After 5 EventsWho from your company will be on site, and what is their job that night
Ask for names and roles. If the answer is vague — "our team will be there" — ask again. You want to know whether the person quoting is the person calling cues, or whether the quote gets forwarded to a lighting company in Pärnu that the planner met once.
The crew on the floor should work for the agency, not through it. Ask what they have done before. A lighting tech who has rigged this venue twice will solve a tripped breaker in four minutes. A subcontractor seeing the room for the first time that morning will not.
Which lines in this quote are you delivering yourselves
Go through the quote line by line. Sound. Lights. Stage. Furniture. Catering. Staff. For each one, ask: is this your equipment, your people, your contract, or are you hiring it in?
There is nothing wrong with hiring in — every agency does it for some things. What matters is whether they have worked with that supplier before, on an event like yours, and whether they will be in the room when it goes wrong. If the answer to all three is no, the line is a margin on a spreadsheet, not a service.
Who owns the PA, and who mixed on it last
Sound is the thing guests complain about first and forgive last. Ask whether the agency owns the system or rents it per event. If they own it, ask what it has been used for. A system that does nightclub bass all summer will not voice a speech clearly, and a conference rig will not fill a warehouse for dancing.
Then ask who will be mixing. Not "a professional sound engineer" — an actual name, and what they mixed last month. If the console operator has never heard the band playing your reception, the first song is a rehearsal in front of two hundred people.
Have you worked this venue, and what broke
Every venue fights you differently. Ask whether they have done an event in this space before, and if so, what went wrong. If they say nothing went wrong, they are either lying or they did not notice.
The truth is always specific: the circuit to the bar is on a separate breaker and it is behind a locked panel; the loading door does not fit a full-height rack; there is a pillar exactly where front-of-house would normally sit; the neighbours call the police at ten fifteen, every time. An agency that has been there before will name the problems before you ask.
What happens when something trips at nine thirty
Power failures happen. Breakers trip. Cables fail. Wireless microphones find interference. Ask what the plan is, and who executes it.
If the agency is coordinating subcontractors, the answer is: we call the lighting company and hope they pick up. If the agency's own electrician is in the room with the rig he built that morning, the answer is: I go to the breaker panel, reset it, and if it trips again I pull the uplights off that circuit and redistribute the load. One of those answers is a plan.
What does this price cover after eleven at night
Most quotes assume the event finishes on time. It never does. Ask what is included if the schedule overruns: does the crew rate change after midnight, is there a penalty for the venue, will the DJ keep playing or does the music stop at the contracted end regardless of whether your managing director is still on the floor.
If the answer is "we will figure it out on the night," the real answer is: you will pay more, and you will not know how much until the invoice arrives.
Who do I call when it is not working
At eight in the evening, something will not be as you expected. The room is darker than you thought. The microphone feeds back. A guest has a complaint. Ask for a phone number and a name, and ask whether that person will be in the building or somewhere else hoping their subcontractors are handling it.
The best agencies give you a mobile number for the site lead and tell you their second job is to make sure you never have to use it.
Which answers should end the conversation
"We coordinate with trusted partners" — without naming them or showing you a shared event.
"Our experienced team" — without giving you a name or a previous event you can verify.
"We provide full-service event management" — when the quote is entirely hired-in suppliers they met for the first time this week.
"That will not be a problem" — said about a venue they have never worked, or a technical question they do not follow up with a specific plan.
Any version of "just trust us."
What to settle before you call anyone
Decide what you are buying. If you need someone to gather quotes, manage a timeline and be available by email, a coordinator is fine and much cheaper. If you need someone to build the room, run the desk, adjust the light when the speeches start and still be there when the last case goes back on the truck, you need an agency whose people do the work themselves.
Know your venue, your date and your guest count before the first call, because the answer to almost every question starts with those three.
And decide now whether you want the cheapest quote or the one where the person selling it to you will be standing next to the breaker panel at nine forty-five.
After 5 Events is the production and staffing side of After 5 OÜ — the people who arrive with the truck and leave when the room is dark again.