You can make your audience feel special if there are just enough seats in the room where you are presenting. If you have a 100 chairs in a room and you are presenting for 15 persons, your audience will feel a bit lost. They will intentionally or unintentionally start to wonder if it was worth coming to your presentation. They may start thinking if you were expecting 100 persons and only 15 persons showed up. They may think that maybe it wasn’t worth coming to your presentation. The first rows of seats will probably remain empty. People spread around the room and you are going to get a hard time to address all your attendees as a group.
It is much better to have 15 chairs in the room if you expect 15 persons to come for your presentation. If you expect between 15 and 20 persons you may want to set-up the room for 16 persons and leave 4 chairs in the back of the room (facing the wall) so if more persons show up they can grab a chair and join the group. Matching the size of the room, number of seats and the size of your audience is important. It will add to the perceived success of your presentation. The book Public Speaking Excellence includes practical examples and tips on how to set-up a room for success.
