Load-in / load-out window

Load-in is setting the event up, load-out is breaking it down, and the window is the limited stretch of time the venue actually gives you for each. A venue can call the space “yours for the whole day” while the loading door is staffed only in the morning, the previous booking is still striking at nine, and the next one starts pushing in at seven. So the number you need is exact times, in writing, for both ends of the day.

Three questions travel with it. Where does gear get received, meaning how early sponsors can ship or drop off booth materials, who signs for them, and what that costs. Whether there is secure overnight storage, which both you and your sponsors will need. And what the load-out deadline is, because a venue that wants the room empty by midnight will charge you for every hour you run over. Everything in the window belongs on the production schedule, the crew-facing timeline that runs from load-in to load-out and is a different document from the attendee-facing agenda.

Source: Standard production and venue practice. The DevOpsDays organizing guide instructs organizers to “find out exact times you’ll have access to your space, and find out whether you’ll have secure overnight storage,” and to ask how soon sponsors can ship items and what fees apply. The Venue Crew event and catering glossary describes suppliers planning around “the limited window in which they can load in or out.”

First used in: 1.6 · The venue: selection to BEO.