Journal · Venue Planning
How to Plan an Event AV Load-In Timeline
“The event starts at six” tells us when guests arrive. It doesn't tell us when the production team can get into the room, unload the truck, build the system, or test a single microphone. Those are different times, and squeezing them together is how an otherwise good plan becomes a rushed show day.
Here's a simple way to make the schedule useful before anybody books crew or promises a rehearsal slot.
The short version: start with doors opening and work backward. Protect a real window for rehearsal, a separate window for testing, setup time, and the entire trip from the loading dock to the room. Confirm when the venue actually gives production access.
Start with the first moment that cannot move
That may be doors, a presenter rehearsal, a camera check, or the first session in a breakout room. Write that time down. Then list what must be completely ready before it happens: clear aisles, working microphones, the correct slides on screen, lighting looks, and any recording or overflow feed.
Rehearsal is not a substitute for testing. The system should already work when a presenter walks in. Keep a little room for a changed laptop, a late video file, or a microphone that needs a different position.
Walk the actual route from truck to show floor
Ask where the truck can stop, when the dock or service entrance opens, whether a freight elevator is required, and how far equipment must travel. A room may be available at one time while the dock, elevator, or crew entrance is available at another. Find out who controls each handoff.
The Phoenix Convention Center's site-visit checklist specifically calls out AV capabilities, lighting and acoustics, dock access, service-provider rules, and possible labor or permit costs. Those are good questions at any venue, though the answers will be different at a hotel ballroom, school auditorium, or convention space.
Put the work in the right order
- Access and unload: the truck arrives, cases move inside, and the crew reaches the room.
- Build: staging, screens, speakers, lighting, control positions, cabling and power go into place.
- Test: check each microphone, source, display, playback cue, recording path and feed to other rooms.
- Rehearse: run the opening and any transitions that need people, media or camera changes.
- Reset for guests: clear cases and tools, tape or cover approved cable paths, and leave the room ready for doors.
These phases can overlap when the room and crew allow it. They should still appear separately on the schedule. A load-in time on a calendar is not the same as a show-ready time.
Free worksheet: the Venue Technical Fit Checker
Take this on your walkthrough, before the venue contract is signed. It covers sightlines, power, rigging, internet, load-in and the venue’s rules for outside vendors, then turns the unknowns into a short list of questions to send the venue.
Send one short handoff to the venue and production team
- Event date, room, doors time and first rehearsal or presenter call
- Production access time, dock or service entrance hours, and truck parking rules
- Freight elevator route, dimensions or restrictions, and who can unlock it
- Room layout, stage location, power locations and any venue AV requirements
- Who is bringing slides, videos and laptops, and when those files will be final
- Who approves changes to the run of show on site
- Strike deadline and the route back out
If those answers reveal a tight window, it's better to adjust the schedule or the production plan now than discover the problem with a truck at the dock. If you're planning a Phoenix event and want help mapping the venue to the show, send SPRK the room, date and doors time. We can work out a realistic production schedule together.