These 3 things could make or break your event (and they’re often overlooked)…

TLDR if you want to reduce your risk, lower your stress, and make sure your event runs smoothly BUT you don’t want to spend the time or the effort learning about AV, send us a message and we’d be happy to sanity-check your AV quote for you!

For event planners and executive assistants, the margin for error is thin. Timelines are tight, stakeholders are watching, and your reputation is on the line. That’s why you need to know that you’ve done everything you can to increase your event’s likelihood of success.

Let’s go through this in reverse order, from least to most important.

3. Where is your money going? 💸

Budget is often spent almost entirely on the quantity and quality of the gear and rarely on the quantity and quality of the labor.

While some gear choices are non-negotiable, I would argue that a fabulous technician with average gear will always beat an average technician with fabulous gear. Talk to your AV team about this. Let them know your highest priority is fabulous technicians and enough crew members to nail the setup. It’s your money. Make sure you use it to your benefit.

2. Run of Show & Tech Rehearsal 📝

Think of your event like a movie. Everyone involved in making it happen needs to know the script and practice their parts. Even the most seasoned technicians can’t read minds. Give them a script (we call this a “run of show”) and schedule a tech rehearsal for the technicians and your presenters to practice their parts. This is how you make your event so smooth, you look like a rockstar.

1. Communication 👏🏻 Communication 👏🏻 Communication 👏🏻

Information is the lifeblood of events. Your event will live or die based on how much information you’ve considered and communicated to the people executing the different aspects of the event for you.

Your job is to tell them what you’d like. Your AV team’s job is to tell you what’s possible. This is the most common point of failure.

If they don’t have the full picture or things change last minute, that increases the likelihood of missing something important.

Sometimes changes are unavoidable and that’s okay, but the more information you give them and the more time you give them to make changes, the more you will reduce risk.

It’s also the AV team’s job to tell you what you need in order to make your event happen. This is another common point of failure.

You should always make sure they’ve done a thorough site visit. They need to take measurements to assess cable requirements, consider audio, lighting, and video placement and specifications, gain intel on power outlet locations and distribution capability, inspect the rigging points and loading bay, etc.

Help them out by connecting them with a venue manager or representative who can answer their questions.

If you nail these 3 things, even if something does go wrong, you’ll have a team of experts who are well-equipped to handle it immediately.

#makeorbreakyourevent #eventprofessionals #eventplanners #audiovisual