Confirm that the venue can accommodate your programme, technical setup and guests before committing to the layout. A room’s capacity figure won’t tell you whether everyone can see a presentation.

Start with the guest experience. Check sightlines from the back and sides, routes between rooms, accessible seating and how people will reach the stage.

Then work through the practical details with the venue and production team:

• Delivery access, loading arrangements and available lifts.
• Setup and pack-down hours.
• Ceiling height and approved rigging arrangements.
• Power requirements and suitable supply points.
• Existing AV equipment and any restrictions on external suppliers.
• Internet arrangements for streaming or remote speakers.
• Sound limits, blackout options and house-light controls.
• Storage for cases, spare equipment and speaker belongings.
• Accessible routes, toilets and emergency exits.

Ask what the venue’s “included AV” actually covers. A screen and a handheld mic may suit a short meeting. A panel discussion with videos, remote contributors and recording needs a more detailed conversation.

If the venue hasn’t been chosen, we can help source a space and assess how it fits your production requirements.

Let’s check the practicalities while you still have room to change the plan, ask our production team to review the brief.

Build the budget around the programme and venue, then ask for a proposal that explains the equipment, people and time required to deliver it.

Keep these items visible:

• Technical planning and project management.
• Sound, lighting, screens and staging.
• Crew for installation, rehearsals and live operation.
• Transport, loading and collection.
• Venue charges associated with production.
• Recording, streaming or editing, if required.
• Branding and scenic work.
• Any agreed contingency allowance.

Record whether each figure excludes VAT. Also distinguish confirmed prices from allowances and items still awaiting a quote.

Before approving changes, ask who can authorise extra spend. A late request for another room, camera or rehearsal session may affect several parts of the budget.

Our event production costs guide explains the main cost drivers. Use it to shape your questions, then get a proposal based on your actual event.

Tell us what matters most to your guests and we’ll help shape the production around it, contact Clownfish about the production requirements.

Your AV checklist should describe what the programme needs to do.
That gives the technical team enough information to specify the right setup.

Sound

Confirm how many people will speak at once, how they’ll move and whether audience questions are part of the programme.

List the mic requirements for presenters, panels, hosts and performers. Include audio from videos and remote contributors, plus any recording feeds.

Check speech clarity from audience positions during testing. Hearing a mic beside the stage doesn’t prove that guests at the back can follow the speaker.

Screens and video

Confirm what each screen will show and when. Check presentation formats, video playback, confidence monitors and any live camera feed.

For streaming, agree who owns the platform setup, connection testing and remote-speaker checks. Include an alternative plan if a contributor cannot connect.

Lighting and staging

Check stage dimensions against furniture, presenter movement and accessible entry. Confirm that speakers can be seen clearly and that lighting works with the screens and cameras.

A panel needs room for people to sit comfortably, reach their seats and leave without stepping over cables. Walk the route before deciding that everything fits.

Crew communications

Agree how the show caller, technicians and stage team will communicate. Identify who approves live changes and who keeps the organiser informed.

For more detail on the supplier’s role, see our guide to what a conference production company does.

We’ll help translate your programme into the technical support it needs, talk to our team about the room, cues and production budget.

Give speakers clear instructions, a content deadline and a named contact. Leave enough time between submission and the event for technical checks and corrections.

Your speaker checklist should cover:

• Correct name, job title and pronunciation.
• Session length and presentation order.
• Slides, fonts, videos and audio files.
• Mic preference and any clothing considerations.
• Stage access and other support requirements.
• Confidence monitor or presenter notes.
• Remote connection details, where relevant.
• Rehearsal time and arrival instructions.

Agree a simple file-naming system. The playback team needs to know which version has been approved, especially when several people are making changes.

After the content deadline, route updates through one person. Otherwise, a speaker may send new slides to the organiser while the technician is testing yesterday’s version.

Back up approved content and test it on the equipment that will run it. A video working on someone’s laptop at home is only the first check.

We can help organise the technical checks so your speakers arrive knowing what to expect, contact the Clownfish team.

Your production schedule should include the work before and after the guest programme. Build backwards from the time doors open, allowing for installation, testing, rehearsals and a final room check.

These are suggested planning stages, not fixed booking deadlines:

A simple meeting may move through these stages quickly. A multi-room conference or bespoke awards production needs more time for decisions and coordination.

