Time is Your Ultimate Budget-Saver

Thanks for joining us for another episode of The Event Pro Show! Host Seth Macchi, CEO of Charlotte-based AV production company LEMG, gets to the heart of how to stretch your event budget by using one of your most powerful tools: time. Seth breaks down practical steps corporate event planners can take to secure essential AV elements early, helping you lock in top-tier technicians, the right gear, and more predictable costs. He discusses the importance of clearly outlining your must-haves from the start and building strong communication with your AV team from the beginning. These moves can prevent last-minute stress and expensive surprises. Whether you’re organizing a large-scale conference or an intimate breakout session, Seth offers a behind-the-scenes look at how smart planning up front leads to better outcomes and serious savings. Don’t miss his expert advice on how to balance vision and execution so your next event impresses without overspending.
The Event Pro Show is a production of LEMG.
LEMG is a leading event production company known for delivering exceptional experiences. From site planning and event design to technical production, staging, lighting, sound, and more—we do it all. As a second-generation company, we’re proud of our rich history and commitment to innovation. Whether it’s a corporate meeting, conference, convention, or live event, we’re the team our clients trust to execute their vision flawlessly.
https://lemg.live/
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Hey event planners, if time is your most valuable asset,
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then let's put that asset to work for you and get those event
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budgets under control. Welcome to the Event Pro show,
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your ultimate guide to the world of corporate events. Whether you're a corporate event
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planner, experiential marketing pro, producer, technician, or
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anyone involved in creating exceptional events, this podcast is your go to
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resource for valuable insights, expert tips and inspiring stories from the
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industry's leading professionals. Foreign
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thank you for joining us on the Event Pro show. I'm your host, Seth Mackey.
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I get to run a wonderful AV production company called
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lemg, based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. And I have some thoughts
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today on your event budget
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as it pertains to your AV provider. You
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know, time can be the ultimate budget saver
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and I want to walk through how that might work for you.
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A lot of times, you know, your event is happening a few
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months or more out. Not, not every time I get that things pop up. But
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a lot of times, you know, things months ahead and even a
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year or more ahead because it's, you know, it's an annual event, you know
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it's going to happen. So if that's the case,
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here's how to set yourself up for success and keep your AV
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budgets under control and in line with what your actual
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needs are. So the first thing I would
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recommend is start by outlining your bottom line
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needs. And what I mean by that is, you know,
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when people are talking about an event, especially a new event, everybody
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has creative ideas. You know, they, what if we have smoke in the room
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and lasers and we can have someone fly in
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from, from the ceiling or whatever. You know, people
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in the ideation phase of, of things. That's fun, that's fun to talk about
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what we could do. But a lot of times it paralyzes
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moving forward on the baseline requirements that you have. So let's,
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let's talk about that for a second. Focus only on what's essential.
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So there's things, you know, you know you're going to have, I don't know,
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500 people in a room on this certain date
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and you know that those 500 people are going to need
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to see everybody on a stage. So. Okay, so I need
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imac, there's some cameras that I'm going to need and, and you know that at
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one point during the day you're going to have a moderated
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panel and that will include five people total on stage. Okay, I
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know at least I need five microphones at the minimum at any
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given time and you start working through your baseline
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requirements and your, your main space. And then maybe if you have some breakout,
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I know each one's going to have 50 people and I know they need to
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hear and I know they need to see the PowerPoint
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presentation that's going to be in each one of those breakout rooms, so you can
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see how you start working out. And a lot of you already do this anyways,
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but you know that there's some base needs they're going
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to have to happen, some bottom line needs. So work on
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defining that, that this show absolutely cannot
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happen without the this. And once you define
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that, go ahead and reach out to your
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AV partners early, as early as you possibly can.
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And know that, you know, I, I have some creative
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ideas that we're, we're thinking through. You guys might have some creative
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ideas, but here's the bottom line stuff that I
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need. Give your partners enough time to review your needs
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and put together a thoughtful, accurate proposal. What
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happens there is, okay, once you've defined like this is
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the base of what needs to happen, then they can go ahead and
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define that and get you your numbers for that
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bottom line pretty quick. That way it
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will allow you to lock in the right partner based on your core
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requirements. So go ahead and get the baseline needs under
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contract early and make sure that you have flexibility
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to add enhancements later. And that will allow your
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team, your planning team and whoever your gatekeepers are,
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or if maybe you're reporting to a board or you're reporting to
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your vp, you know, they, they can decide the high creative
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stuff a little bit later. But you've secured your partner,
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your AV partner to the degree that now they can move forward with
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their part and start securing what they need. So
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I'll, I'll explain, I'll dive into that a little bit. I've seen
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planners delay the baseline requirement step
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while trying to finalize every last detail before engaging an A B team.
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But the earlier you secure a
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provider based on your essentials, the more
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flexibility you'll have to finesse the creative details
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later and often at a better price. So why does this
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matter? Well, the modern
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production company now in the past, a lot of
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production companies, AV companies, the way that they won projects
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is they had all the staff they needed and all the
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equipment ready to go in house full time.
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They owned it all. And they have a whole team
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talent, especially talent. A lot of technicians
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post Covid especially have moved to
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being freelancers. They can command quite a
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day rate and that model works better for them. So a lot
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of times the talent that you need for an event. They're actually
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independent contractors that are secured by your AV partner. Now they might
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have some core full time people, but they also have specialists
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that they'll bring in. And these specialists, if they're good,
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they're booked months out, if not a year out.
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So what happens is the longer that you wait,
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the supply for these highly qualified
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technicians is starting to go to your counterparts
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at other companies doing other events elsewhere.
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So the closer you get to your event date, the more limited resources to
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come. It can also be the case with equipment.
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A lot of production companies can support many more events than
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the internal gear that they own will allow. There
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are third party gear providers all over the country
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that provide exceptional gear at great prices. You still get a good price,
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but they're able to scale that way. And so the closer you get to
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your event date, same thing, those equipment resources
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become more scarce and so sometimes you're paying a
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premium on that or it's not available at all
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and you, you end up with a less than optimal
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solution. You're kind of left with what's left over, whether it's equipment
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or technicians. You might not get as talented
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technicians because they're all booked at that point.
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So if budget is a concern, and let's be honest, it usually
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is, this approach gives you the best chance to deliver top tier
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experience while staying on
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budget. So that's my argument that I laid out,
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saying that time is a great budget
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saver if you use it. If you
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use the time that you have as completely as possible. And
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there's great AV partners out there, the more lead
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time that you give them to work through what you need, the better
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pricing you can get, the better solution, the better resources are available
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and you can keep that AV budget in check. I hope this was
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helpful. Thank you for joining us on the Event Pro Show. Please join us
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weekly where we will either have an amazing guest in the
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corporate event space or you'll have more tips and
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tricks on av. And you can visit us at LEMG
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Live and you can check out our episodes that we've
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recorded already@the eventproshow.com thank you so much.
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Bye.
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The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG video
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by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by Prince
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Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG
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Live.