A performance for a corporate event: brief, running time, fitting it into the programme

The brief comes before the form

Before choosing a dance, write down what the sequence has to produce: open proceedings, celebrate, reveal a product, bring a team together, mark a company anniversary. A performance that does not know what it serves becomes an interlude, and is felt as one.

A useful brief fits on one page: nature of the event, make-up of the audience, languages present, intended slot, time available, venue constraints, what is expected and what is ruled out. It saves more meetings than it costs to write.

Set out as well what is not negotiable on your side: brand image, audience sensitivities, the presence of senior management or official guests, planned video capture. A professional performer adapts their proposal to these elements, provided they know about them beforehand and not on the night.

Three settings, three calibrations

A product launch calls for a short, precise sequence, timed to the second against a reveal. Anything that stretches dilutes the moment. Here the performance is a staging device: where it lands matters more than how long it runs.

A gala or an annual party, by contrast, will carry a genuine programme: several pieces spread through the evening, building towards a finale. It is the format closest to a show, and the most comfortable for the performers.

A conference, finally, remains a working day. A slot there serves as a breath: brief, opening a session or following a long block of content, in a room that often has neither stage nor dressing room. Technical realism outweighs artistic ambition.

Fitting into the programme

Ask for the running order — the minute-by-minute schedule — and have the performance written into it with its time, its duration and its preparation slots. A sequence that does not appear in the running order does not exist for the stage manager.

Then deal with the three points that clash most often: the sound system, shared with the presentations; the lighting, set for a screen rather than for bodies; and access to the stage, usually cluttered with lecterns and cables.

Finally, plan a sound check and a run-through before the audience arrives. At a corporate event, that is the most contested slot of the day: it is booked in writing, and early.

What makes a corporate performance fail

A badly handled surprise comes first. A performance the stage manager discovers on the day ends up with no lighting, no sound of its own and no preparation time. The surprise is reserved for the audience, never for the technical team.

The second cause is going straight from the act into a speech. A room that has just applauded a number does not listen to the address that follows. Leave a transition between the two — an announcement, a lighting change, a move.

The rest comes down to simple decisions, taken in advance rather than in a rush.

• —House lights brought down during the performance, not left up as for a presentation.
• —A music file tested on the event’s sound system, not on a spare speaker.
• —A changing space that closes, within reasonable distance of the room.
• —A named person to call the performers, with an agreed amount of notice.