Event Logistics

The material that lands on a marketer's desk two weeks out and is never in any event marketing content. Getting it right is invisible. Getting it wrong is a booth with nothing on it.

Nothing here is legal or insurance advice. It is the list of things to ask early enough that the people who do give that advice can help.

When to use

• The moment a venue or sponsorship is confirmed
• Two weeks out, when somebody asks what a certificate of insurance is
• Any event where physical materials have to arrive somewhere

Inputs

• Reads: workspace/events/<event>/contract.md, workspace/events/<event>/venue.md
• Needs from user: the organizer's operations contact, the venue's event planner, and who internally can request insurance certificates and approve shipping

Workflow

1. Build the deadline calendar first

Every one of these earlier than teams assume. Put each on a calendar with a named owner the day the event is confirmed.

2. Handle insurance early

A certificate of insurance proves you carry coverage and names the venue and its related entities as additional insureds. Venues will not let you load in without one.

Ask the venue, at booking:

• For their sample certificate. Yours has to match it
• For the exact legal entity names to list as additional insureds. Large buildings frequently require several: owner, management company, operating entity, landlord. One wrong name means a rejected certificate and a resubmission you may not have time for
• The coverage limits, including whether an umbrella policy is required and at what level
• The deadline and the recipient

Send all of it to your broker with the deadline attached. Certificates take days, not hours, and a rejection resets the clock. This applies to restaurants and private rooms too, not just conference halls.

3. Plan shipping against both windows

The organizer's booklet and the venue's exhibitor packet frequently disagree. Work to the stricter reading of both.

• Receiving is business hours on weekdays. A Monday event means shipping the previous week
• Many venues have no receiving department. If nobody was told your boxes are coming, they are not responsible for them. Notify the venue contact with box count and tracking numbers, in writing, a week out
• Carrier restrictions are real. Venues hold certificates for the major carriers and a preferred local courier. Anything else needs its own certificate weeks ahead
• Return labels printed in advance and packed inside the boxes. Materials are typically held only until end of day, especially when another event follows
• Hand-carry limits usually allow roller bags, backpacks, and small boxes. A banner case is a judgment call. Ship it

Label every box on every side with venue name, named venue contact, your company, full address with floor, event name and date, and box number of total.

4. Confirm AV and power

• What the venue supplies against what is rented. Screens, projectors, microphones, speakers, and laptop connections are frequently separate charges
• Test the connection with your own machine during setup, not fifteen minutes before doors
• Bring every adapter, twice. Assume the venue has none
• Confirm outlets at your stand or table, and bring extension cords and a power strip regardless
• Ask whether exhibitor wifi is included and what the bandwidth is. Never plan a live demo on venue wifi without a hotspot
• Check signage rules: height caps, whether anything can be affixed to walls, whether free-standing banners are allowed

5. Confirm the deck production rules

If decks are merged into one master file, custom fonts, animation, embedded video, and live demo are all gone. Decide early whether to ship font files or rebuild in a safe stack. See speaking-and-stage.

6. Run the pre-flight checklist

The week before, confirmed in writing:

• Insurance certificate submitted and accepted, not just sent
• Shipping window confirmed. Boxes labeled, tracking sent to the venue, return labels inside
• Slides submitted in the required format. Fonts resolved
• Speaker details published correctly on the event site
• Staff registered. Transferable passes redeemed or chased
• Meeting schedules distributed, one page per meeting
• Follow-up sequences written and loaded
• Content skeletons written. Photographer briefed
• Final headcount given to the venue
• AV tested or a testing window booked
• Power, adapters, extension cords, hotspot packed
• Lead scanner tested
• Night-before huddle on everyone's calendar
• One named owner of the day, with a phone that stays on

Output

• Writes: workspace/events/<event>/logistics.md with the deadline calendar, insurance requirements, shipping plan, AV confirmations, and the pre-flight checklist
• Prints: the deadline calendar with owners, anything unowned, and the items with no confirmed answer

Rules & quality bar

• Every deadline has a named owner and a calendar entry
• Insurance requested the moment the venue is confirmed
• Work to the stricter of two conflicting shipping windows
• Return labels packed inside the boxes
• Notify the venue of every shipment with tracking, in writing
• Accepted, not sent. Confirm the certificate was accepted
• Nothing is assumed. An unconfirmed logistics answer is a risk with a date on it

Related skills

• Reads: sponsorship-negotiation, venue-selection
• Feeds: run-of-show
• See also: docs/operations-runbook.md, which carries the full detail