Overview
You’ll have a confirmed venue and hotel plan, a dinner that runs without long lines, and a program that starts and ends when you said it would, with one person on-site calling the show.
We’ll lock in a venue that can actually take your group, reconcile the budget to the contract language, and put the meal and run-of-show on paper early so you are not arguing about gaps a week out. Next, we’ll confirm your date, headcount range, and the two or three decisions leadership needs to make.
We start with what can break first: venue availability, hotel terms, and the dinner BEO. We build a Charleston short list you can say yes to, document site-visit notes, then redline the BEO and AV specs until the service flow, cueing, and timing work in real minutes and real dollars.
Who you are working with
We plan leadership offsites for operations teams who need a date to hold, a budget to survive approvals, and a room full of strong opinions to land on one plan. We got into this corner of events by living in BEOs, contracts, and run-of-shows, where small wording gaps become big on-site problems if nobody catches them early.
We get picked when the risk is not décor, it is embarrassment. We write decisions down, we reconcile per-head numbers to service charges and fees, and we push vendors to confirm what they are actually providing. If a dinner needs two bartenders instead of one, or a curfew changes the timeline, we surface it while it is still fixable on paper.
The team
You’ll work with the three of us throughout, and you’ll know who owns each decision and each deadline.
Team
Caroline Westbrook, Event producer. Caroline is our event producer. She runs the master timeline, tracks approvals, and keeps the day moving on-site so speakers and meals stay on time.
Graham Rutledge, Venue and hotel lead. Graham leads venue and hotel. He builds the short list, negotiates holds, and reviews the hotel contract and room block terms line by line.
Elena Marceau, Program and speaker lead. Elena leads program and speakers. She builds the run-of-show and cue sheet, confirms speaker needs, and coordinates with AV so every mic and slide is ready when called.
Recent work
Here are three recent leadership offsites where the job was to hold the date, keep the numbers honest, and make the program feel smooth in the room.
Portfolio
Two-day leadership offsite. Venue sourced and held in 72 hours, then budget reconciled per head as headcount shifted. Dinner BEO was rebuilt around service timing so the program started on schedule.
Client dinner + plenary. Contract review caught a food-and-beverage minimum mismatch before signature. We reworked the bar package and staffing so arrivals cleared quickly and toasts landed cleanly.
Quarterly exec offsite. AV and staging spec written to match the room and agenda, then a show call sheet built for load-in, sound check, doors, and start. Vendors ran to one coordinated schedule.
“The dinner ran on time, and the AV worked exactly as promised.”
Operations manager, planning a quarterly offsite
What the day includes
* What was going wrong. The venue looked perfect on the tour, but the first BEO draft left out key pieces: reception flow, staffing counts, and the timing needed to get leadership from dinner to remarks without a stall. * What we changed. We redlined the BEO, rebuilt the service timeline, and tied staffing to guest count and menu choices. In parallel we wrote the AV spec and show call sheet so doors, cues, and toasts had owners. * What it changed on the day. Guests cleared check-in in 9 minutes instead of a 25-minute line from the venue’s first plan. Dinner service finished 18 minutes earlier than the draft timeline, and leadership remarks started at the scheduled time.
What it costs
Pick the level that matches how many moving parts you have. These are planning fees; venue, food and beverage, A/V, and vendor costs are paid directly by you.
Priced items
Next steps
This is what you’ll have in place on-site, with us coordinating the moving parts against the run-of-show.
1. On-site show caller and producer coverage 2. Run-of-show in print, with speaker cues 3. Vendor load-in and load-out coordination on-site
6 TO 8 WEEKS OUT
We confirm your decision-makers, date, headcount range, and budget guardrails, then build the Charleston venue short list with availability checks and site-visit notes. You pick a top choice and a backup, and we place holds while contracts are reviewed.
4 TO 6 WEEKS OUT
We build the budget grid and reconcile per-head numbers to service charges, taxes, and fees so approvals match the contract. We draft the dinner BEO and start the redline cycle until staffing, timing, and inclusions are spelled out.
2 TO 4 WEEKS OUT
We lock the run-of-show, speaker order, and cue sheet, then align it with the AV and staging spec. Vendors receive one load-in and load-out plan, with call times and access notes so trucks and crews do not collide.
FINAL 7 TO 10 DAYS
You set the final numbers deadline and we work to it. Once you confirm attendance and dietary notes, we issue the final BEO, the final show call sheet, and the staffing schedule for the day, then run a pre-event check-in with every vendor lead.
Signature
Fee summary
Retainer
To hold the date and start leadership offsite planning, we take a 40% retainer when you sign. We schedule site visits, draft the venue short list, and open vendor conversations after it’s received.
Balance and invoices. The remaining 60% is due before the event, based on your final numbers, by a date we set. We invoice as we go. Each invoice is payable within 14 days of its date.
Final numbers. You set the final numbers deadline. We’ll build the BEO, staffing, and show call sheet around that date, and we’ll ask for attendance, dietary notes, and any VIP changes in one consolidated list.
Changes after signing. If headcount range, venue direction, or program scope changes after you sign, we’ll update the plan and confirm any added planning time in writing before we do it, so approvals keep up with the work.
Venue and vendor contracts
We’ll source options, place holds, and redline terms, but you sign and pay the venue and vendor agreements directly. We’ll flag deadlines, deposits, curfews, and noise rules in writing so nothing hides in the fine print.
On-site decision path. On event day, we’ll run the show from the run-of-show and call sheet. You’ll name one on-site approver for budget and timing decisions, so we can solve issues in minutes instead of waiting on a text chain.
Rescheduling and cancellation. If you need to move or cancel, tell us as soon as you can. The amount we keep depends on how close we are to the date, because planning time is front-loaded and holds and vendor work start early. We’ll confirm the schedule in writing.
