After 5 EventsThe planning runway
Three months is workable. Two months is tight. Six weeks means compromise. Lock the venue and the date first, then immediately walk the space with whoever is quoting sound, light and power — not over email, in the room. Construction timelines slip, and if the quote assumes a finished building and you get a shell, the day-of scramble is expensive.
Decide the format of the programme within the first two weeks: speeches only, or speeches and a performance, or a performance that runs through the reception. That decision sets the technical rig, and the rig has a lead time.
What the venue will not handle
Most grand opening venues are not event venues. They are new offices, showrooms or industrial spaces, and their systems are either unfinished or untested under event load. Do not assume:
- Working power at event capacity. The building may be on temporary supply.
- PA or microphones. Even if the building has a system installed, it is often not commissioned.
- Lighting that suits an evening event. Construction lighting is overhead and cold.
- Furniture for a reception. New spaces are empty.
- Staff who have run an event there before.
Bring everything in as though the building were a field. If the venue's power works, you use it. If it does not, you are not calling everyone two days before to say the evening is off.
The technical build
Sound, light and power are delivered the same day, usually early morning. If the building is still a construction site the day before, plan for the crew to arrive at first light and for the rig to take most of the day.
You need:
- A wired microphone for speeches, and a wireless if there is any chance the speaker will move or the ribbon-cutting happens outside.
- A PA that covers the programme and the reception separately if they happen in different zones.
- Lighting that makes the building look finished — uplighting for walls, feature lighting for the space you want photographed, practical light for the bar and food.
- A generator if mains power is not guaranteed, and cable runs that do not cross guest paths.
The crew that quotes this is the same crew that builds it. There is no coordination layer between the two. If something is missed in the quote, the people on site are the ones who wrote it and can solve it without a phone call.
Programme and hosting
Keep the formal section short. Guests tolerate one welcome, one thanks, one cut of the ribbon. Anything longer and you lose the room.
If there is a performance — background music during the reception, or a short live set — book it early. Good acts are gone two months out, especially if your date is a Friday evening. The band and DJ rosters that work with After 5 Events are sibling brands of the same company, so the people running sound already know the rider and the stage plot. No rider negotiation on the day.
Decide now whether you are hosting and managing, or hosting only. If you are doing both, you will spend the evening noticing when the bar runs low and when the tour is overrunning, and you will not be in any of the photos. If you want to be a guest, hire someone whose job is to notice those things so yours is to be visible.
What gets missed
Guests assume they can charge their phone, that restrooms are signposted, that there is somewhere to put a coat. In a new building, none of that is obvious.
- Print signage. The building has no wayfinding yet.
- Plan the cloakroom, even if it is just a staffed rack in a back room.
- Test the restrooms the day before under load, with the contractor present.
- Have drinking water that is not just the bar. Construction dust lingers and guests notice.
The other thing: the tour. If you are showing the building, decide the route and time it with four slow walkers, not yourself. A ten-minute tour becomes twenty, and if the programme is timed to the minute, everything after it is late.
Two ways the work is done
Some event companies plan and then subcontract the build to suppliers they have never worked alongside, earning on each line. Others send their own crew: the person who quotes is on site, the person who runs sound has done it with that PA before, and the staff pouring drinks are the same ones who set the bar up.
The difference shows when something changes. And at a grand opening, something always changes.
What to settle before calling anyone
You need the venue confirmed and a realistic picture of what state it will be in. You need the date, the guest count as a range, and a decision about whether the programme is speeches only or includes a performance.
If you have those, the rest is a conversation with the people who will actually build it. After 5 Events is the team writing this guide — the production and staffing side, not the performance side, though we work next to the acts often enough that the load-in is faster.
The question you are deciding now is whether you want to run the evening yourself or hire someone so you do not have to. Both are legitimate. One of them means you are not in the photos.