Junipero Serra

A Multi-​Purpose Training-​Conference Room With Massive Space But Definitely Some «View”-Issues
SITREP
This building in Downtown Los Angeles (L.A.) is a State Facility run by the California Department of General Services (DGS). As such, the multi-​purpose training-​conference room («training room») is open for reservations for whatever State Agency /​Departments may have need of it.
For example, the room can be used by the California Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct hearings in, or as in our case, can be used to facilitate a training for all of our Southern Californian Managers.
THE SET-​UP
My training manager and I have been sent down to L.A. to facilitate this training. [It should be noted that there are a lot of «moving parts» for this training conference that are out of our control, the most relevant of which in this instance is that a bureau chief in another Branch made this reservation at this building «sight-​unseen».]
So when we come to the building on the Sunday before to set-​up before the training to commence during the work week, we find that there are four (4) VERY LARGE pillars in the room that make it difficult for anyone who would be sitting at tables behind the view of the pillars to see the presentations that would on the front screen:
For us, the workaround was to rearrange half the tables in the room down the center of the room — between the 4 pillars — so that no one would have an obstructed view. It means creating a «long tunnel» of tables, but better that than having people who can’t see the screen:
AMPLE WORK SPACE
But over all, once we got the physical plant issues of the room squared away, there still was sufficient space to place the many tables for both:
(1) viewing the speakers & presentations at the front of the room on the screen:
as well as,
(2) have other groupings of tables out on the side for the many «break-​out» sessions we use for training with smaller work-​groups.

WIFI & CELLULAR
Both unavailable in this room, which really really sucked. This meant having to have all of our presentations on flash drives and/​or hard drives, but not being able to go out on the internet to utilize our database servers for «live demonstrations.»
And if you needed to make a phone call (or do some WiFiing), you (practically) would have to leave the building to do so, which would be a total annoyance, since once leaving the building lobby, you would be required to go through building security again to re-​enter the building.
Pro-​Tip: just go to the building café before leaving the building security area and make your call from the café’s tables near the front inside windows of the café.
Live and learn.
FREE PARKING
As presenters & coordinators for the training, DGS provided us with free parking privileges so that we would not have to pay the $ 30 daily parking fee, so for that I am grateful and tip my hat to DGS.
THE LOWDOWN
All in all, we were able to conduct our training with sufficient accommodations at the Junipero Serra Building.