It’s 5:30pm. You’re at the venue. The cleaners are still wiping down chairs from the corporate breakfast that ran in your room this morning. Your AV team is unloading a van. The events manager has just told you the cloakroom team hasn’t arrived. The DJ hasn’t done a sound check. Your CEO is, according to the latest message, “running 10 minutes late.”
First guests arrive in 90 minutes.
This is where most EAs find out what running a corporate Christmas party actually feels like. The strategic work is done. The proposal meeting is over. The supplier coordination is mostly behind you. What’s left is the night itself. And you are the senior person from your organisation on the floor.
This article is the guide to that night. What a working run-of-show actually contains. The 48-hour and 24-hour briefings that take the heat out of the day. The five things that most commonly slip on the night, and what to do about each. The line between what you own and what you hand off. Written for the EA, PA or Office Manager who has built and run things internally before, but has never been the on-the-night lead for an event of this size.
Direct Answer
A working run-of-show is a structured document containing a minute-by-minute timing grid, supplier call sheets, contingency plans, a contact map and a clear definition of decision rights on the night. The single most important thing an EA needs ready is a quiet clarity on what is theirs to decide and what is not. The night runs better when the in-house lead is calm and visible than when they are everywhere doing everything.
Key Takeaways - At a Glance
- The run-of-show is the document that turns your project into delivery. Build it two weeks out, finalise it 48 hours before.
- The 48-hour and 24-hour pre-night briefings are not optional. They are where most operational risks are flushed.
- Five things slip most often: welcome drinks, sound, dietary mishaps, plus-one logistics, and the CEO speech timing.
- Your job on the night is to hold the room calmly, not to do every job.
- The wrap is the last 30 minutes and the morning after. Both matter.
What’s actually in a run-of-show?
A working run-of-show is a single document, usually a Google Doc or PDF, that contains:
The minute-by-minute timing grid. Starting from venue access (typically 5pm to 5:30pm) and running to venue handback (typically midnight to 1am). Each line is a single event with a clear owner: who arrives, who briefs, who tests, who decides.
The supplier call sheet. Each external supplier with named contact, arrival time, brief on the night, and a single line on what they own. AV, lighting, DJ or band, photographer, florist and talent if applicable. If you are working with an agency partner, much of this becomes easier when ownership is established upfront during the briefing process. See our guide on how to brief a Christmas party agency.
The contact map. A single page with mobile numbers, hierarchy and who calls who. Including the venue’s events manager, your AV lead, the photographer, your in-house comms person if relevant, the agency partner if one is involved, and any senior internal stakeholders who may need to be reached.
The contingency plan. Three or four short scenarios with the decision and the owner. “If the CEO is delayed past 8pm, who decides whether to move the speech.” “If the DJ fails to arrive, who calls whom.” “If a guest needs medical attention, who manages the venue and who manages the colleague.”
Decision rights. A short table that says which decisions are yours on the night, which are the venue’s, which are the AV lead’s, which are the agency partner’s if one is in the room.
This document is the project’s transition from planning to delivery. It is finalised in the last week and confirmed in the 48-hour briefing.
The 48-hour and 24-hour briefings (do not skip these)
The two phone or video calls that flush most operational risks.
The 48-hour briefing. A 30-minute call with the venue events manager and your AV lead. Walk through the run-of-show line by line. Confirm timings. Confirm room set. Confirm catering courses and timings. Confirm the bar team is at the right level. Confirm the cloakroom plan. Confirm AV access timings. Confirm any specific stakeholder requirements (a senior leader’s accessibility need, a guest’s dietary requirement, a brand-facing photography brief).
The 24-hour briefing. A 15-minute call with the same people the day before. The purpose is to flag anything that has changed (a guest count adjustment, a supplier delay, a weather issue if outdoor elements are involved). Most of the time, the call confirms that nothing has changed, which is itself a useful confirmation.
These two calls separate competent in-house leads from panicked ones. The strongest EAs run them as a calm, brief checklist. They are not asking for reassurance; they are confirming alignment.
Arrival, welcome drinks, the first hour
The first hour is where the night is set up to succeed or struggle. Your job on the floor in this hour is hospitality presence, not operational running. You are visible, you greet senior arrivals, you walk the room.
Three things to test in this hour:
Welcome drinks landing on guests within 90 seconds of arrival. If guests are waiting more than two minutes for a glass to be in their hand, the bar is under-resourced. Flag this to the venue events manager immediately.
