Many event planners believe they have to use the in-house audio visual (or A/V) company when they work with a property. They are planning a big event and start working to choose what city and what property to have the event in. Wanting to secure the space and send out save the dates, they quickly sign the venue contract. Often they don’t realize a lot of these venue contracts have a section stating that you’re required to use their in-house audio visual team. Most event planners assume they will need to use the in-house food and beverage catering option, and can mistakenly lump A/V into the same category. However, A/V companies function very differently from the catering, and therefore, should not be under the same assumptions.
In-House A/V May Not Be Your Best Option
Most event planners have enough experience to assume that they don’t need to bring in outside catering, and most often are contractually not allowed to. When it comes down to it, the turkey sandwich boxed lunch or the grilled chicken buffet dinner may not be worth the extra effort. After all, why order the exact same menu from an outside caterer when there’s a very capable kitchen in the venue who can serve those things. However, audio visual is different. Creating boxed lunch turkey sandwiches is pretty cut and dry, but the technically-minded, creatively-gifted crew that you hope is running the presentation of your keynote speaker is not so objective. In fact, it’s quite subjective.
Different Minds for Different Jobs
One of the problems we often see is that most event planners are not extremely technically-minded. A lot of event planners that we’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past twelve years are actually quite logistically-minded. It takes all sorts of people to make an event come together.
Planning Ahead Sets You Up for Success
Another issue we run into often is that audio visual production is not thought about early in planning. Perhaps around the 90 day mark the event planner starts to think about their script or their show flow, they start to form up their multi-day agenda of their general session, and when they are going to send attendees to breakout rotations. Only then do they suddenly begin to think about the stage, the size of screens, how many microphones they may need for their panel discussion, and at this point, contractually, they’re obligated to use the in-house A/V team.