An Event AV & Production RFP Template You Can Copy
Seven RFP sections with the scoping fields production companies actually price from - ready to paste into your own document. No download, no form.
A complete RFP template for event AV and production: seven sections - event overview, venue and access, scope by discipline, crew, pricing format, compliance, and evaluation - each with a copy-paste field list. Itemized scoping gets better bids: state the date, room, screen sizes, power, and load-in window, and vendors price your event instead of their own uncertainty. Responses come back comparable line by line.
How to use this template
The fields below are what production companies ask for before they will price anything, reorganized into a document your procurement team can issue.
Copy the sections, keep the order
Everything on this page is the template. Paste the seven sections into your own document, delete the disciplines you will not use, and fill in what you know. Estimators read an RFP in this order - show first, room second, money after - so keep the sequence. Where a value is unknown, say so and ask bidders to recommend; the quality of that recommendation is a vetting signal.
Issue it to three to five companies
Our 25 vetting questions guide recommends detailed proposals from three to five firms - enough to compare staffing and equipment approaches without drowning your committee. Then score the responses against the 8-point vetting framework, so the selection is defensible to whoever signs it.
Section 1 - Event overview and dates
A bid priced against a real date and schedule beats one priced against a guess. Give bidders the frame before the gear list.
Fields to include
- Organization, point of contact, and that person's role in the decision
- Event name and format - conference, gala, town hall, awards program, product launch
- Event date or dates, and whether they are fixed or flexible
- Daily schedule: session start and end, rehearsal windows, speaker walk-throughs
- Expected attendance in the room, plus remote attendance if any
- One paragraph on what the event must accomplish - a shareholder meeting and a gala get designed differently
- Your decision timeline: question deadline, proposal deadline, award date
Section 2 - Venue and access
Half the surprises on production invoices are venue rules nobody sent the vendor. This section prevents most of them.
Fields to include
- Venue, room or rooms, and city - or your shortlist if the venue is not yet contracted
- Indoor or outdoor
- Room dimensions and ceiling height, if you have them
- Power available in the room, and any limits the venue has flagged
- Load-in and load-out windows, dock access, freight elevators, truck parking
- Whether the building requires union or house labor, if known
- Any in-house AV provider, and which services the venue keeps exclusive
Attachments to request from the venue
Before the RFP goes out, ask the venue for its written vendor rules and attach them: the exclusive-services list, contractor insurance requirements, rigging regulations, dock procedures. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center's rulebook runs from right-of-entry permits to rigging-plot deadlines - our WEWCC guide walks through it. A bidder holding the venue's actual paperwork prices the venue's actual line items.
Section 3 - Scope by discipline
List only the disciplines in play. These are the fields our estimators confirm before a quote goes out, so a bid built from them arrives complete.
Audio
- Audience size and room type
- Speaker and panelist count, with a mic preference per role - handheld, lavalier, headset, podium
- Program audio beyond voice: playback, walk-in music, video sound
- Recording requirements, if any
- Assisted-listening or interpretation needs
Video, LED, and projection
- What the audience must see: speaker-support slides, camera IMAG, films
- Screen or LED wall sizes if your spec sets them - or room dimensions and viewing distance, and let bidders recommend
- Ground-supported or flown
- Content source, aspect ratio, and who runs playback on show day - your operator or theirs
- Confidence monitors for presenters
Lighting, staging, and scenic
- Stage or riser dimensions, podiums, and any scenic or backdrop elements
- Stage wash or designed looks - and whether the event will be filmed, which changes the lighting spec
- Pipe and drape runs
- Room uplighting or architectural washes
Streaming and hybrid
- Platform and expected remote audience
- Single-camera webcast or multi-camera program
- Remote presenters joining live, if any
- Recording deliverables after the event
- Venue internet capacity, and whether you require bonded backup connectivity
Section 4 - Crew and show management
The staffing plan is where underbids hide. Understaffing shows up on event day, not in the proposal - make the proposal show it.
Fields to include
- A staffing plan naming every role - audio, video and LED, lighting, stage management, show caller or technical director, graphics and playback, breakout-room techs - with day counts
- A named project manager from proposal through post-event wrap, and whether that person is on site during the show
- Confirmation that crew stays through load-in, rehearsals, the show, and load-out
- Whether crew are employees or freelancers, and how freelancers are vetted
- The show caller's or technical director's experience on comparable events - and whether you can meet them before signing
- The show-day communications plan: comms channels, chain of command, how run-of-show changes reach the crew
Section 5 - Budget and pricing format
This section decides whether responses can be compared at all. Require the format; do not hope for it.
