After 5 EventsSecure the programme order first
The executive will approve the guest list and the menu late. The programme cannot wait. A ribbon cutting, a welcome, a short speech, a tour — that sequence dictates where you need power, where the microphone goes, and whether you need a stage or a riser the speaker can be seen from. Write the running order as a question and send it for approval before anything else. If the answer comes back as two sentences, treat that as confirmation and put it in the run-sheet.
Plan as though the building will not be ready
It will not be. Not truly. The lights may work but the dimmers will not be programmed. The PA system may be installed but no one will have tested it with a voice. The floor will be clean but the loading bay will still have pallets. Bring your own sound, your own microphones, your own lighting desk. Rig it early, test it while the space is empty, and strike it after the last guest leaves. The building's own systems can be commissioned the next week.
The crew who do this regularly plan for no mains power until the morning of the event. That means a generator outside, cables run in overnight, and a lighting rig that does not rely on anything built into the ceiling. If power does arrive early, you gain time. If it does not, nothing stops.
Decide the guest flow before the floor plan
Guests arrive, see the ribbon, hear the speech, take the tour, stay for drinks. That order determines everything else: where the welcome drinks wait, where the speaker stands, which door the tour starts from, where people end up afterwards. Walk it in your head, then walk it on site if the site is safe to enter. The tour is not your problem to script, but the microphone the guide carries is.
If the executive is giving the speech, confirm whether they want a lectern, a handheld mic, or a lapel mic they can forget about. The lapel mic is the one that fails silently if the battery is old, so if you go that route, test it the morning of.
Settle AV requirements around the speech
A opening speech is usually short and usually includes thanks, a few words about the building, and a gesture to what happens next. It does not need slides. If the executive does want a screen — a logo, a photograph of the site before construction, an architect's render — confirm the format and the resolution early. A screen in daylight needs brightness you do not have in a standard projector, and a screen outside needs a backup plan for sun.
The microphone matters more than the screen. In a half-finished building with hard surfaces and no soft furnishing, sound reflects everywhere and clarity dies fast. A directional microphone helps. So does a mixer with someone on it who has heard the space during the walk-through and knows where the problem frequencies sit. There is a kind of event company that takes the brief, adds margin, and sends it to an AV subcontractor who arrives that morning and has never heard the principal speak. There is another kind whose crew quoted the job, heard the room, and will be the one holding the cable when the speech starts. The difference is not in the equipment list.
Brief the caterer on the constraints
No working kitchen usually means everything comes in ready or everything is cold. Confirm whether the caterer has worked in unfinished venues before and whether they need table space, power for heating trays, or access to water. If the drinks reception follows the tour, people will be standing; if it happens first, they may need somewhere to put a glass down while they move. Cocktail tables solve that if there is floor space.
Guests at an opening include officials who may stay for one drink, neighbours who were invited as courtesy, and staff who want to see the building. They do not all stay the same length of time, so cater for the peak, not the list.
Build a run-sheet the executive can glance at
The executive will not read a planning document but will look at a timeline on the morning of the event. One page: arrival time, where to go, when the speech happens, how long the tour is expected to take, when they can leave. Include the name of the person who will meet them when they arrive, and the name of the person carrying the microphone. If the guest list includes someone whose presence was the reason for setting the date, note them.
The run-sheet the crew uses is longer and includes power-on time, sound-check time, when the caterer arrives, and when the ribbon goes up. The executive does not need to see that one.
Know what happens if the schedule slips
Construction delays do not care about invitations. If you are told the week before that the venue is delayed, you have three choices: push the date and reissue invitations, move the event to another location and call it a preview, or go ahead and acknowledge the building is not quite finished. The third option works only if the principal is comfortable with it and the guests are internal or already invested. The second option works if there is another venue that makes sense. The first option is the one that protects the executive's standing, and it is the one to recommend in writing.
If the delay comes the day before, the event still runs — it just runs as the crew planned it from the beginning, with everything brought in and nothing assumed.
What to settle now
You need the programme locked and the speech requirements confirmed before the venue is ready to walk. You need the caterer briefed on the constraints and the AV crew who will be on site, not a subcontractor hearing the room that morning. And you need a run-sheet in the executive's hand that tells them when to arrive, where to stand, and who is carrying the microphone.
After 5 Events is the team writing this. We are the people who rig openings in buildings still under construction, and we quote, build and run the event with the same crew throughout. Decide whether you need someone who has done this in unfinished venues before, and get the programme order in writing before you confirm anything else.