In April 2017, San Pedro was featured on a city in Miami esteemed Event Production panel. At the panel, he distributed an article he wrote, "12 Best Practices in Event Production," which was very well-received and later became published on LinkedIn.
MAKE LISTS – Production is a fast-paced environment where information flows quickly. The production industry operates on lists. Get in the habit of making lists. Running down a list is a quick way to process information with your team and checking things off can feel rewarding. Create a Master To-Do List. List every single task that needs to get done and then organize it in a chronological manner that makes sense and according to priority. Use these lists to help create a production schedule and a line budget, which are, essentially, detailed lists.
PRIORITIZE & DELEGATE – Executives and Managers: After you make a list of every single task that needs to get done for your project, identify what must be done by you. Determine what the most important items are and who needs to do them. Strategize how you will distribute the work and decide on who can do what.
ASK QUESTIONS & BE CLEAR & SPECIFIC – Ask questions, lots of questions! Questions are how producers collect information they need to avoid having to re-do things. When communicating information or making a request, communicate in a clear, thorough and specific manner. Make sure to convey all the information that person needs to know in order to fulfill the task.
KEEP EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE – Hold weekly or daily team meetings where each department provides their latest updates and any relevant changes. During pre-production, hold at least weekly team meetings. As it gets closer to event day(s) and during event day(s), hold daily touch-base meetings.
ANTICIPATE SOLUTIONS & BE PREPARED – Make a plan for your best case scenario and worst case scenario. Always make sure that back up plans are in place. For example, if it rains during an outdoor event, will you set up a tent or distribute ponchos? Are those vendors on call? Will you move the event to an indoor location or break up the different elements to multiple locations? When will you make this decision? If the event will go on in the rain, does the ticket read “Rain or Shine”?
DO DRY RUNS – If you haven’t done it before, then do a test run. If you don’t know the timing of your entire check-in process, do a dry run and time it. If you need furniture removed off the stage in between acts, have your crew practice the proper way to strike, the fastest route to use, and the location of where it will be held.
Contact me for Tips #7-12 - to be updated