What's the difference between a run of show and an agenda?

An agenda lists what happens. A run of show adds when, how long, who runs it, and what cue triggers the next thing — it's built to be executed live, not just read.

What's the difference between a run of show and a production schedule?

A production schedule covers the whole build: load-in, rigging, rehearsals, sound checks, and load-out, often spread across several days. A run of show is the minute-by-minute program itself, the part the audience sees, from doors to hard out. Larger events run both documents, and the production schedule effectively hands off to the run of show at the moment doors open.

What software should I build a run of show in?

A spreadsheet works until the show goes live and times start slipping. At that point you're manually re-typing every start time by hand, live, under pressure. What you want instead is start times computed from durations, so the column recalculates rather than gets retyped. Runsheet does that from a live overrun. If you're comparing other tools, check that specifically: recalculating when someone edits a duration by hand is a different thing from recalculating because a segment is running long right now.

How detailed should each row be?

The working standard, as Expo Pass puts it at expopass.com, is detailed enough that a competent substitute could execute the row if the owner got stuck in traffic. “Keynote” on its own is not enough. “Emcee introduces keynote speaker from stage right, hands over wireless handheld mic, exits stage left” is closer. The test is whether someone who wasn't in the planning meetings could read the row and do the thing.

How much buffer should I build into a run of show?

Enough that a 2-3 minute slip on one item doesn't cascade. Common practice is a short buffer block every 3-5 segments, plus a fixed hard-out time the whole show works backward from.

How far in advance should I build it?

Draft it about three to four weeks out, once speakers and the shape of the program are confirmed. Expo Pass gives the same window. Then treat the final 48 hours as locked: that time is for rehearsal and small tweaks, not structural changes, because every change after the lock has to be re-communicated to everyone already working from the previous version.

Do I need a separate document for AV/tech cues?

Not for the cues that drive the timing. Any cue the show is called on belongs in the notes column next to the item it triggers on, because a trigger sitting in a separate doc from the timing gets checked late or missed. A department's own cue sheet is a different thing and can stay separate: it holds the internal detail one operator works from, and the run of show references it rather than reproducing it.

Should every row have an owner?

Yes. A run of show without a dept/owner column turns into a document nobody feels responsible for executing on time.

Who owns the run of show on event day?

One person, and only one. Expo Pass frames it as a single owner authorized to change the timeline live, usually the show caller or producer, with everyone else raising changes to them instead of editing the document themselves. That is the model Runsheet enforces directly: one live editor, plus read-only synced screens for control, crew, and stage that update the moment a time changes.

What happens to the rest of the schedule if one segment runs long?

In a static document, nothing happens automatically, someone has to manually retype every start time after the overrun, live, while also doing everything else their role requires. When start times are computed from durations instead, the column can recalculate itself. In Runsheet, a segment running long moves every start time under it while the show is live, and everyone watching a synced screen sees the update immediately.

Run of Show Template: The Columns That Actually Matter

What a run of show actually is

A run of show (also called a rundown or show flow) is the minute-by-minute schedule a live event runs on: every segment, its planned start time, how long it should take, who's responsible for it, and what cues or notes matter when it's happening. It's the document a show caller, stage manager, or AV lead has open the entire time the event is live.

A cue sheet is not another name for it. That's usually a separate technical companion document holding one department's cue detail (lighting, video, audio) and the trigger each cue fires on. It pairs with the run of show rather than replacing it, and the run of show should reference those cues without trying to be the cue sheet. What is a run of show has the full comparison table, cue sheet included.

The difference between a run of show and a plain agenda is that a run of show is built to be executed, not just read. An agenda tells an attendee what's happening. A run of show tells the crew when to be ready, what triggers the next cue, and how much room there is before the schedule is in trouble.

