When your £1m event loses its venue 48 hours before launch

From the outset, we had concerns that the build schedule couldn’t be achieved within the construction timeline. We had advised our clients as much, but they wanted to proceed, and the venue assured us that the building would be built, safe and insured ready for our event. 

Yet with 48 hours until 300 delegates were due to descend, the venue didn’t fully exist yet.

Behind the scenes, my team had been preparing. With our wealth of experience in the industry, we knew the final outcome from the venue was likely to be far from ideal, and we were right. 48 hours to go, and here I was, explaining to the client with empathy that we did not believe the venue could safely and reliably support our requirements in its current state.

In the world of PR, crisis management strategies are non-negotiable, particularly in highly regulated industries. You need to plan for disaster as carefully as you plan for success. In the world of production, crisis management strategies are built on information, insights and historic disasters.

The key to managing a crisis is forward planning. You can prepare indoor spaces in case of inclement weather hitting your outdoor event, prepare back-up generators and - occasionally - agree with the client on paper for worst-case scenarios. Some things you can’t plan for: a flash flood meaning your crew are delayed to the site. The unexplainable and unlocatable tinny music playing in the back of your conference hall that necessitates all venue speakers being cut to an entire hotel just to make it stop. 

An experienced production team has varying levels of solid plans and mechanics in place, and daily briefings on-site with the entire team are always essential. I’ve had colleagues rib me for my habit of lying awake the night before an event methodically listing everything that could go wrong, but there is method to my madness. Your body remembers and recognises stress, even imagined, and harnessing that to develop a robust solution to potential problems has become a superpower.

That calm is what the client has paid for when they’ve hired a team like mine at Strata, and it is very hard-won. I’m able to access my colleagues’ insights, not just within Strata but within the wider Strata Group; a collective of agencies with specialist knowledge across venue sourcing, technical production, event design and much more. You learn significantly more in my industry from failure than from success. I have more than 10 years’ experience, with the odd ‘failure’ to my name, each more valuable than the last, and each contributes to my ability to differentiate stress from crisis.

So, in an industry where the unpredictable needs to be anticipated, what are my three key pieces of advice?

1. Meet everyone with empathy

When disaster strikes, everyone is a potential ally. Having an adversarial attitude might be necessary down the line, but in the moment of crisis it’s essential to be firm, calm and solutions oriented

2. If you need to scale back or change the plan, re-focus on the KPIs.

Sometimes amends to the plan are unavoidable; remember what you need to deliver to the client and ensure their must-haves are met, even if it looks different than they imagined

3. Meet the crisis, head-on

Trust that your instincts will kick in, trust your team, and trust in your own ability to find a solution. Get everyone aligned before you make a move and bring in colleagues who can advocate for what you need – embrace the storm.

So, what happened in those 48 hours before my client’s event? We found another venue, directly across the road from the original, meaning that no hotels needed changing and no transport for delegates was needed. We did a ‘lift and shift’ on a £1m event, quite literally, across the road.

It wasn’t what the client had initially envisaged, but my team made certain that the event looked on-brand, and - most importantly - still delivered on their KPIs.

When it comes to event production, crisis management is more an art than a science, but with the right team behind you, you can still deliver... and what’s a few lost nights’ sleep?