Cloakroom flow. A cloakroom queue spilling into the welcome space is the most visible failure of the first hour. If it is happening, ask the venue to open a second handover point.
Music level and lighting. Music too loud kills the welcome conversation. Lighting too bright makes the room feel like an office. Both are easy to adjust in the first 10 minutes. After that, the moment is gone.
The CEO usually arrives somewhere in the first hour. Brief the photographer in advance if there is brand-facing photography. Have a short, clear handover for the CEO’s arrival: who greets, where they put their coat, where they are walked to. The senior arrival moment is small but visible.
Dinner, speeches and the moments in between
If the event is seated, dinner is the longest single phase of the night. 90 to 120 minutes, three courses, paced.
The transitions matter more than the food.
The seating transition. Guests move from welcome drinks to the table. The venue events manager and any agency partner own this. You move with the senior leadership, ensuring they are at the right table and the CEO is positioned for the speech moment.
The course-to-course transitions. Slow transitions kill energy. Fast transitions feel rushed. The right rhythm is roughly 25 to 30 minutes for starter, 35 to 45 minutes for main, 20 to 25 minutes for dessert. The venue catering team controls this. If you sense it is dragging, ask the events manager directly.
The CEO speech moment. Usually between main and dessert. Brief the CEO on timing in advance. Brief the AV team on the cue. Make sure the speech runs at the agreed timing, not 10 minutes later. If the CEO is running late, the decision is yours: move the speech to after dessert, or compress dessert and hold the original slot.
“On the night, your job isn’t to do every job. It’s to be the person who can read the room two minutes ahead of anyone else.” Kat Mitchell, Head of Event Management, MGN Events
Entertainment, peak moments and dance floor energy
The hardest phase to get right and the easiest to misjudge.
The transition from dinner to dancing typically slumps if it is not planned. Guests leave the table, the room reset begins, the DJ comes on, and the energy drops for 15 to 25 minutes before recovering.
The strong version of this transition is to:
- Pre-cue the DJ to start during the last 10 minutes of dessert, at low volume.
- Reset the room while guests are still at the table (move chairs, open the dance floor, signal that the next phase is starting).
- Make a clear pivot moment. The CEO or a senior leader on the mic for 90 seconds to launch the evening’s second phase. Or a clear musical cue.
- Open the dance floor with a high-energy first track. The first three songs set the rhythm.
The DJ or band sets the energy for the next two to three hours. If you sense the energy is wrong (too dance-forward when the room wants conversation, or too easy-listening when the room wants party), brief the DJ in person, not via your AV lead. Sometimes the conversation needs to be direct.
The five things that slip most often
The five things that most commonly slip at a corporate Christmas party of 200 to 600 guests, and the working response to each.
- Welcome drinks delay. Guests waiting more than two minutes for a drink. Cause: bar team under-resourced. Response: flag to the venue events manager within five minutes of the first sign. Most venues have flex team members available with 15 minutes’ notice.
- Sound issues. The mic cuts out during the speech, a speaker stops working, the DJ’s set is too loud at the back. Response: the AV lead owns this. Your job is to be visible to the AV lead, not to fix the wire yourself.
- Dietary mishaps. A guest is served the wrong meal. Cause: the venue’s dietary tracking has slipped between the brief and the night. Response: catering team handles the immediate fix; you have a quick conversation with the affected guest in a low-key way. The mishap matters less than how it is handled.
- Plus-one chaos. A plus-one arrives unbadged, or a plus-one is on the list with the wrong name, or a colleague has brought an unannounced plus-one. Response: have a small contingency of spare badges and an empathetic line. “We’ve got you sorted, do come in.” Plus-one chaos at the door damages the night for the colleague.
- CEO speech moving. The CEO is running late, or wants to move the speech, or improvises. Response: this is yours. Make the call calmly. Brief the AV lead and the venue events manager on the new timing. Most CEO speech moves are five to fifteen minutes; the night absorbs them if the floor stays calm.
Other things that go wrong less often but are worth being ready for: the photographer missing a key moment (brief in advance, with a shot list), a guest medical issue (venues have first-aid trained team members; senior leadership should be informed quietly), a fire alarm (venue events manager owns the evacuation; you own internal communication afterwards).
The wrap, taxis and venue handback
The wrap is short but matters.