The columns that matter

Most working rundowns converge on the same core columns, in roughly this order:

Start time — when the segment is scheduled to begin. On paper this looks fixed, but in practice it should be a computed value: if an earlier item runs long, every start time after it needs to shift. A static, hand-typed start time is the single most common point of failure once a show is actually running.
Duration — how long the segment is planned to take. This is the number that actually gets edited during prep; start times should derive from it, not the other way around.
Item / segment— what's happening: “Welcome + opening remarks,” “Keynote,” “Panel: Q&A,” “Band changeover.”
Dept / owner— who's responsible for this segment: AV, stage management, a specific speaker, catering. Rows without an owner are the ones that get missed.
Notes / cues— what the crew needs to know while it's happening: mic count, lighting cue, video playback trigger, “hard out, do not let this run over.”
Color / status — a fast visual read for the room: this segment is talent-facing, this one is a hard deadline, this one is flexible.

Two optional columns are worth considering once a show gets bigger. Expo Pass writes that “the two columns people most often skip, and regret, are dependencies and status”: dependencies record what a row is waiting on, status records whether it's ready to go. The same guide puts a cover sheet in front of the timeline for larger shows, carrying the event name, date, venue, doors time, and the key contacts with phone numbers, so nobody is hunting for the AV lead's number mid-show.

Example: a half-day conference run of show

(Want a version you can copy straight into a spreadsheet? The free run of show template ships populated, not blank — a full example event, paste-ready for Google Sheets or Excel.)

Start	Dur	Item	Dept	Notes
9:00 AM	0:30	Doors / registration	Front of house	House lights up, walk-in music
9:30 AM	0:05	Welcome + housekeeping	Host	Handheld mic, house lights to 50%
9:35 AM	0:25	Opening keynote	AV	Lav + confidence monitor, hard out
10:00 AM	0:10	Changeover	Stage	Reset to panel chairs, mic check x4
10:10 AM	0:40	Panel: industry outlook	AV	4 lavs, moderator has timer card
10:50 AM	0:20	Coffee break	Front of house	Buffer block, absorb overrun here
11:10 AM	0:35	Product demo	AV	Laptop feed to main + confidence screens
11:45 AM	0:10	Closing remarks	Host	Thank sponsors, exit music cue
11:55 AM	0:05	Hard out	All	Room must be clear by noon (next booking)

Notice the buffer block at 10:50 — it's not filler, it's the slack the rest of the day borrows from when something upstream runs long. And the last row isn't a segment at all; it's the constraint everything else is built backward from.

Adapting the template by event type

The column set above doesn't change much between event types. What changes is which rows you add and which ones carry the risk:

Corporate and conference.Keep a changeover row between every speaker and panel; that's where the time actually goes. If sessions run in parallel, add a room column so one document still covers the whole day.
Gala or fundraiser.Give the auction and the appeal their own rows rather than folding them into “dinner program,” and put a buffer row directly after both. They're the segments most likely to run long, because they're the ones that are working when they do.
Wedding. The run of show covers the ceremony and the reception program: processional, vows, entrances, first dance, speeches, cake, last song. Vendor arrival and setup times belong on a call sheet, not in the timeline the show is called from.
Livestream and broadcast. Add a stream-start row well before doors, so going live and stream-health checks are a timed segment rather than a scramble. Graphics and lower-third cues go in the notes column against the segment they fire on, and note which rows are on stream versus in-room only.
Concert and theater. Cue-heavy segments need more rows, not longer ones: split a song or scene into its own cue blocks rather than one row per number, and reference the department cue sheet from the notes column instead of copying it in.

Common mistakes

Typed-in start times instead of computed ones. The moment one item overruns, every start time below it is wrong until someone manually retypes the rest of the column, live, mid-show.
No hard out. Without a fixed end constraint, a rundown has nothing to protect against, and every small slip just compounds.
Cues living in a separate document.A lighting or video cue sheet that isn't attached to the timing it belongs to gets checked late or not at all.
No owner column.If a row doesn't say who's responsible, it's nobody's job until it's already late.
One editable copy, no live sync.A spreadsheet on one laptop means the person calling the show, the AV desk, and the stage all have to be looking over the same shoulder, or working from a version that's already stale.

