After 5 EventsThe speech is the moment of risk
Most public-sector events have a programme: welcome remarks, a presentation, possibly an award or a handover. That means a microphone, a screen, a lectern and sightlines from the back of the room. The thing that makes an assistant look bad is not the catering arriving late — that can be managed — it is the microphone cutting out halfway through the director's speech, or the screen showing last year's slide deck.
Check whether the venue has an installed AV system and whether anyone on their staff knows how to run it. Hotel conference rooms often have ageing equipment and no operator on site. If the hire includes tech, ask what happens if something fails during the event and who is in the room to fix it. A console with no one behind it is a liability, not a solution.
Procurement rules shape the timeline
Above your organisation's threshold — often five thousand euro, sometimes less — you will need comparable offers and possibly a tender. That means starting earlier than a private company would, and it means your supplier must be able to produce a written, itemised quote that finance will accept.
Two kinds of event company exist. One plans the event and then subcontracts every piece — sound from one firm, lights from another, catering from a third — and adds margin to each line. The other owns the kit and employs the crew. The second kind can give you a single invoice with every item named, which is what your procurement process requires. It also means one phone number when something needs to change, and the person who quoted the job is often the one running the desk.
Build four weeks into your timeline for approvals and supplier onboarding. If the event is bilingual, say so in the first message. It affects how the MC is briefed and sometimes who can be on stage.
The room decides whether the event feels warm or stiff
Public organisations usually hold events in their own halls, a ministry building or a public venue — rarely a restaurant, almost never anywhere that serves as a nightclub on weekends. That is correct for the audience, but it means the space itself is formal: high ceilings, hard surfaces, rows of chairs.
Warmth has to be built in. Lighting does most of it. A hall lit only by overhead fluorescents feels like a waiting room. Uplighting on the walls, a wash of colour behind the speaker, even a pair of practicals framing the stage — those soften the room without making it look like a wedding. It is a small cost and a large return, and it is usually the first thing cut when someone is trying to stay under threshold.
If the event includes a meal, seating style matters. Rounds of eight let people talk; theatre rows do not. If you must use rows, leave the back third empty rather than filling every seat — a half-full room where everyone can hear beats a packed room where the last four rows are guessing.
Decide whether alcohol is present before you talk to anyone
Some public organisations serve wine at receptions; others do not, as policy or to avoid the headline. That decision affects the venue shortlist, the budget and the flow of the evening, so settle it early — ideally before you send the first quote request.
If alcohol is off the agenda, tell the caterer. They will suggest something else for the toast — sparkling apple, a local berry juice — and it will look deliberate rather than forgotten. If wine is allowed but minimal, specify how: one glass on arrival, or available at tables but not circulating. Clarity prevents both waste and awkward questions from your finance team when the invoice arrives.
The run sheet is for the executive, not the crew
You will be given a running order by whoever is coordinating the event. That document is written for stagehands and lists every cue by the minute. The executive does not need that.
Prepare a second document: one page, large type, with only the programme points that require the executive to do something or be somewhere. Start time of welcome remarks. When to leave the stage. When the delegation arrives. When the car is waiting. The CEO will glance at it once and put it in a pocket; that means it has done its job.
The crew's run sheet and the executive's run sheet are different documents. Confusing them is how someone ends up on stage two minutes early.
Have a decision path for the day itself
Something will change. A guest is delayed, the presentation runs long, the minister's office calls with a new seating request. The question is whether you are allowed to make that call or whether you must ask the executive — and if the answer is the latter, the executive's day has just been interrupted six times.
Agree in advance what you can decide and what requires approval. Seating changes: probably yours. Programme reorder: probably not. Timing shift of fifteen minutes: depends on what follows. Write it down. It is not a lack of trust; it is a firewall that lets the executive stay in the room with the guests instead of standing in the corridor with you.
If the supplier is running the event, they should have a single point of contact on your side — usually you — and a phone number that works on the day. The worst version of this is when the crew has questions and cannot reach anyone with authority to answer.
After 5 Events is the crew writing this guide
We are the production and staffing side of the company: the people who arrive with the truck, build the room and run the console. The work is quoted, delivered and invoiced by the same team, and the kit is ours — which is what lets us name a price that finance can parse and defend.
The decision in front of you now is whether the event is simple enough to coordinate yourself or whether it needs a production partner. If the answer is the latter, the question to settle before calling anyone is whether you need planning only or planning and execution both — and whether the supplier can give you one invoice or several.