every take off the room was filled with the smell of burnt aviation fuel.
Stuart
The staff lunch room, which
The staff lunch room, which was tiny, & the 5-6 trainees barely fit around the small table. There was very little space to move around in, & other staff kept coming in to get food, make & get coffee, & heat up their lunches.
Because the room was so small I had to keep moving out of their way when they opened the fridge etc. I also had to post my various training materials on the fridge & microwave as the only free wall space was directly behind the trainees' heads.
Venues
Didn't run this one, but attended and gained plenty of "How not to tips" as a result…..
Computer training held in the "dungeon" of an estate agents among discarded monitors, the dishwasher and none too health and safety conscious beverage making facilities, cunningly placed just outside the men's loo. We weren't offered any refreshment in 2 hours ( or daylight). 8 attended, but there were only 6 chairs. Senior partner joined in and monopolised the whole event with a running tirade against computers. Excellent.