The conference took place in a large meeting center room. I paced it off – about 80’ x 80’ and, maybe 30 feet high ‘though it seemed to be as high as the room was wide and deep. 6,400 square feet, a big room that comfortably seated 300 of us at large round tables of eight with some room at the back for the sound engineer’s booth, a video camera, and room for people that were tired of sitting. That included me.

During the first break on the first morning, as I stepped out into the foyer, I asked another delegate, “Can you understand what people are saying in there?“

“No,“ she said. “Even if they’re speaking at a ‘normal‘ speed, the sound is garbled.“

Yes, and with good reason. The sound techs had set up two relatively small speakers, one on either side of the stage. As a result, sound projected from the speakers bounced off the side walls, off the ceiling, and off the back wall so that, whether we were standing in the back of the room or sitting in the middle, we were hearing the presenters multiple times, each time with tiny delays. In two words: Sonic mush.

I recalled a friend’s experience at the original 1969 Woodstock festival. The festival organizers were expecting 50,000 people (400,000 showed up). The sixteen custom-built speaker cabinets mounted on 27-foot-tall towers weren’t up to the task of carrying music to that number of people spread over 600 acres of open farm land. The result, described by Bernard Collier in the New York Times, was that “most of the hip, swinging youngsters heard the music on stage only as a distant rumble. It was impossible for them to tell who was performing and probably only about half the crowd could hear a note.”

It was a little better than that in the conference space – we could hear the notes – but the sound system wasn’t up to the task for carrying conference performances to that number of people spread over 6000 square feet of floor space.

An additional set of speakers placed half-way back in the room would have helped. Even better, it would have been great if each of us could have heard the presentations projected to our own earbuds. The presentation deliveries would have been completely personalized, unmuddied by reflections or deflections.

Note to self: Amidst the extant mush of relentless connectivity, the closer we can place our “speakers” to our prospects and clients and the more individualized and personalized our communication delivery, the greater the odds they will distinguish and understand our messages.

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.