Keep one master version. Put the revision date on it and explain changes when issuing an update. “Latest schedule” becomes less helpful when there are four files with that name.

We’ll help you check that the schedule allows enough time for the work behind the scenes, Talk Through Your Plans.

A running order sets out what happens during the event. A cue sheet gives the technical team the instructions needed to deliver specific moments.

Your running order might say that an awards presentation starts at 8.15pm. The cue sheet explains when the music starts, which slide appears, what lighting changes and when the host’s mic goes live.

For each important moment, confirm:

• What triggers it.
• Who gives the instruction.
• Which department acts.
• What happens next.
• What the fallback is if it cannot happen as planned.

Use clear triggers. “When the host finishes the introduction” can be ambiguous. An agreed phrase or a direct cue gives the team a more reliable reference.

Rehearse transitions, not only individual presentations. A furniture change between sessions can take longer than expected, and someone needs to fill that time for the audience.

Bring us your running order and we’ll help work through the handovers, contact Clownfish while the plan is still flexible.

Confirm who coordinates safety, how concerns are reported and what happens if the programme needs to stop. Include setup and pack-down in those arrangements.

The Health and Safety Executive highlights the importance of coordinating work, briefing people about risks and managing every phase of an event. Its event management guidance is a useful starting point for the organiser and suppliers.

Work with the venue and competent contractors to confirm:

• Relevant risk assessments and working arrangements.
• Emergency routes and evacuation responsibilities.
• First-aid arrangements and emergency contacts.
• Safe access during deliveries and installation.
• Who can authorise a show stop.
• How instructions reach crew and guests.

Technical backups need a separate practical check. Identify the failures that would interrupt the programme, then agree the response. That might involve a spare mic, backup playback files or an alternative way to introduce a speaker.

HSE also recommends emergency arrangements proportionate to the event’s risks, with clear responsibilities and testing. See its incident and emergency planning guidance.

A general checklist supports that work. The venue and event still need their own specific arrangements.

We’ll work through the production responsibilities with your organiser and venue team, send it to our team for a practical review.

Confirm safe pack-down, venue handback and responsibility for any remaining deliverables. The production job continues after the final applause.

Agree when equipment can be removed and how guest departures will be kept clear of the work. Check that supplier collection times match the venue’s access arrangements.

Then close the loop on:

• Returned equipment and any reported damage.
• Recordings, photographs and agreed edits.
• Final invoices and approved additional costs.
• Feedback from speakers, guests and the venue.
• Changes to carry into the next event.

If you’re planning to reuse recordings, decide the intended outputs before filming. Our guide to repurposing event footage explains how those decisions can extend the value of the day.

We can also help with venue sourcing and catering through trusted suppliers. Those services can sit alongside AV production, entertainment or wider event management when you need more of the plan handled in one place.

Explore our corporate AV production service or contact the team to discuss your Event.

Tasks without an owner: everyone can see the job, but nobody knows it belongs to them.

Vague completion criteria: “AV sorted” hides unanswered questions about operators, testing and content.

Separate versions: suppliers make decisions using different timings or layouts.

No time for rehearsal: problems surface while guests are watching.

No process for changes: late requests bypass the people who need to deliver them.

Our advice is to keep the document practical. Review the outstanding decisions regularly, assign a person to each one and make the current version easy to find.

You don’t need a spreadsheet with more tabs than guests. You need a plan the team can use under pressure.

If your planning document has become difficult to follow, we can help work through the production brief.

We can help develop the technical plan and deliver sound, lighting, video, staging and branding through our corporate AV production service.

Depending on your booking, that can include venue coordination, presentation checks, rehearsals, technical crew and live operation. We’ll agree the scope with you so it’s clear what our team handles and what remains with the organiser or venue.

Our equipment ownership and trained teams give us control over preparation and delivery. You can explore examples in our case studies and read the terms of our money-back guarantee.

If you need help beyond production, we can also discuss venue sourcing, entertainment and catering through trusted suppliers.

We’ve earned over 640 five-star reviews on Google and Reviews.co.uk doing exactly this for companies including Google, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, Atlassian and Lloyds. We also offer a genuine money-back guarantee. If the entertainment or production does not engage guests, equipment fails or our hosts underdeliver, you do not pay for that part of the service. Read the Clownfish guarantee.

Contact Clownfish about your event production requirements or explore our corporate AV production service.