The Running Order Is a Plan: What a Host Does When It Slips

The running order is a plan. The host is what happens when the plan meets the room.

An event running order is the minute-by-minute plan for an event: what happens, when it happens, who does it and what cue starts it. It is also called a run of show or a show flow. Everyone working on the night follows the same version, from the venue and the kitchen to production, the stage manager and the host.

I have worked from running orders as an awards ceremony host, a conference host and a corporate MC, and I have written them as an event manager. This post covers what goes in one, a sample for an awards dinner, and what a host does when the night stops following it.

Running order, agenda and script

People use these words loosely, so it helps to be clear about the difference.

• Agenda. What the guests see. Session titles and rough times. It is a promise to the audience.
• Running order. What the team works from. Every item, every handover and every cue, to the minute. It is a plan for the people delivering the event.
• Script. What the host says. The links, the introductions, the sponsor thank-yous and the category reads. It hangs off the running order.

In broadcasting, the running order is the sequence of items in a programme. At a live event it is the same idea with every timing, name and cue added.

What goes in an event running order

A good running order fits on as few pages as possible and answers the same questions for every line.

• Time. The planned start of each item, as a single time rather than a range.
• Item. What happens, in plain words.
• Who. The person on stage and the person responsible off it.
• Cue. What starts it. A walk-up track, a video, a lighting change or a line from the host.
• Duration. How long it is allowed to take.
• Notes. Pronunciations, sponsor names and anything that must not be missed.

Version it. Put the date and time of the latest version at the top, and make sure the host, the stage manager and the kitchen are all working from the same one.

A sample running order for an awards dinner

Here is a simplified running order for an awards dinner of around 300 guests with twenty categories. Your timings will differ. The shape usually does not.

Notice where the awards sit. They go between courses, not during service, because the kitchen cannot clear plates while a winner is walking up and the room cannot listen while it is eating. The headline sponsor gets their moment while the room is settled, not at the end when the bar is busy.

A conference running order follows the same rules, with sessions in place of courses. A host welcome, keynotes, panels and breaks, each with a named owner, a cue and a hard finish time.

Who owns the running order on the night

The organiser owns the plan. Production owns the cues. The venue owns the kitchen. The host owns the room. On the night the stage manager usually calls the show, and the host is the person who makes any change look intentional.

Agree in advance who can move what. If the kitchen is running late, can the host bring a category block forward? Who decides to cut a speech? It is much easier to settle that at the briefing than at quarter past nine with a sponsor waiting in the wings.

No running order survives the night unchanged

Starters arrive late. The keynote overruns by eleven minutes. A sponsor's chief executive turns up and needs a moment that was never in the schedule.

None of that is a failure of planning. It is what live events are. The running order is the best guess of a room full of professionals weeks before the night. The night itself has other ideas, and it always will.

What a host does when it slips

Someone on the stage has to absorb it calmly. Cut the link that no longer fits. Move the raffle. Bring the awards forward by one category while the kitchen catches up, and do it so the audience feels the night getting better, not tighter.

When the plan slips, I protect three things, in this order.

• The finish time. The venue, the band and the taxis all depend on it.
• The moments that were promised. Winners, sponsors and any fundraising moment. They are why the event exists, so they do not get cut. My own links get cut first.
• The energy. It drops the second a room senses that the plan has gone. So the host never lets on that it has.

In practice that means short links, a quiet word with the stage manager before every block, and a couple of prepared options for each likely problem. If a presenter goes missing, who reads the category? If the video fails, what do I say while it is fixed? The good answers are agreed before the doors open.

How much buffer to build in

Less than you think in each slot, more than you think overall. Padding every item makes the night feel slow. It is better to keep each item tight and hold one or two flexible blocks that can absorb ten minutes either way. On an awards night, the dinner service is your buffer. On a conference day, it is the breaks.

Five running order mistakes

• Writing times as ranges, so nobody knows when anything actually starts.
• Several versions in circulation on the night.
• No pronunciations for winners, speakers and sponsors.
• Awards or speeches scheduled during food service.
• Sending the running order to the host the day before. The host should see it as soon as it exists, because the host's questions find the gaps.

If you are booking a host for an awards ceremony, ask them what they do when the plan slips. The good ones have a story ready. Most running order problems start further back, in the brief, which I wrote about in the sales-to-ops handover.

In one line

The running order is a plan. The host is what happens when the plan meets the room.

Questions people ask

I am Rhys Morris, an event host, MC and compere working UK-wide, and CEO & Founder of TRM Flex. If you have an awards night, a dinner or a conference with a running order that needs holding, send the date and the brief and I will reply within one working day.