What happens when the show runs long

Every run of show slips eventually. Say the opening keynote above is scheduled for 25 minutes but the speaker runs 10 minutes over. In the example table, that means changeover, the panel, the coffee break, the product demo, closing remarks, and the hard out are all now wrong by 10 minutes, six rows someone has to manually retype, live, while also doing the rest of their job.

That retyping step is what computed start times remove. When each start time is derived from the durations above it rather than hand-typed, the column can be recalculated instead of retyped. In Runsheet, a segment running long moves every start time under it while the show is running, and anyone looking at a synced screen, control, crew, or stage, sees the new times immediately instead of hearing about the delay secondhand.

A live walkthrough of the columns that matter, the views each role needs, and what everyone sees when an overrun reflows the schedule. Watch on YouTube.

The reflow described above, on screen: a segment overruns by four minutes and every start time under it moves without anyone retyping a row. Watch on YouTube.

Deciding what to actually do about the slip (cut a segment, eat into the buffer, push the hard out) is the show caller's job, not the software's. How to call a show covers those calls. Runsheetis where the reflow itself happens automatically once you're running the show live.

FAQ

What's the difference between a run of show and an agenda?: An agenda lists what happens. A run of show adds when, how long, who runs it, and what cue triggers the next thing — it's built to be executed live, not just read.
What's the difference between a run of show and a production schedule?: A production schedule covers the whole build: load-in, rigging, rehearsals, sound checks, and load-out, often spread across several days. A run of show is the minute-by-minute program itself, the part the audience sees, from doors to hard out. Larger events run both documents, and the production schedule effectively hands off to the run of show at the moment doors open.
What software should I build a run of show in?: A spreadsheet works until the show goes live and times start slipping. At that point you're manually re-typing every start time by hand, live, under pressure. What you want instead is start times computed from durations, so the column recalculates rather than gets retyped. Runsheet does that from a live overrun. If you're comparing other tools, check that specifically: recalculating when someone edits a duration by hand is a different thing from recalculating because a segment is running long right now.
How detailed should each row be?: The working standard, as Expo Pass puts it at expopass.com, is detailed enough that a competent substitute could execute the row if the owner got stuck in traffic. “Keynote” on its own is not enough. “Emcee introduces keynote speaker from stage right, hands over wireless handheld mic, exits stage left” is closer. The test is whether someone who wasn't in the planning meetings could read the row and do the thing.
How much buffer should I build into a run of show?: Enough that a 2-3 minute slip on one item doesn't cascade. Common practice is a short buffer block every 3-5 segments, plus a fixed hard-out time the whole show works backward from.
How far in advance should I build it?: Draft it about three to four weeks out, once speakers and the shape of the program are confirmed. Expo Pass gives the same window. Then treat the final 48 hours as locked: that time is for rehearsal and small tweaks, not structural changes, because every change after the lock has to be re-communicated to everyone already working from the previous version.
Do I need a separate document for AV/tech cues?: Not for the cues that drive the timing. Any cue the show is called on belongs in the notes column next to the item it triggers on, because a trigger sitting in a separate doc from the timing gets checked late or missed. A department's own cue sheet is a different thing and can stay separate: it holds the internal detail one operator works from, and the run of show references it rather than reproducing it.
Should every row have an owner?: Yes. A run of show without a dept/owner column turns into a document nobody feels responsible for executing on time.
Who owns the run of show on event day?: One person, and only one. Expo Pass frames it as a single owner authorized to change the timeline live, usually the show caller or producer, with everyone else raising changes to them instead of editing the document themselves. That is the model Runsheet enforces directly: one live editor, plus read-only synced screens for control, crew, and stage that update the moment a time changes.
What happens to the rest of the schedule if one segment runs long?: In a static document, nothing happens automatically, someone has to manually retype every start time after the overrun, live, while also doing everything else their role requires. When start times are computed from durations instead, the column can recalculate itself. In Runsheet, a segment running long moves every start time under it while the show is live, and everyone watching a synced screen sees the update immediately.

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