Run of show template
The agenda tells attendees a keynote starts at 9:00. The run of show tells your team the walk-in playlist fades at 8:58, house lights drop to half, the intro video rolls for 90 seconds, the emcee enters stage left on the last frame, and the keynote's confidence monitor flips to notes view — each line with one owner wearing a headset. Steal the structure below; the events that feel effortless are the ones where nobody on stage is deciding anything in real time.
QUICK ANSWER
A run of show is the minute-by-minute production document for an event — every cue, mic handoff, walk-up track, and slide advance with a named owner, where the agenda is what attendees see. This template covers the standard columns, a worked main-stage example, the contingency rows teams forget, and the difference between run of show, agenda, and production schedule.
SECTION 1
The core columns
Every row is one cue. If two things happen at once, they are two rows.
- Clock time — real time, not elapsed; everyone's watch says the same thing
- Duration — how long the segment runs, so slippage is visible line by line
- Segment / cue — what happens, written as an action: 'IMAG cuts to podium', not 'keynote'
- Talent — who is on stage or on mic for this row
- Owner — the single crew member who executes the cue (audio, lights, video, stage manager)
- AV / media — the file, track, or preset this cue fires: slide deck name, video file, playlist
- Mic plan — which mic, who hands it off, and where it goes after the segment
- Notes / fallback — what happens if the row slips: what gets cut, who decides
SECTION 2
Worked example — main stage, opening 40 minutes
A real morning block. Adjust times, keep the granularity.
| Time | Cue | Talent / owner | AV & notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | AV check complete; keynote mic'd and tested | Stage manager | Backup lav taped and live; slides loaded from master deck |
| 8:45 | Doors open; walk-in playlist + holding slide | Audio + video ops | Playlist 'walk-in-am'; lights full |
| 8:58 | Playlist fade; house to half | Audio + lighting | 2-minute warning to emcee and keynote backstage |
| 9:00 | Opening video rolls (90 sec) | Video ops | File 'open-v3.mp4' — the v3 matters; test the actual file |
| 9:01:30 | Emcee enters stage left on final frame | Stage manager cues | Handheld mic #1; spotlight up center |
| 9:02 | Welcome + housekeeping (3 min) | Emcee | Wi-Fi and app slide on screens; hard stop 9:05 |
| 9:05 | Keynote intro (45 sec, scripted) | Emcee | Intro copy from speaker record — approved version, not improvised |
| 9:06 | Keynote begins; IMAG to podium | Keynote / video ops | Confidence monitor to notes view; countdown timer set 34:00 |
| 9:38 | Timer at 2:00 — emcee moves to stage edge | Stage manager | Visible cue to speaker; do not cut audio |
| 9:40 | Keynote ends; emcee thanks + throws to break | Emcee | Break slide + playlist 'break-1'; next-session slide at 9:55 |
SECTION 3
Contingency rows most teams forget
- Speaker no-show row: who stretches, what content fills, who makes the call and by when
- Overrun protocol per segment: what gets cut first — Q&A, break minutes, or the segment itself
- Technical failure holds: the emcee's two-minute material while video or audio resets
- Mic failure path: where the backup handheld lives and who walks it on
- Hard stops that cannot move — catering, union crew turns, venue curfew — flagged in their own color
- Rehearsal row the day before: run the transitions, not the speeches
SECTION 4
Run of show vs agenda vs production schedule
- Agenda — attendee-facing session list: what happens and where. Published weeks out.
- Run of show — crew-facing cue sheet for one room or stage: how each minute executes. Locked ~48 hours out, annotated live.
- Production schedule — load-in to load-out logistics: trucks, rigging, power, rehearsals. Owned by the production lead across days.
- The three must agree — most show-day failures are two documents with different times. Generating all three views from one program record removes the disagreement.
Frequently asked questions
What is a run of show?
The minute-by-minute production document for an event: every cue, transition, mic handoff, and media roll with a clock time, duration, talent, and a single named owner. It is crew-facing — the counterpart to the attendee agenda.
What is the difference between a run of show and an agenda?
The agenda is what attendees see — sessions, times, rooms. The run of show is how the team executes it — the cues between and inside those sessions. A 45-minute session is one agenda line and often ten run-of-show rows.
What columns should a run of show template have?
Clock time, duration, cue written as an action, talent, one owner per row, the exact AV or media asset it fires, the mic plan, and a fallback note. One cue per row — if two things happen at once, that's two rows.
When should the run of show be locked?
Lock it about 48 hours before doors and rehearse the transitions the day prior. After lock, changes go through one person (the stage or show caller) and get announced to every headset, not silently edited.
Who owns the run of show?
One show caller — usually the stage manager or producer — owns the document and calls the cues. Everyone executes from the same version; the fastest way to break a show is two versions of this file.
Can the run of show come from the same system as the agenda?
Yes, and it should — most show-day failures are the agenda and the show doc disagreeing. Sessionboard holds sessions, speakers, and timing on one record, so the attendee agenda and your production views draw from the same source.