Creating and running great in-person training sessions can be challenging and time-consuming. As a trainer, you want to be able to deliver this content with as little stress as possible. This makes things easier on you, and it also makes for a better participant experience. But we all know things can go wrong. On the technical side, what happens if the room and facilities are inadequate? On the personal side, what if participants arrive with an unclear understanding of the training content or doubts about whether the training will even help them at all?

Luckily, there are steps you can take before, during and after the training session to mitigate these issues — and others that may arise — so you can focus on delivering your content professionally.

Step 1: Prepare Yourself

If you have created your own content and delivered it many times before, then you know your material and (hopefully) can deliver it with ease. Sometimes, however, trainers must work with other people’s training material. So, as you approach the day, make sure to practice your delivery out loud. It’s not enough to simply review slides or texts by reading them, because this won’t build the muscle memory you need to deliver effectively. Instead, run through the material out loud a couple of times. This will help avoid a situation in which you spend too much time reading from the screen (a huge no-no) or changing slides at the wrong times. If you think this is too much preparation, then ask yourself this: Who have your favorite trainers been when you took workshops — slide readers or engaging speakers who had a clear handle on their material?

Step 2: Prepare Your Participants

Training participants come in all forms. Some eagerly look forward to the session. Others begrudgingly attend because they have to. Still others hardly think about your session until the morning it starts. So how do you get everybody on the same page ahead of time? It’s a no-brainer: Contact them. Send them a  short email with a concise description of what to expect during the session, including the benefits they’ll walk away with. This is also your chance to get some housekeeping items out of the way, by including things such as the location, transportation options and the date and timing of the session. Plus, you can let people know whether they need to complete any pre-work or bring anything on the day itself, such as a laptop. This is a great way to introduce yourself to the group, and to ask them if they have any questions in advance of the session.

Step 3: Prepare the Room

There is nothing more frustrating than arriving at your training location only to find that the room you’ll be using is not adequate for the session and there are 12 participants staring at you, waiting for you to start. The trick here is to give yourself plenty of time to solve any room-related issues before the participants arrive.

You should always plan to get to the location one hour before the session start time. This golden rule is so important that you should simply make it part of your plan and, if applicable, your client communication as you work with them to arrange the session. If you’re traveling for the session or using a client’s facilities, map the location in advance, ensuring you know how to get there and where to park. Take into consideration time of day and any potential rush-hour traffic. Make sure somebody will be there to grant you access to the facilities.

Then, check the following things:

• The room is the right size for your session.
• The room is set up the right way (in a u-shape, “theater” seating, or whatever layout is most conducive to the training).
• The room has the items you requested, such as a screen or TV, flipcharts, markers, whiteboards, etc.
• If you’re using a presentation, plug in your laptop and make sure your sound and visuals work, as well as your remote for switching slides.
• Put out any items for the participants, such as name tags, notebooks, reading material, etc.
• Set up any branding material you might be using, such as posters or banners.

The advantages of giving yourself time to do this are clear. You won’t rush in just in time, covered in sweat as you scramble to solve problems in front of your participants. And you won’t have to delay the start time as you deal with pesky technical issues — again, in front of participants. Instead, you’ll have solved any issues without time-related stress. You’ll have transformed the room into your own training space. And you’ll be ready to greet participants as they arrive, welcoming them to the session.

Step 4: Immediately Set and Manage Expectations

If you have a lot of material to get through, it can be tempting to charge ahead and dive right in. However, this can be overwhelming to some participants. And remember, some may even be skeptical about the entire session. One way to address both of these issues is to simply ask participants to share their individual expectations for the workshop. Perhaps a question like: “What do you want to be doing better when you walk out that door this afternoon?” As participants share, write their responses down on a flipchart or whiteboard, so that everybody can see. Usually, some of the participants will have similar expectations, and that’s okay.

This approach can work wonders in terms of setting and managing expectations. As people respond, you also have the chance to decide whether their expectations are realistic, or out of scope for the content you are delivering. Most of the time, expectations will be realistic. Every once in a while, though, somebody may have misunderstood the nature of the training content. If you do run into an expectation that is out of scope, simply explain the training’s objective for clarity. That way, you don’t get to the end of the session, only to have somebody come up to you and say they had expected something different. Instead, you have given each and every participant a reason to stay.

Step 5: Motivate Participants Throughout the Session

Keeping people engaged and interested is key to running a great workshop. The first time to think about this is when you decide on your content delivery approach. One rule of thumb that many trainers use is to set a limit of 20 minutes at a time for theory, and then get people into active exercises. At the start of the session itself, quickly explain when the breaks will be, and the timing of lunch. Then, as you move through the day, keep reading the room. Look for signs of fatigue, or alternatively, excited engagement. Depending on the group, be prepared to suggest a break earlier or later, so that you can ride a wave of interest or prevent burnout.

Step 6: End With a Magic Trick

No, not a literal magic trick. But if you adopt the suggestion above to write down participant expectations on a flipchart, then you will have set yourself up for an exceptionally impactful way to end your session. Bring out that flipchart and position it front and center. Now, go through each expectation and remind participants what part of the workshop addressed it, how it fits in to the other material, and how they have learned this new skill — the very one they told you they wanted to learn. It really is like a magic trick for conjuring up smiles — and satisfaction scores.

Step 7: Review The Session

To ensure training is effective, it’s essential to evaluate and reflect afterward. If the training was for a client, include them in the conversation. Here, you can review feedback forms or surveys, and you can address how well the workshop met the company’s objectives. You can also use this as a way to improve future workshops, by suggesting things like: “Next time, why don’t we try a larger screen,” or “We could also split the workshop across two days.” It’s a great chance to think along with the client in a proactive way that moves from troubleshooting to creating more opportunity for you as a trainer to succeed.

The entire journey of delivering impactful in-person training workshops involves a blend of preparation, participant engagement and post-session reflection. Navigating the challenges of technical glitches, varied participant expectations and room setup can be made smoother by making the steps outlined here part of your training delivery process.