What to require
- Itemized pricing: each equipment line with quantity and day count, labor by role, delivery and logistics as their own lines
- Each bidder's terms in writing: how many hours a half day and a full day cover, and the overtime rate beyond them
- Venue-driven costs - rigging, power distribution, dedicated internet, union or house labor - broken out, even as estimates
- What triggers additional charges: added setup days, schedule changes, travel beyond the metro area
- Deposit, payment schedule, and how long the quote stays valid
- Cancellation and postponement terms at 90, 60, and 30 days, and inside two weeks
Name your number if you can
If you hold a firm budget, state it. A capable production company answers a number with value engineering - a leaner crew where safe, a smaller wall, fewer rental days - rather than a discount. Ask each bidder to show equipment, labor, and delivery each on its own line.
Section 6 - Compliance and insurance
Boilerplate until the week it is the only thing anyone cares about. Ask up front, in writing.
Fields to include
- A certificate of insurance with the proposal - general liability, workers' compensation, equipment coverage - plus confirmation your organization and the venue can be named additional insureds
- Compliance with the venue's published vendor rules - permits, insurance minimums, rigging deadlines, some due weeks before move-in; our venue guides collect the current rulebooks
- How the bidder handles union jurisdictions at your venue, and whether those labor lines appear in the bid
- OSHA rigging and electrical standards; ADA familiarity for assisted listening and captioning
- Who owns custom content - video, motion graphics, scenic design - created for your event
Section 7 - Evaluation criteria and timeline
Tell bidders how you will score them. It sharpens responses and protects the decision when someone questions it later.
Criteria worth weighting
- Venue-specific experience - events produced in your building or ones with the same rules
- Scope coverage under one accountable team versus subcontracted disciplines
- Equipment ownership and the redundancy plan - on-site backups, spare wireless frequencies, battery-backed power
- The staffing plan and the named crew's experience
- Pricing transparency - did the itemized format come back itemized
- References from comparable events inside the last year, actually called
Two questions for every finalist
First: what happens if a critical piece of equipment fails mid-show? The right answer names on-site backups, redundant signal paths, and a person watching the systems. Second: walk me through an event where something went wrong - specifics signal operational maturity. Close with your process dates - questions due, proposals due, interviews, award - and leave room for a site walk: a bidder who will not visit the room before pricing it is telling you something.
Red flags in vendor responses
The vetting guides this template draws on flag the same patterns again and again. Here they are, in checklist form.
Read the responses for these
- A lump-sum total with no line items - you cannot negotiate what you cannot see
- No mention of power, rigging, or venue labor anywhere in the bid
- Vague miscellaneous or handling fees
- No named crew and no staffing plan
- No backup equipment or redundancy protocol
- Reluctance to provide references or a certificate of insurance
- No site visit or technical advance offered
- Pricing far below the rest of the field, or pressure to sign quickly
Send the RFP - finished or not
We welcome RFPs built on this template. Half-scoped is fine - we ask for precisely what is missing, in one email.
Questions planners ask us
What should an event AV and production RFP include?
Seven sections: event overview and dates, venue and access, scope by discipline, crew and show management, pricing format, compliance, and evaluation criteria with your decision timeline. The scoping fields matter more than the prose - date, room, attendance, screen sizes, power, load-in windows, playback. Vendors price from those fields; the rest exists to make the bids comparable.
How far in advance should we issue an event production RFP?
Four to six months ahead for large conferences and galas, leaving room for site visits and technical planning before equipment calendars fill. Three to four months is a working minimum. Peak seasons - fall and spring in the DC area - and high-demand venues argue for the earlier end.
Why require itemized pricing instead of a package price?
Because unexpected charges are the most common source of vendor disputes, and a lump sum hides where they start. Itemized bids compare line by line, expose missing scope - no rigging line at a venue with an exclusive rigger is a warning, not a savings - and let you negotiate items instead of haggling a total. A vendor confident in its pricing has no reason to resist the format.
Can one RFP cover both the in-person event and the livestream?
Yes, and it should. Hybrid programs fail at the seam between the room and the broadcast, so one team running cameras, audio, switching, and streaming produces one coherent show for both audiences. Write streaming as a discipline inside the same RFP and ask bidders to staff both sides in one plan.
Let’s talk about your event
Tell us the date and the room - we’ll bring the plan.