The last 30 minutes are usually about energy management. The DJ knows the close-out playbook for most corporate events: a few high-energy tracks, then a wind-down sequence, then a clear closing track. If you have not briefed the DJ on a closing track, the night ends ambiguously.
Taxi flow. Most central-London venues have an established taxi or ride-share pattern. Confirm with the events manager that the cloakroom has cover for the exit rush. If you have organised pre-booked taxis or coaches, confirm the pickup point is clear and has someone visible at it.
Venue handback. The events manager will want a quick handback conversation. Settle any visible damages or breakages on the spot. Confirm the AV team’s load-out timing. Thank the venue lead by name. This conversation matters more than EAs realise; it is the foundation of the relationship for next year if you want to use the venue again. Strong venue relationships often become valuable when researching corporate Christmas party venues London teams will actually want to return to.
The morning after. A short message to the CEO and the senior leadership team confirming the night went well. A note to suppliers thanking them. A reminder to yourself to write the post-event note within five working days; this is covered in our practical guide to running a Christmas party.
What you own on the night, and what you don’t
The honest version: you should own three things on the night and hand off everything else.
Your three:
- Communication with the CEO and senior leadership team during the event.
- The decisions that affect internal stakeholders (when to move the speech, how to handle a plus-one issue, how to respond to a senior leader’s request in the moment).
- The relationship handover with the venue at the end.
Things you should hand off:
- AV problems (the AV lead owns).
- Catering issues (the venue events manager owns).
- Talent management (the DJ or band’s tour manager owns; if no tour manager, the AV lead).
- Floor running (your agency partner if you have one; the venue events manager if you do not).
If you are doing all of it yourself, you are doing the project wrong. The whole point of building the run-of-show and the contact map is to make the ownership clear. The on-the-night EA who is hardest to find on the floor is usually the one whose project is going best.
Get a Real Christmas Party Running Order Template
If you would like a worked example of MGN’s run-of-show template for a 300-guest Christmas party, the team is happy to send one. It is genuinely useful whether or not you ever work with MGN on a project.
Phone 01932 22 33 33 or email hello@mgnevents.co.uk.
The wider corporate Christmas party service and the underlying event production and delegate management capabilities sit behind every run-of-show MGN builds.
The night that runs well is the one where the in-house lead is calm, visible and a step ahead. Not the one where they are everywhere at once.
Christmas party running order FAQs
Who should write the run-of-show: the venue, the agency, or the in-house lead?
The agency if one is involved. The in-house lead if not.
Venues build their own internal timing documents but those are not the same as a project run-of-show; the project document covers external suppliers and internal stakeholders too.
If you are running the event without an agency, ask the venue for their internal timing as input and build your run-of-show around it.
What’s the most common moment to slip on the night?
The transition from dinner to dancing, followed by the welcome drinks landing time in the first 20 minutes. Both are recoverable if caught early. Both compound if not.
Should the EA be on the floor for the whole event?
Yes, with a quiet 10-minute break in the middle of the evening if possible. The in-house lead being visibly present is part of the senior signal to colleagues. The lead being everywhere at once is not.
The right pattern is visible at the welcome, visible at the speech moment, visible at the dance floor opening, visible at the close.
What happens if the CEO is late for the speech?
The decision is yours. The two working options are to move the speech to after dessert (most common, low risk) or compress dessert and hold the original slot (rarer, only if the CEO is no more than 10 minutes out). Brief the AV lead and the venue events manager as soon as the call is made. The room will absorb a delayed speech if the floor stays calm.
How long should the wrap-up phase be?
The last 30 minutes of the event, plus 20 to 30 minutes of venue handback after guests leave. The morning after is a separate phase of about 60 to 90 minutes of work: messaging the CEO, thanking suppliers and setting up the post-event note.
Written by MGN Events, a UK creative events agency specialising in corporate events and brand experiences. The team runs on-the-night production for corporate Christmas parties across central London and the wider UK, and is regularly the named on-the-night lead for events whose in-house owners have a day job to return to on Monday.
Kat Mitchell,
Head of Event Management
Kat’s the person you call when you need clarity, a plan, or just someone to tell you it’s all going to be fine (and actually mean it) which comes from her 15+ years in the events industry. Known for her thoughtful leadership, avocado enthusiasm, and tendency to invent the occasional word, she strikes the perfect balance between creative flair and operational precision.
