Two intensive days, structured around the actual work

We start by mapping the categories of vendor most likely to cause friction on event day: catering, rentals, transportation, and staffing agencies in particular. You'll build a shortlist criteria sheet covering responsiveness, past reliability, insurance status, and pricing structure, then apply it to a sample vendor pool during the session.

A trial event needs its own scope, its own pricing conversation, and its own scoring method to be worth running. We walk through how to propose a trial to a new vendor, what a fair trial arrangement looks like for both sides, and how to score the results against your shortlist criteria from the morning session.

This is the most document-heavy session of the two days. We review cancellation terms, force majeure language, overtime and extension rates, deposit structures, and subcontracting disclosure clauses. Each participant leaves with an annotated contract template they can adapt to their own vendor relationships.

Working in pairs, participants take turns representing a planner and a vendor across a series of negotiation scenarios, including a pricing disagreement and a scope-of-work dispute. The goal is practicing a negotiation style that resolves disagreements without damaging a relationship you'll need again for future events.

Using a sample event brief, participants build a full minute-by-minute schedule from vendor load-in through breakdown. We identify where buffer time needs to sit and why, and review how to communicate that timeline clearly to vendors, clients, and on-site staff so everyone is working from the same document.

Participants work through a series of live scenarios, a late delivery, a double-booked room, a vendor no-show, and practice both the operational recovery and the client conversation that follows. Facilitators give direct feedback on pacing, tone, and how much information to share with a client in the moment.

We introduce a debrief template built around three questions: what matched the plan, what didn't, and what changes before the next event. Participants practice filling it out against the simulated scenarios from the midday session, then discuss how to keep the debrief habit consistent across every event, not just the ones that went badly.

The final session is unstructured working time. Bring an upcoming event, a vendor list you're building, or a contract you're currently negotiating, and apply the tools from the two days directly to it with facilitators available for questions.