After 5 EventsThe schedule works backwards from handover
Find out when the builder hands the keys over, then subtract. If load-in is the morning of the event and handover is the day before, you have no rehearsal, no acoustic check, and no margin if the temporary power is still temporary. Get the handover date in writing and ask what happens if it slips. Most organisers assume the venue will be ready; most venues are ready with an hour to spare.
Standing capacity is not the number you need
The agent will quote a standing capacity. Subtract a third if there is a stage, another fifth if guests are meant to circulate during a tour, and more again if the entrance and the reception space are the same room. For an opening, people gather near the ribbon, near the bar, and near anyone who looks like they are supposed to be there. The back half of the room stays empty unless you give it a reason not to.
If the programme includes a speech, decide whether guests sit or stand. Seated means chairs, which means storage space before and during, and a crew to set and strike them between segments. Standing means a shorter programme and more spend on sound reinforcement, because a microphone that works for fifty seated guests in a quiet room disappears under a hundred standing in the same space.
Ceiling height decides the rig
Anything under three metres and you are lighting faces from the floor or from stands at the sides. Above four and you can fly a truss, but only if there is rigging infrastructure — and in a new build there usually is not. Ask about load-bearing points and get the structural drawings if the plan involves hanging anything. Most openings use ground-supported rigs, which take up floor space and need to be dressed so they do not photograph like scaffolding.
If the room has pillars, walk the sight lines from where the speeches will happen. A pillar in the wrong place means half the room watches a screen instead of a person, and a screen means a projector, a surface, and a lighting plan that can bring the room down and back up without killing the rest of the event.
Power and where it is
New buildings have power, but the outlets are where the electrician put them, not where the bar needs to be. Ask for a floor plan with circuits marked, and ask what load each circuit takes. A standard socket will run lights or it will run a coffee machine, not both. If the building's power is not yet commissioned, you are on a generator, and the generator needs to be outside, which means cabling across a threshold and usually a ramp or a trim to keep it out of the walking path.
Temporary power is not a problem if it is planned for. Temporary power discovered on site is the reason an event starts forty minutes late.
Load-in route and the lift
The truck does not park at the ribbon. It parks where it fits, and everything comes in from there. Walk the route: width of the doors, turning circle in the corridor, whether the lift is working and whether it is big enough for a flightcase. If there are stairs, everything small enough to carry gets carried, and everything else gets priced as a crane lift or does not come in.
Most openings involve a tour, and a tour means the event flows through several spaces. Each one needs power, each one needs sound if there will be speaking, and the cabling between them needs to be run, dressed and safe. Ask if cable ramps are required and whether they need to be a specific colour to match the floor.
Acoustics in an empty room
A new building with hard floors, glass walls and no furniture is a reverb chamber. Every word said into a microphone comes back three times, and background music sits on top of itself until it is just noise. You can treat that with temporary draping, with speaker placement, or by keeping the programme short and the music lower than you think it needs to be. You cannot treat it by turning the microphone up.
If the building has a house sound system, ask what it was designed for: background music during business hours, or speech reinforcement in a room with two hundred people. The answer determines whether you use it or bring your own.
Curfew, neighbours and noise
Openings in commercial districts run into neighbour complaints if they go past eight. Openings in new developments run into conditions written into the planning permission. Find out if there is a curfew, a noise limit, or a requirement to notify residents. If the venue has a license, check whether it covers this event or whether you need a separate one.
If the event includes music and it is not yet clear whether it will be indoors or outdoors, decide that now. Outdoor sound travels, and it travels further than organisers expect.
Parking, transit and the last bus
Guests have to leave, and if the building is new the transport links may not be obvious yet. Check parking capacity, and check whether guests are allowed to use it or whether it is reserved for tenants. If the nearest transit stop is ten minutes away, that is information to put on the invitation. If the last bus is at nine and the event runs until ten, the guest list changes.
Two kinds of production company
There is the agency that plans the event and then sends the brief to a lighting subcontractor it met once, a sound company booked by price, and a staffing pool that shows up on the day. The margin is in every line, and the organiser pays for four separate conversations that were never had.
Then there is the company whose own crew quotes, rigs, runs and strikes the event. After 5 Events is the second: the people who answer the phone are the people who pack the truck, and the site visit is done by someone who will be back on the day.
What to settle first
Before calling anyone, confirm the handover date, the load-in window, and the power situation. Know whether the event is one room or five, and whether the programme is ten minutes or two hours. The rest of the cost follows from that.