Your AV Strategy, Across the Entire Event Lifecycle
AV is how you communicate with your attendees. Everything they see, hear, and remember runs through it. Which makes it strange that AV is usually the last vendor in the room.
This guide walks through what a good AV partner should be doing at every stage of your event, and why the most expensive decisions get made before anyone asks for a price.
We'll email it to you. Takes about twelve minutes to read.
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Weighing a venue right now? Send me the contract at michaelh@yourAVdept.com and I'll give you a technical read.
By the time most planners send an AV request for proposal, the venue is signed, the agenda is drafted, and the room block is set. Those three documents have already decided a large share of what AV will cost and how well it can work.
Not because anyone made a bad call, but because nobody was thinking about load-in paths, exclusivity clauses, or 24-hour holds at the moment those calls got made.
You cannot get AV involved too early. That is not a sales line, it is a sequencing fact.
Your AV partner is the only vendor whose cost is driven almost entirely by decisions other people make: which building you pick, how the rooms are held, when the doors open, and how fast the flip has to happen. Bring them in while those are still questions and they can help you shape the answers. Bring them in afterward and all they can do is price what you already committed to.
Use it as a checklist for your own process, or hand it to a partner you trust. Either way these items get decided. The only question is whether anyone decided them on purpose.
Your venue contract is an AV document. It just isn't written like one. Exclusivity, in-house fees, dock and freight paths, load-in rules, and room capacity once the staging is in: the things that are invisible on a floor plan and expensive to discover in month ten.
Your agenda is a budget document. The production schedule, call cadence, rehearsals, crew meal break rules, contingency plans, and technical riders, and how your schedule quietly sets your crew size.
If planning went well, onsite is confirmation rather than correction. The one thing your AV team needs that only you have, and how to keep additions from surprising you on the final invoice.
The cheapest hour you will spend on next year's event. How to run a debrief that produces something useful, and why it is also the best moment to negotiate.
The item planners most often leave to chance. Setting a room the same morning it goes live is the most expensive way to set a room, and the most likely way to start a conference with a technical problem.
| Room | Take possession |
|---|---|
| General session | A full day before doors, sometimes more |
| Breakout rooms | The afternoon or evening before |
| Meal and reception rooms | Before the flip, not during it |
| Every contracted room | 24-hour hold, start to finish |
Build that time into the RFP and the contract, not into your hopes for the week.
Without a 24-hour hold, you can find yourself striking a room for a late-night gala and rebuilding it before breakfast. The time you negotiate before you sign is the cheapest labor you will ever buy.
Ask the venue. Then have your AV partner read the answers.
Which spaces, if any, are exclusive to the in-house AV or rigging vendor?
If I bring in an outside AV partner, what will it cost me in fees, all in?
When do I take possession of each room, and is it on a 24-hour hold?
What does load-in look like from the dock to the meeting space?
Do these capacity numbers account for staging, screens, and front of house?
Any venue worth booking will answer all five. Keep the answers: they are the first half of your AV request for proposal.
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Every page on Your AV Department.
15-Minute Strategy Call
Event production shouldn't be a guessing game.
If you are unsure whether your technical plan is fully supporting your event's goals, or if your AV budget seems bloated with unnecessary gear, let's talk.
In 15 minutes, we will review your strategy, spot potential technical pitfalls, and identify immediate actions you can take to effortlessly manage your AV and keep your budget fully protected.
No pitch. No pressure. Just 15 minutes to talk about your event.
