r/EventProduction

Has anyone here worked for live event production? I've realized recently I really want to get into it, I've loved concerts and shows my whole life. They're all my best memories, and I realized recently how amazing it would be to create those moments for people.
Photography and music are my main passions. I was researching it and from what I've heard, it sounds like a solid mix between industrial technicians and art. Which sounds perfect for me.
I've worked in manufacturing for quite a few years and am going towards a steamfitting apprenticeship right now.
It would have to be a part time gig for me, but thinking about getting involved in the behind-the-scenes part of shows has really lit up the spark in my heart again.
I've had a "plan" to eventually pursue event photography once I'm more settled into my apprenticeship but I think I'd love to help in any form of producing a memorable event for people and share similar moments that are so special and memorable to me in my life. ❤️🌌

Throwing an event and coming up on a confusing issue that I'm looking for a workaround for. The decks at the event will be a DDJ-Rx3 and there will be multiple DJs swapping out on the night. Issue is that the rx3 only has two usb ports and I need the one to record all the sets on the night onto our usb. Is there a way to seamlessly transition between DJs if only one port is available for them to swap between? I'm not a DJ so if you could please explain this to me like I'm 12 so I can make sure I explain it correctly to the DJs on the night. I've done some research and it seems possible I just don't understand the steps.

I know you can record onto the same usb that is the source of the music but I've heard this can cause issues and lag, also won't be able to use the back ports to record onto a laptop or anything else.

Desperate for some help

Need help from my fellow exhibitor friends! I have seen booth back walls in person and online that are made of more of a cardboard material, are pre-printed with a simple design, and allow attendees to come up and write or draw on them to make them interactive. I cannot, however, find out where people are getting these!

Do you need to work with an exhibit house or expo service contractor to have these made and installed?

We go to a couple dozen events a year, and for most I ship reusable pop-up booths. I don't have the budget to spend thousands on a one-time-use option. Ideally, I'd find some kind of reusable frame or stand and then some kind of sturdy material that can be drawn on.

Most of the events we attend we just have a 10x10 space, but do occasionally have a 10x20.

Any recommendations?

I’m a small business who was recently contacted to vend at a 4-day conference. I’m hooked! It was GREAT, because the 4 days allowed me to build trust and relationships with customers and sell my services to ppl all over the US at one time. Im an embroidery shop - so I brought my entire setup, and personalized things like dog bandanas and tote bags on the spot. As more people saw the work, the more work I got.

I was introduced to this opportunity through a contact with the city but I want to know how to get more opportunities like this. How do I get on vendor lists for hotels, large event/conference/convention planners, etc.?

I’m a small business who was recently contacted to vend at a 4-day conference. I’m hooked! It was GREAT, because the 4 days allowed me to build trust and relationships with customers and sell my services to ppl all over the US at one time. Im an embroidery shop - so I brought my entire setup, and personalized things like dog bandanas and tote bags on the spot. As more people saw the work, the more work I got.

I was introduced to this opportunity through a contact with the city but I want to know how to get more opportunities like this. How do I get on vendor lists for hotels, large event/conference/convention planners, etc.?

Hi everyone,

I’m new to an organization and they decided that they wanted me to handle event registration for an upcoming event with around 500 attendees. They already decided to pre-print badges, and they use a pretty outdated event portal that doesn’t allow quick look attended look-up. We also need to separate event speakers and advisees.

My current idea is to have a “pre check-in” on the first floor of the event space. Two staff members will have an excel sheet with every attendee, their status (whether they’re general, speaker, advisee, etc.) They can quickly search attendees as they walk in and let them know which registration lane upstairs they’re supposed to be in. If an advisee registrant walks in, they can give them a small paper that identifies them, then direct them to a general check-in lane (which I’ll explain later). If there’s an issue, they can direct them to the help desk early on.

