After 5 EventsAssuming the venue includes what the evening needs
The venue says it has a sound system. What that means is: there are ceiling speakers for background music during a plated dinner. It does not mean the spoken programme will be audible past the fourth table, and it definitely does not mean the DJ at the end of the night will have what is required to keep a standing crowd present.
You discover this the afternoon of the event, when someone finally asks where to plug in.
The question that prevents it: what exactly is included, and can we see a stage plot or input list from the last event of this format? If the answer is vague, the system is decorative.
Booking performance before the room and schedule are fixed
A band gets booked because the date is available. Then the venue is chosen, and it turns out there is no stage. Or the dinner runs late and the performance starts when half the room is outside smoking. Or the performance is live music but the evening's timing only allows forty minutes, so the second set never happens and the room dies.
Performance locks in a schedule and a technical requirement. Book it last, not first.
The question: what is the minute-by-minute outline of the evening, including when people actually eat, and does the room support what we are now committed to?
Putting the organiser in the job the crew should be doing
Someone from the company ends up running the sound for the speeches, or curating the playlist between programme items, or being the person the caterer finds when a table is missing. That person has no evening. They are managing an event in front of their colleagues instead of being present at it.
This happens when the event is planned but not produced — when each supplier was booked separately and nobody is responsible for the evening as a continuous thing.
The question: who is in the room with a radio and a runsheet, making decisions when the schedule slips? If the answer is you, something was skipped.
Planning for perfect weather
The terrace is beautiful in June. It is also unworkable if it rains, or if the wind makes spoken-word unintelligible, or if it gets cold after nine and half the room goes back inside. Outdoor events need a indoor contingency that is not just 'we squeeze into the bar', and they need it thought through when the venue is chosen, not on the afternoon.
The version of this that breaks corporate events: a lawn with no cover, a programme that assumes everyone will stand in one place for twenty minutes, and no backup.
The question: if it rains, what actually happens? If the answer involves the word 'hopefully', the plan has a hole.
Leaving the technical questions until the week before
Power capacity, load-in access, noise limits, rigging points, the distance from the van to the venue door — these feel like details, so they get left. Then it turns out the venue's power supply cannot support the lighting rig and the kitchen at the same time, or the only load-in is up two flights of stairs, or there is a decibel limit that makes the evening's format unworkable.
Every venue fights you differently. The technical asks need answers while there is still time to pick a different room.
The question: can we have a site visit with the person running the technical build, before the contract is signed? If that feels premature, it is not.
Trusting the venue's in-house supplier list without seeing their work
Many venues have a list of 'preferred suppliers' — which sometimes means they have worked together before, and sometimes means there is a referral arrangement and nobody has checked if the supplier can actually deliver what this particular event needs. The caterer whose strength is plated dinners gets hired for a standing reception. The DJ who works weddings gets the corporate gig with no brief.
You find out during the event.
The question: can we speak to the supplier about how they would approach this format, specifically? A vague answer means they are guessing.
Not distinguishing between a planner who coordinates and a production team that builds
There are two kinds of company offering full-service events. One plans the evening, then subcontracts every element to people they may never have worked alongside, earning a margin on each line. The other quotes, builds, and runs the night with their own crew — the same people who answer the technical questions are the ones in the room.
The first model works if everything goes exactly as written. The second works when it does not.
You see the difference when something changes on the day and the question is whether the person with the radio can solve it, or has to call someone.
Writing this
This is After 5 Events — the production and staffing side of After 5, not the performance side. The people writing this arrive early, build the room, and stay until the last case is back on the truck.
What you are deciding now is whether the event is planned and forwarded, or built and run by the same people. And what needs settling before you call anyone: the date, the likely guest count, the venue if you have one, and a rough outline of the format — standing or seated, programme or just atmosphere, indoors or out. The rest is a conversation, but those four shape everything else.