Live Events/Negotiating outside A/V into your contract
How to get outside A/V rights
into your venue contract.
Even if you never hire us — every planner should know this. Venue contracts almost always default you to in-house A/V. Here's how to negotiate that out before you sign.
The default that gets signed.
Standard hotel event contracts include a preferred-vendor clause. Sometimes it's outright exclusive: all A/V services shall be provided by the venue's preferred partner. More often it's a default with an opt-out: planner may bring an outside A/V vendor subject to additional fees and prior approval.
Most planners never read this clause carefully because it's on page 14 of the master agreement, and there's no obvious moment in the negotiation to raise it. By the time you're actually pricing A/V, the contract is signed and the terms are locked in for the length of the event.
The right time to negotiate this is before you sign. That's the honest advice, and it's true regardless of who you eventually hire. If you're already past the signing window, you still have options — you just have fewer of them.
- "Planner reserves the right to bring outside A/V production."
- "Venue will provide load-in access, dock scheduling, and electrical patch at [no fee / at cost]."
- "Any outside vendor shall be COI-compliant to venue standards."
- "House sound tie-in [not required / available at cost]."
- "Outside vendors shall coordinate directly with venue events team through [named contact]."
The cost of signing without asking.
If you sign a contract with a default-to-in-house clause and never negotiate it out, you're effectively locked into in-house pricing for the length of that contract. At the typical 1.5×–2.5× market premium, that adds up.
For a corporate customer running eight events a year at the same hotel chain, that's tens of thousands of dollars in avoidable annual spend. It's rarely spoken about because it's invisible — you never see the number you would have paid.
We'll walk your contract with you.
If you're negotiating a hotel or venue contract right now, we'll review the A/V clause with you before you sign. No charge, no commitment.
It doesn't have to lead to us doing the show. Sometimes we'll read the outside-vendor terms and tell you honestly that the fees the venue would charge us make the switch not worthwhile — and you should stay with in-house for this particular event.
Consider this the education version of our sales conversation. We'd rather you know what you're signing than have you find out the hard way and be angry at the industry. And in the long run, planners who understand how the system works end up being the best clients — because the working relationship starts with clear eyes.
- Reading the A/V, load-in, and vendor clauses in plain English
- What language to ask for and what to accept as a compromise
- Realistic COI limits and what venue events teams actually enforce
- Whether the outside-vendor fees make the switch worthwhile for your event
- Red flags in the contract that suggest the venue actively discourages outside vendors
More on hotel A/V
and the alternative.
Send us the venue,
the date, the agenda.
Bullet-point a brief and we'll come back same-day with a rough number and a list of clarifying questions. If we're wrong for the room we'll tell you that, too.