In my post yesterday titled Less than obvious sources of Table Topics questions for Toastmasters club meetings I mentioned a 2022 book by Steven James and Tom Morrisey: The Art of the Tale (and subtitled Engage your audience, elevate your organization, and share your message through storytelling). An excellent story about fixing a room layout is described in a section titled Prepare Your Space (No bikinis allowed!). It appears on page 86:
“I was teaching a conference in San Diego some years ago, and when I arrived at the venue where the eight-hour-long seminar was to take place, I saw that the entire wall behind the podium was a mirror. That was bad enough – I could only imagine the listeners staring at themselves all day – but then I realized that the back wall of the room behind them was entirely glass, overlooking the pool! So, I was supposed to teach these educators all day while, every ten or fifteen seconds, the reflection of someone in a bikini was going to walk across the stage in front of them.”
At this point you can easily imagine the chorus from Katy Perry’s song California Gurls:
“California girls, we’re unforgettable
Daisy Dukes bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin so hot we’ll melt your popsicle
Ooh oh ooh
California girls, we’re undeniable
Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock
West Coast represent, now put your hands up
Ooh oh ooh”
The story continues:
“I knew there was no way I could compete with Southern California pool life on display.
Thankfully, I’d arrived early enough to reset the room before anyone else showed up. I turned all the chairs toward a side wall. It only took a few minutes. No one else knew that I’d rearranged the room, and the seminar went fine, with no swimsuit-clad interruptions. That day, I learned to always arrive early enough to adjust a room if necessary to provide the best environment for my listeners.”
The gold bikini design was adapted from an image at the Library of Congress.
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