On the second floor, we’ll have tables separated by last name (A-E, F-K, etc.), which will also be numbered. There will also be a separate speaker table. Each table will have the pre printed badges behind them that correspond with the last name grouping. Because the second floor is quite narrow, I’m worried that space will fill up very quickly, lanes will get messy, people will hold up lines out of confusion or other issues, etc.

The second floor check-in staff will use our normal event portal to formally check people in. They’ll hand them their badges, program, and other general instructions. If it’s an advisee registrant, they’ll hand staff the small paper they got from pre-check-in, which will allow the staff to give them additional instructions.

Is this a little too much? Or too many check points? Does anyone have advice on how to make this process very smooth and efficient? I’m worried because I’m new to the organization and they’re already handing off quite a large responsibility to me.

Hello everyone. Just curious about this industry. How usually busy are you? Is it true that you don't have time for yourself or love ones? Relationships?

Specifically someone from the philippines.

Cannot justify 25k for a sponsorship just to get the attendee list. That is the only thing in the package we really need and when I asked the organizer if we could buy the list separately they said no. The whole sponsorship model feels designed to make smaller companies pay enterprise prices for data they should be able to access another way.

There has to be a smarter play for teams at our stage. Bigger companies are not the only ones getting ROI from these events and I refuse to believe the only path in is a 25k package with a logo and a table we do not need.

Hii All ,
We own of the biggest groups in uae . Things got slow recently we have done huge events in uae and quite nice interior fitout for residential and commercial projects . Lets collaborate.

I’m an independent event planner in the Washington, DC area and recently encountered a situation that I have not seen before in more than 26 years in the events industry.

A nonprofit client engaged a third-party event staffing company to manage beverage sales at an event. The client supplied all of the beer and wine. The staffing company was responsible for chilling the beverages, providing POS systems, staffing the bars, and selling the product on my client's behalf.

At the conclusion of the event, when I went to collect the remaining inventory, I was informed by on-site staff that all leftover beer and wine had already been packed up and taken offsite to the company’s office.

When the client followed up several weeks later, they were told the remaining inventory was no longer available.

We had:

• A detailed inventory of all beer and wine delivered to the event
• A sales report showing what was sold during the event

Based on those records, there appears to be a substantial variance representing hundreds of bottles of beer and wine.

In my experience, when a client provides the alcohol, any unused product is typically returned to the client unless there is a prior written agreement stating otherwise.

Has anyone else worked with a staffing or event management company that removed and retained leftover client-provided alcohol? Is this considered standard practice, or outside normal industry expectations?

I’m interested in hearing whether others in fundraising, hospitality, or event planning have encountered a similar situation.

Hi all,

Just opened our second venue in NYC and wanted to share a challenge we've been running into. Hoping to hear how others have handled it.

As we've grown, bookkeeping has soared to taking up 10-15+ hours a week. We have a full-time bookkeeper, but a lot of that time is taken up by manually tracking our vendors, freelancers, subcontractors, collecting W-9s, logging payments, etc. (It's become a real bottleneck for growth)

Curious what you guys are using to manage vendor/contractor tracking and consolidate your software stack. What's working for you guys?

What's the general range for 1-day outdoor event insurance for a small event with under 100 people? Also appreciate recommendations for brokers. I've heard it can be as low as $80 to $150. The park insurance likely covers us (which we'll check) but we may want to have our own coverage as well.

Is every event company this disorganized? I work for a very small corporate event company as a coordinator. I've worked events before, but this is my first job at an event company.

Seemingly, there is no real structure or procedures in place to ensure any kind of coherence or quality control.

For example, I work under 3 project managers on up to 40–50 events per year, plus helping sales with proposals for future events. I frequently find myself confused and uninformed, because for each event I work on, I only see part of it. Sometimes the other coordinators are working on the same events, but none of us actually have updated information. Then something inevitably gets forgotten, because the PMs and bosses can't keep everyone in the loop, and somehow I or another coordinator are always at fault.

