Event run of show

Event run of show

An agenda says what happens. A run of show says who makes it happen, at what minute, and what to do when the speaker is late. This kit turns the first into the second.

When to use

• One to two weeks before any event with more than one segment or more than two people running it.
• "Make a run of show for the customer dinner", "minute by minute for launch day", "who cues the video?"
• Also for virtual events: webinar producer cues (go live, slides, polls, Q&A) work the same way.

Inputs

Ask for what is missing, in one message, and offer defaults:

1. Event basics: name, date, venue or platform, doors time, end time, expected headcount.
2. Agenda: segments in order with rough lengths. A pasted list is fine.
3. People: host or MC, speakers, and crew roles (producer, AV, stage manager, registration, catering contact). Names or roles only.
4. AV and room: mics (handheld, lav), slides from one laptop or several, videos, music, recording or livestream.
5. Hard constraints: venue out time, catering service times, a speaker's flight.

Save the result to events/<event-slug>/run-of-show.md. If the user keeps notes there already, read them first.

Steps

1. Fix the anchors. Doors, start, meal service, and venue out time cannot move. Place them first.
2. Lay out segments in clock time. Defaults when lengths are unknown: welcome 5 min, keynote 20 to 30, panel 30 to 40, customer talk 15, break 15, meal service 45 to 60 for a seated dinner.
3. Add transitions. Every speaker change gets 2 minutes (walk-up, mic swap, slide switch). Every room change gets 10. Add a 5 to 10 minute buffer before any hard stop.
4. Write cues for each row: what AV, stage, and host do at that moment (walk-in music down, lights, mic 2 live, slides to deck B, video roll, cue applause, Q&A mic out).
5. Build the crew call sheet: call times (crew 2 hours before doors, speakers 45 minutes before their slot, tech check 90 minutes before doors), who to call for what, where the green room is.
6. Plan B for the usual failures: speaker late or missing, slides will not load, mic dies, running long (which segment gets cut first), fire alarm or evacuation point, livestream drops. One line each, with an owner.
7. Check the math. Segments plus transitions must end before the hard stop. If they do not, say how much over and suggest what to trim, before writing the file.
8. Write the file in the format below and show the timeline summary in chat.

Output format

# Run of show: Customer dinner, Thu Nov 12
Venue: <venue>, private room | Doors 6:00 PM | Out by 10:00 PM | 40 guests
Show caller: <role> | Version 1, <date>

| Time | Len | Segment | Who | Cues (AV / stage / host) | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 5:00 PM | 60 | Crew call, room set, tech check | Producer, AV | Test mic 1 and 2, laptop to screen | Seating chart on tables |
| 6:00 PM | 30 | Doors, drinks | Host | Walk-in music | Name tags at door |
| 6:30 PM | 5 | Welcome | Host | Music down, mic 1 live | Keep under 3 min |
| 6:35 PM | 2 | Transition | | Slides to customer deck | |

## Crew call sheet
| Who | Role | Call time | Reach them |

## Plan B
- Speaker late: host moves Q&A earlier. Owner: producer.
- Running long: cut the second toast first.

## Day-of checklist
- [ ] Clicker batteries, spare HDMI and USB-C adapters

Guardrails

• Never put personal phone numbers in the file unless the user gives them for this purpose. Use "on the crew channel" as the default.
• Do not invent speakers, sponsors, or venue details. Leave <TBD> and list open questions at the end.
• Flag any segment with no owner. A row with no owner is how things get missed.
• Keep times in the venue's local time zone and say which zone at the top.

Event run of show

Give it your agenda and get a minute-by-minute run of show: who does what, every AV cue, transitions and buffers, a crew call sheet, and a plan B for the things that always go wrong.

Who it is for: event leads, marketers running a customer dinner or launch, and founders who end up as the de facto producer.

Example

Input: "Customer dinner Thursday, doors 6, out by 10. Welcome, a 15 minute customer story, dinner, a short product preview, then dessert and mingling. 40 guests."

Output (events/customer-dinner/run-of-show.md, excerpt):

Plus a crew call sheet, a plan B list (speaker late, slides fail, running long), and a day-of checklist. If the timing does not fit, it tells you by how much and what to cut.

What it can access

• Reads your notes in events/.
• Writes events/<event>/run-of-show.md.
• No scripts, no network.

Setup

None. Works in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. Pairs with booth-and-swag-checklist and shipment-tracker.