After 5 EventsHow the commission model changes what you are quoted
Most agencies do not own a sound system or employ a band. They take your brief, send it to subcontractors, and add a margin to every line that comes back. The incentive is more suppliers rather than fewer, and suppliers who pay a referral fee rather than the best ones.
That is not a moral failing. It is how the business works when planning and delivery are separated. But it has consequences for the quote you receive.
You see more line items than the event requires, because each line is a place to earn. A lighting company and a separate AV company when one technical crew could have handled both. A DJ agency that books the DJ rather than the DJ directly. A florist and a separate styling company when the venue includes both. Each intermediary takes a cut, and each cut is passed to you.
What to ask when you read the quote
Ask who is actually delivering each line. Not which company name appears on the invoice, but whose van arrives and whose crew builds it.
If the answer is always a third party, you are paying for coordination. Sometimes that is worth it — if you are running a multi-day conference with simultaneous streams and you do not have the time to manage it, someone has to. But if the event is a product launch with a band, a bar and a photographer, the coordinator is overhead you do not need.
Ask whether the agency owns any of the equipment or employs any of the people. If the sound system, the lighting rig and the performance are all subcontracted, the agency is a booking office. Again, sometimes that is the right tool. Often it is not.
The alternative: when the crew is the company
The other model is this: the people who quote are the people who load the truck, run the desk and strike the rig at two in the morning. The lighting designer who walks the venue is the one who hangs the fixtures. The band on the quote is employed by the same company that sent you the quote.
No commission changes hands because there is no referral. The technical crew is not a line item marked up from a subcontractor's price list; it is the crew the company employs. The sound system is the one in the warehouse, not the one rented in from elsewhere and billed onward.
That structure is only possible when the company does the work itself. It does not suit every kind of event — a venue search across four countries needs a network, not a warehouse — but for most corporate events in Estonia, it removes the part of the budget that pays for introductions.
How season changes what you are quoted
Summer. Every supplier is booked, and the agencies that rely on subcontractors have fewer options. The quote includes whoever is still available, not necessarily who is right for the brief. If the agency's preferred sound company is on another job, the fallback might be pricier or less experienced, and you will not know which until the crew arrives.
Winter is the opposite problem. Availability is wide, but some agencies pad the quote because they assume you will negotiate. The line items grow to leave room for compromise. Ask for the breakdown and compare it against a direct quote from the suppliers themselves if their names are listed.
Where After 5 Events sits in this
We are the production and staffing side of After 5 OÜ. The same company runs a live band and a DJ roster, but this brand is the part that builds the room, hangs the lights, runs the sound and staffs the bar. When we quote a technical crew, it is our crew. When the quote includes a DJ, it is from our roster, billed at the same rate we would charge if you booked the DJ directly.
That is not possible for everything. If you need a venue we do not own or a service we do not provide, we tell you and we do not mark it up. The quote separates what we deliver from what we coordinate, and the price reflects that.
The decision you face now
Decide whether you need someone to find the suppliers or whether you need someone to be the supplier. If the event is complicated enough that your job is to manage the managers, an agency that brokers everything is the right tool. If the event is a evening with a clear brief and a known format, paying for introductions is waste.
Before you call anyone, settle this: do you want the company that plans it or the company that builds it. The first will cost you a coordination fee on every line. The second only works if the company owns the equipment and employs the people, so ask that early.
If the answer is vague or the quote does not say who is actually delivering each part, you are paying a commission you did not budget for.