By the way, this company hates meetings. They never have them unless forced, and then the meetings are chaotic and long because the boss — the salesperson — never has an agenda and barely knows the big picture of anything.

The project managers work under the salesperson, who is herself a bottleneck and obsessive micro-manager (she is also the owner): only she can make decisions about how an event is run. PMs are not entrusted with any decision-making, and the salesperson is the main contact for clients from beginning to end. Yet due to her micro-managing, she has no time to do things like make sure contracts are signed (we lost clients over it this year) or organize workflow. I get work dumped on me from all sides and multiple people, but no one person ever actually knows what I'm working on. On top of that, it's always urgent and I always have to move at breakneck speed. If I mention it's too much, I just get slapped in the face with the fact that the PMs and owners work obscenely long days all year round, not just leading up to or during an event.

Other than my workload being immense and the pace being quick, nobody wants to check or review my work. My boss literally gets upset when I ask her to review anything. They send things out to clients without reading or reviewing them, then get upset when what I did isn't aligned with their vision. But I don't know what to tell them. I frequently try to keep them aware of what I want to do and ask clarifying questions, but in the end I am blocked from talking to clients or even being CC'd on emails, so I only get the PM's or salesperson's rehash of what the client wants, and in a very incomplete or vague way.

Recently, I purchased a corporate gift and chose the nicer bag option ($2 more) and put it on the bill. A PM saw it after the fact and got upset because in this instance the nicer bag was a "waste of money" for reasons I didn't know about. Another example: I was asked to do a task I had never done before to help a PM save time. I asked to see a previous example, was told to just do it because there was no time, then got reprimanded for doing it wrong — the PM didn't read it before sending it to the client, and the client complained. The PM then complained about having to spend an hour correcting it afterward, whereas the task itself takes half a day. So in the end, it was still time saved for the PM.

Is any of this normal? I'm looking for a new job but honestly I'm just curious.

I’ve been working on a small side project where people can leave honest feedback/reviews about festivals — things like atmosphere, organization, camping, safety, vibes, etc. The idea is helping others decide if an event is actually worth going to beyond just marketing photos and lineups.

Still very early and I’m mainly looking for feedback from people who actually attend festivals regularly. Would something like this be useful to you? What features would matter most?

Wondering what everyone here uses to manage their 1099 event staff and workers? How do you pay them out and track and collect W9s?

Any platforms or suggestions would be appreciated!

We have found some sponsors put things off to the last minute as a tactic. Best ways to get around this?

I’m currently refining a large conference general session run of show involving awards, sponsor segments, videos, presenter transitions, IMAG, and multiple production stakeholders.

I’d love to see examples of professional run of show templates or hear any best practices you recommend for:

•	segment organization

•	visual hierarchy

•	cue formatting

•	transitions

•	AV notes

•	backstage usability

•	sponsor/general session production

I’m especially interested in approaches that improve readability during live execution without overcomplicating the document visually.

Thank you in advance for any examples or guidance you’re willing to share.

I have never worked with an event planner or coordinator before and I want to reach out with a question before I look for this service.

I own a successful metaphysical store and I have a monthly psychic faire that does pretty well consistently but at this point it has become lackluster and mundane and we are basically just phoning it in every month. I have so many ideas to inject life and fun and excitement but I need somebody to spearhead and coordinate the changes. (We are a small team) Would it be acceptable to offer somebody a percentage of the growth beyond our normal monthly average as payment or is a pre determined flat fee regardless of outcome the only acceptable and accepted practice? I have limited resources but want to grow this event but at the same time I do not want to get something for nothing and insult any professionals.

I’ve noticed a lot of work involves scaffolding, tents, and modular structures, which feels related to civil engineering.
What’s the best way to transition?
Required certifications or courses?
Key skills to focus on?
Common job titles in this field (e.g., Event Engineer, Temporary Works Engineer)?
Any advice is appreciated.