More Delegates Than Chairs

Jack: Jack speaking, Riverside Conference Centre. Grace: Jack, good morning. It's Grace Hollis, from the Teachers' Network. I wonder if you've got a few minutes. I rather think we have a small problem to untangle. Jack: Of course. I think I know where you're going, but please, go ahead. Grace: Our registrations have come in well ahead of forecast. We planned for two hundred and twenty delegates, and we're at three hundred and forty with three weeks to go. The main hall, as I understand it, seats three hundred. Jack: Indeed, and I confess I'd been hoping you wouldn't ask. The honest answer is that the hall can take three hundred and sixty with extra rows, but only if we remove the demonstration area at the back, and that would affect your plans for the workshops. Grace: That's rather the sort of thing I hoped to avoid. Is the lower hall an option? Jack: It's available, but it holds only a hundred and eighty, and it has a low ceiling, which doesn't suit a keynote. What I could do is offer the lower hall as an overflow room with a live video link to the main stage. We have the equipment already, and I'd waive the usual fee for it, given the circumstances. Grace: That's generous. Although I do worry that a screen in another room isn't quite the same as being there. Jack: It isn't, and I wouldn't pretend otherwise. But I'd rather offer you something workable than something that sounds better than it is. Grace: I appreciate the candour. Let me take it to my committee this afternoon and come back to you by five. Jack: Please do. And if it helps, I can hold the lower hall provisionally until then.