Event Planning
Checklist.

How to use this checklist

Two rules make a checklist work. First, every item gets a single named owner — not a department, a person. Shared ownership is how an item survives three status meetings without moving. Second, every item has a state you can verify: a document exists, an approval is in hand, a supplier is contracted. "In progress" is not a state.

This list is deliberately not a countdown. If you want the sequence and the duration of each stage, the event execution timeline covers planning through delivery as five connected stages. Use that for when; use this for what.

1. Brief and objectives

• Purpose in one sentence. What has to be true at the end of the event.
• Audience. Who attends, in what numbers, and in how many distinct groups — guests, VIPs, media, staff, exhibitors, crew.
• Date status. Confirmed, provisional, or a target window. Say which.
• The immovable constraint. Of date, budget, venue and design, which one are you least willing to move. Name it in the brief.
• Languages. Arabic, English, or both — for signage, screens, printed material and registration.
• Known deadlines already imposed on you. Organiser cut-offs, approval dates, internal board dates.

2. Scope and responsibility split

• Written scope document. What is included and, explicitly, what is not.
• Responsibility matrix. For each package: who decides, who delivers, who approves.
• Client-retained items confirmed. Permits and licensing, content accuracy, guest list, licensed security, stakeholder sign-off. These stay with the client; a contractor coordinates but does not hold them.
• Single master schedule owner. One name. If you cannot write a name here, stop and resolve it before anything else.
• Escalation path. Who decides when the owner is unreachable, and who decides on site during build.

Event management in Saudi Arabia sets out the four procurement models and where the boundary usually falls in each.

3. Budget

• Breakdown by cost line, not a single total. Venue, production and fabrication, AVL, staging, registration, staffing and crew, logistics and freight, content, catering, contingency.
• Contingency named as its own line. With a rule for who releases it and on what evidence.
• Change-order basis agreed. How a change is priced, and the date after which the rate changes.
• Payment schedule aligned to the build. Fabrication needs cash before load-in, not after the event.
• Exclusions listed by name. Not a general disclaimer.

What event production costs in Saudi Arabia covers the individual lines and how to size them before you tender.

4. Venue and site

• Contract and the dates it actually covers. Including build and dismantle days, which are frequently charged separately.
• House rules in writing. Rigging policy, appointed contractors, noise limits, working hours, floor protection, hot-work rules.
• Technical pack. Floor plans to scale, ceiling heights, rigging points and load limits, power positions and available capacity, loading access and dock dimensions, lift sizes.
• Floor loading confirmed for anything heavy — vehicles, structures, large exhibits.
• Site survey completed and documented with photographs and measurements, not the venue's brochure.
• Connectivity. Internet provision, bandwidth, whether it is dedicated, and whether registration can run on it.
• Contingency for weather if any part is outdoors, with the decision point and the decision-maker named.

5. Design and production

• Design freeze date. The date after which changes cost fabrication time, agreed in advance.
• Technical drawings, not renders. Dimensions, materials, finishes, structural detail.
• Structural calculations for anything built, where the venue or organiser requires them.
• Fabrication schedule with the workshop's own dates, and a sample or prototype where the finish matters.
• Bilingual artwork approved in both directions, with name spellings and titles verified.
• Power demand calculated in kilowatts, with distribution and standby decided.
• Rigging plan with point loads, signed off against the venue's limits.

For exhibition builds specifically, the exhibition stand planning guide covers organiser deadlines and structural approvals, which run on their own calendar.

6. Approvals and documentation

• Approval register. Every approval needed, who grants it, what it requires, and its real lead time.
• Schedule built backwards from the show date with the approval window inserted at its true length — not from the date the design is finished.
• Insurance certificates from every contractor on site, collected before build week rather than during it.
• Risk assessment and method statements where the venue or organiser requires them.
• Crew access documentation — passes, vehicle permits, driver details — submitted by the cut-off.
• Freight documentation for anything imported, including customs paperwork and a clearance contingency.

7. People

• Guest list and invitation process with an RSVP mechanism and a tracked response rate.
• VIP handling plan. Arrival route, holding area, escort, seating, and who owns each VIP relationship.
• Speaker pack. Confirmed slots, content deadlines, technical requirements, travel, and a rehearsal time each speaker has accepted.
• Staffing plan by function and shift. Registration, ushering, information, hosts, technical, management — with headcount per shift, not per day.
• Briefing materials and a briefing session that happens before the event, not at the door.
• Crew welfare. Breaks, water, meals and shade or cooling during build. In a Saudi summer this is a schedule input, not a courtesy.
• Media plan. Accreditation, position, access limits, and who escorts.

8. Registration and arrival

• Registration method chosen and tested: pre-registration, on-site, or both.
• Accreditation tiers defined with what each tier can access.
• Desk count and staffing sized against the arrival curve, not the total attendance — most guests arrive inside the same twenty minutes.
• Badge production decided: pre-printed, on-demand, or both, with a failure plan for each.
• Offline fallback for a connectivity failure.
• Queue layout drawn on the floor plan, including the overflow position.
• Entry-to-seat route walked end to end, by a person, before the day.

Event registration and attendee management covers desk sizing and arrival curves in detail.

9. Logistics and freight

• Load-in sequence by vehicle, by hour, in the order the build requires — rigging before scenic, scenic before technical, technical before dressing.
• Dock booking and vehicle marshalling agreed with the venue.
• Storage on site identified for crates, spares and consumables.
• Dismantle plan and site-recovery standard agreed in writing, including the condition the venue expects.
• Waste and removal arranged, with the window it has to happen in.
• Return logistics for hired equipment, with the return deadline.

The event-day pack

• Run of show with cues, owners and timings, version-controlled and dated.
• Contact sheet — one page, mobile numbers, no job titles without names.
• Technical rehearsal completed with every cue run, not described.
• Final walkthrough done by the person who will make decisions during the show.
• Spares and consumables on site: cable, lamps, batteries, tape, fixings, stationery.
• Comms plan. Radio channels and who is on each, with a tested backup.
• Emergency procedure briefed to crew and staff, aligned with the venue's own plan.

After the event

• Dismantle completed to the agreed standard, with the handover documented and photographed.
• Final reconciliation of budget against actuals, including change orders.
• Content and assets collected — photography, video, screen content — and archived somewhere findable.
• Debrief held within two weeks, with what to repeat and what to change written down rather than remembered.
• Supplier performance recorded while it is still accurate.

OnePass delivers event management, production, technical systems and site operations across Saudi Arabia, and the eight service areas map directly onto the packages above.