At the convention center, the building brings its own crew.
Published on the Center’s own production-services and exhibitors pages, and worth reading before a rigging plot is drawn rather than after.
What the building’s own pages say
“Everlast Productions is the exclusive provider of motors, truss and rigging equipment,” and is “responsible for the review and approval of ALL rigging plans prior to the commencement of all shows.” Separately, “the Center has a collective bargaining agreement with IATSE Local Union 500. IATSE is the Center’s exclusive Technical Services personnel.” “All audio-visual load-in, set-up, event production, move-out, and load-out are to be employed by the Center Technical Services personnel. All contractors providing staging and production, or audio-visual production may provide supervision only.”
What that changes about running the show
A rigging plot for this building is a submission before it is a drawing, reviewed by a company that is not us and not the Center — no review deadline is published, so we get it in front of Everlast as early as the schedule allows rather than assuming a turnaround. And a general session in that hall is produced by our team on our program while the hall’s own AV load-in and production labor is Center Technical Services personnel — which is a coordination job for the producer and the show caller, not a staffing shortfall to work around.
What stays ours
The program, the running order, the rehearsal schedule and the show call are ours on every job in this building, the same as anywhere else. If your own AV comes in, the Center’s own page is plain that the Event Manager has to be notified and “additional charges for use of house sound will be incurred” the moment the room needs its own speakers for a page or a walk-in — a line that belongs in the first conversation with the Event Manager, not a surprise on the invoice.
The producing job changes with who controls the clock.
Four kinds of room in Broward, and what changes between them is rarely the gear. It is who releases the room, who reviews the plot, and when the rehearsal hours actually start.
The convention center
Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center
The Center’s own rule for the dock is short: “the loading dock is designated strictly for loading and unloading only,” and dock schedules are coordinated through the show’s exhibitor services contractor — a company that is neither us nor the Center. Oversize parking over 6 feet 8 inches is not available in the garage, which rules out a box truck or a production van. A producing schedule here starts with where the fleet and the crew actually stage, which is settled in pre-production with the exhibitor services contractor and not discovered at the dock door.
Beachfront resorts on A1A
The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale · W Fort Lauderdale · Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort · Lago Mar Beach Resort & Club · Atlantic Hotel & Spa
A gala or an awards night in one of these ballrooms starts its rehearsal clock when the hotel releases the room, not when the truck arrives — a resort running its own events business hands over the ballroom on its own schedule, and the push from the dock to the room through occupied guest space is real time on top of that. We build the rehearsal window off the release time we are given rather than the load-in time, and confirm which one we actually have before promising a client four hours of technical rehearsal.
Las Olas and the waterfront
Riverside Hotel on Las Olas · marina terraces and riverfront lawns
A ribbon cutting on the building being opened, or a company party on a terrace or a lawn, is outdoor work in a corridor that does not close for us. The running order carries a second version of itself from the day it is written — one name, one weather-decision time, and a plan for moving the program rather than improvising it once the first drop of rain has already made the decision for us.
Museums and historic Broward venues
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale · Museum of Discovery and Science · Bonnet House Museum & Gardens
No rigging, and house power that was never designed around a show. The producing decision that actually bites is the strike: a museum that opens to the public in the morning does not negotiate on that time, so the load-out is planned backward from it in pre-production rather than estimated on the night.
Four answers and we can build the running order.
Every event is produced to its own program, so none of this is a template. In Broward, these four decide the schedule before anything else does.
- The program, in draft
Segments, who is on, what is on screen, what has to land. A general session, a gala with thirty walk-ups and a ribbon cutting timed to a single scissor moment are three different rehearsal demands before either of us has said a word about the room.
- Which building, and who staffs the hall
At the convention center, hall AV load-in and production labor is Center Technical Services personnel and the rigging plot goes to Everlast for review; at a hotel, museum or an outdoor site it does not. Knowing which one you are booked into is what tells us whose clock the schedule has to work around.
- When you actually get the room
A dock slot from the exhibitor services contractor, a ballroom released by the hotel’s own events business, or a lawn with no handover at all are three different starting points for the same four hours of rehearsal. Peak season across South Florida runs November through April, and a Broward date in those months is worth holding 60 to 90 days out — partly for the room, mostly for the release time attached to it.
- Indoor, outdoor, or a plan for both
Outdoors means a rain call with one name and one decision time attached to it, agreed in pre-production rather than at the first drop of rain. We will build to whichever plan gets called, but it has to be called by somebody before the day.
The gear, the full scope, and what moves the number.
Equipping a room and running a show are two different orders, and the estimate behind either one turns on the same handful of variables.
Send the run of show. We will call it.
Call and you will get a producer — someone who can tell you on the phone whether your program fits the room, the rehearsal window and the building’s own rules. Or email the date, the venue and the agenda in draft, and a scope comes back with the rehearsal hours and the show-calling in it rather than added later. Quotes within 24 hours.
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