After 5 EventsEight weeks is the minimum, twelve is better
A product launch date is almost never flexible. The product team has set it, and marketing, sales and possibly a press embargo are already keyed to it. That makes the venue the first constraint: you need a room that is free on that date, that holds your guest list, and that can support the technical build the presentation requires.
Book the venue as soon as the date is fixed. If you wait until the invitations are written, you will book what is left, not what fits.
The technical specification comes next, and it comes before the invitations because it determines what you can promise. A demo on a screen requires a projector, a confident image in daylight, and a room that can be darkened or a screen bright enough that it does not need to be. A product reveal under dramatic lighting requires a lighting rig, power for it, and a ceiling or truss to hang it from. A livestream requires a camera feed, a direct sound feed, and upstream bandwidth you have tested in that room on that connection. Venues do not all offer the same infrastructure, and hiring it in costs more and takes longer than you expect.
The presentation is the structure; the room is built to it
The event is not a party with a speech inserted. It is a presentation with hospitality around it, and the room must be built for the presentation first.
Work backwards from the reveal moment. If the product is unveiled on a plinth, the plinth needs a spotlight and the room needs to be dark enough for the spotlight to matter. If the CEO presents from a deck, the screen must be large enough and bright enough that the back row reads it comfortably, and the speaker must be audible without echo in a room that may not have been built for speech. If there is a live demo — a device that pairs, software that runs, hardware that moves — it must work under stage lights, and there must be a technical rehearsal with the actual equipment in the actual room, not a run-through in the office.
The photography and the livestream are not documentation added at the end. They are technical requirements that shape the build. A photographer needs the product lit for a camera, which is not the same as lit for the room. A livestream needs a static camera position, a mixed audio feed that includes both the speaker and any video playback, and a technician who is not doing three other things. If the stream fails, your external audience sees a failure at the moment you wanted them to see a success.
Two kinds of event agency exist. One takes your brief, adds margin, and forwards it to subcontractors — a lighting company they have never worked alongside, an AV supplier hired for the day, a crew they hope will arrive on time. The other owns the kit and employs the crew. The difference shows when the demo will not connect and there are ninety people in seats.
The guest list determines the budget, and the budget determines the venue
You probably have a per-head figure from finance before you have anything else. Multiply it by the realistic guest count — not the aspirational one, the one you will actually achieve — and that total is the budget.
The venue is the largest single line, and it sets the floor for everything else. A central location with in-house catering costs more than an industrial space you cater separately, but it also shortens the build time and raises the likelihood that external guests attend. A seated presentation needs chairs, tables if guests are eating, and sightlines from every seat. A standing reveal needs space to move and a flow that guides people toward the product, not past it.
If partners or press are invited, the guest count is not stable until the week before. Build the room for the upper estimate, not the lower one, because an underfilled room looks like a poorly attended launch and you cannot add capacity the morning of.
Catering, bar policy and the timing of the presentation
A launch event usually follows one of two timings: evening arrival with the presentation first and drinks after, or late-afternoon arrival with drinks first and the presentation as the centrepiece before dinner. The first keeps attention on the content. The second raises energy but risks losing the room if the timing slips.
If alcohol is served before the presentation, expect noise. If it is served only after, expect people to leave earlier. Both are fine; neither is wrong. The decision is whether you want the room warm or whether you want it focused, and that depends on whether the presentation is ten minutes of remarks or thirty minutes of demo and Q&A.
Dietary requirements and accessibility are HR's problem in the eyes of everyone else, which makes them your problem. Collect them with the RSVP, not afterwards. A vegan guest who arrives to find only meat options remembers that, and so does their manager. A guest who uses a wheelchair and finds the stage up a step that no one mentioned remembers that even more.
The bar is almost always open, and there is almost always one person who misjudges it. Decide in advance who holds that conversation when it happens, because it will not be the bartender and it should not be the CEO.
What to settle before calling anyone
You now face a decision: whether to build this event in-house, using multiple suppliers you coordinate yourself, or to brief a single production team that quotes, builds and runs the night with its own crew.
The first costs less on paper and more in hours. The second costs more on paper and less in risk.
Before you call anyone, settle three things: the date, the guest count, and the must-haves for the presentation. A supplier can offer options once they know what is fixed and what is flexible. If nothing is fixed yet, the conversation is too early.
This guide was written by the After 5 Events crew — the people who hang the lights, run the desk, and stay until the last case goes back on the truck.