Event Day Run-of-Show toolkit

The document your team actually read on the day.

A minute-by-minute execution document your production team, your MC, and your stage manager read in real time on event day.

GET THE TOOLKIT

ON THE DAY, EVERYONE running your event needs to know what happens next, and nobody should have to find you to work it out.

Your MC needs to know when to bring the next speaker up. Your AV team needs to know when the mic swaps. Your stage manager needs to know how long the transition runs, and the people on registration need to know when the doors open. All of them need that at the same time, and all of them will come and ask you if it isn't written down somewhere.

A run-of-show is what you hand them instead. It maps every session, every transition, every mic swap, and every lighting cue in the order it all happens, from the first staff meeting through to the final teardown.

What’s in it

The build guide

I walk you through the whole build step by step, including formatting, what to do when something goes sideways, and how a schedule, an agenda, and a run-of-show differ, since most people use those three words to mean the same thing.

A one-day wellness retreat, fully built

Twenty-five attendees, with every session documented, including lighting cues, music cues, mic swap instructions, the staff roster, and the materials list.

A 2.5-day industry conference, fully built

Two hundred attendees, covering general session keynotes, breakout tracks, sponsor integration, evening events with transportation logistics, the closing ceremony, your host team roster, venue partners, and a speaker arrival summary.

A blank template

The same structure as the samples with all the content removed, ready for you to fill in. It comes as a Google Doc and a designed PDF.

Bonus: The venue walkthrough checklist

More than fifty items organized by area. Print it, bring it to your walkthrough, and check everything before your guests arrive.

Bonus: The day-of team briefing

A one-page brief you print and hand to every team member, volunteer, and key vendor on the morning. It covers the schedule at a glance, team assignments with roles and locations, key contacts with phone numbers, Wi-Fi, reminders, and emergency details.

Bonus: The post-event debrief

Questions to answer within 48 hours while everything is still fresh, covering the big picture, operations, your team, the attendee experience, and what comes next.

Bonus: The run-of-show glossary card

A single printable page defining every element in plain language, including production cues, transition notes, time blocks, staff assignments, BEOs, confidence monitors, and green rooms.

Plenty of hosts run this alongside the Event Logistics Master Sheet, which handles the internal side: your room setups, your catering, and what each vendor needs.

Your team gets a document detailed enough to follow and clean enough that they actually will.

How it works

i.

Look at a finished one

Open whichever sample is closer to your event and see what a proper run-of-show actually looks like before you start.

ii.

Build yours

Work through the blank template with the guide beside you. The structure is already decided, so you're filling rather than designing.

iii.

Hand it over

Print it, share it, and walk your venue with the checklist. Your team reads it in real time on the day.

A NOTE FROM ME

This is the toolkit I wish I’d had

I've spent more than nineteen years across hospitality and events, from intimate retreats through to conferences with more than a thousand attendees. I've been the person with the binder and the printed run-of-show, making sure every transition, every mic swap, and every in-between moment went the way it was meant to.

Everything in here comes from doing that for real. This is what a professional backstage document actually looks like, and now you can build your own.