After 5 EventsThe date and the venue book together
Set the date and the headcount before anything else. Not a range — the day. Company anniversaries fall on fixed dates, and if the milestone is public, moving it two weeks forward reads wrong to anyone who remembers the founding.
The headcount determines the shortlist of venues, and every suitable room is already pencilled for the same spring and autumn Saturdays. Assume three months' lead time as normal, six as safer. Less is possible if the date is mid-week or off-season, but the venue becomes the constraint the brief has to bend around.
Most large spaces require a site visit before they will confirm a technical rider, and the visit can add a week to the booking process.
Venue fit shapes the rest of the plan
A glass-walled conference hall throws sound straight back at the speaker. A restored manor has no rigging points and the power panel is in the basement. A hotel ballroom has house AV that cannot be bypassed and a load-in window that closes at five.
Walk the room early and ask about ceiling height, rigging, access for a truck, and how many amps you can pull before something trips. The answers shape the format — whether you can fly a screen, whether the band sets up in the room or outside it, whether the film plays from a laptop or needs a server.
If there is a programme with multiple speakers, check sightlines from the back third of the room. Stages fix that, but stages take up floor space and many venues charge separately for them.
Programme and format lock the technical spec
Once the venue is confirmed, decide the format: seated dinner with a stage programme, standing reception with a screen, something hybrid. The programme sets the technical requirements, and the technical plan is where budgets move.
A speech from a founder needs a lectern, two lavs, and a confidence monitor. A film screening needs a projector calibrated to the room, a screen large enough to read from the back, and playback that does not stutter when the file is big. A timeline exhibit needs stands, print, and lighting that does not wash the images out. Live music needs backline, monitors, and a mixing position that does not block a fire exit.
Rehearsal time is non-negotiable for anything with more than two speakers or a live performance. The hour before doors is when the crew finds out that the video file will not play, the microphone pops on certain syllables, or the founder speaks too quietly for the room. Fixing it then is possible; fixing it during the speeches is not.
Catering and service timing follow the programme
Catering is almost never the long pole, but it interlocks with the programme in ways that matter. A standing reception with passed canapés can absorb a speech that runs long. A seated dinner with plated courses cannot, and if the kitchen sends the first course while someone is still speaking, servers wait in the corridor with cooling plates.
Decide whether the meal comes before or after the programme, and build fifteen minutes of buffer between them. The programme will run over; programmes always do.
Confirm dietary requirements two weeks out and send the final count to the caterer five days before. Most venue kitchens will not accept changes inside that window.
The last week is for the run-sheet and the site plan
The run-sheet is the hour-by-hour schedule from load-in to load-out, and it is the document the whole crew works from. It says when the truck arrives, when power goes live, when the screen is flown, when the band soundchecks, when guests are expected, when each speaker goes on and for how long, when dinner is served, and when the last case goes back out.
Write it with input from everyone who is responsible for a segment — venue, catering, AV, talent — and then lock it. A run-sheet that changes the morning of the event is a sign that earlier decisions were guessed at rather than confirmed.
The site plan is the overhead view: where the stage is, where the screen hangs, where the mixing desk sits, where the bars go, where the exhibits stand, and how guests move between them. It gets printed, taped to a wall near the load-in door, and referred to every time someone asks where something goes.
The day itself, hour by hour
Load-in starts early — often before the venue's reception is staffed. The crew arrives, unloads, and begins rigging while the organiser confirms final details with catering and walks the route guests will take from the entrance.
Mid-afternoon is for soundcheck and a full program rehearsal, even if it is just two people and a laptop. This is when the founder realises the slides are in the wrong order, or the film has no sound, or the microphone needs to be clipped differently. Better now.
An hour before doors, the crew steps back, the lights come up to guest levels, and the organiser sees the room as the guests will. If something looks wrong, there is time to adjust it. Thirty minutes later, there is not.
During the event, the organiser's job is to make decisions the crew cannot: whether to hold the programme because half the guests are late, whether to cut a speech short, whether to extend the evening. The crew manages everything else.
Load-out begins when the last guest leaves. It takes about as long as load-in did, and it is not optional — the venue will charge for the next day if the room is not cleared.
What to settle before calling anyone
The date, the headcount, and the rough format — seated or standing, how long, speeches or not. If the venue is already chosen, bring the technical rider or at least the ceiling height and the power spec. If there is a film or presentation, know the file size and format.
The team writing this guide is After 5 Events, and the same crew that writes the run-sheet delivers it. Decide whether the room works first. Everything else follows from that.