During this political campaign season, every event is on a shortened timetable and with high stakes. The key to not letting planning mistakes fall through is to stick to your planning experience and review EVERYTHING, even if it makes for a long workday. Assuming others (who are also on a short timeframe) did the proper checking leads to unfixable problems onsite. My last event had truss lines drawn about 5ft short because the label marker covered the rigging point, and would have been a nightmare for the load-in 12hrs later. Don't rubber stamp a plan, give it the proper time for review and revision.

Learn to say "I'm afraid there will be a rush charge for that." Event staffs can generally pull miracles out of the side pockets on their tool belts, but there is a significant cost.

Improvisation + adaptation + variation. Often we can accommodate requests, inclusions, changes and additions if we look at them as tweaks, not massive changes. We might exaggerate or over estimate how long something will take to prepare or design or deliver. Improvisation is a skill and being able to weave in new or additional information or activities, messaging or concepts is frequently possible. From my experience in broadcasting, this happened all the time. Last minute changes to live schedules and expanded hopes and expectations prior to going on air. Rethink the change as a big one & see how you might edit, switch, tweak or adapt to include the additional expectations. It’s some of the best creativity and innovation of all.

When facing last-minute client demands for a live event, prioritise the most impactful changes that can be realistically implemented within the time frame. Mobilise your team to work efficiently on urgent tasks, and communicate clearly with the client about what can be achieved. Setting clear expectations will help ensure a successful event despite limited prep time.