What's on your event organisation checklist?

As the Saboteur Awards Festival is coming up, I thought I’d make a list of essential items that I will be bringing as part of my survival kit.

I’m not including in this list fundamental things like the projectors and PA system. Nor am I including decorative items such as: paper bunting, display stands for the book stall, lightbox, display signs, and so forth, but those are also important! You want your event to be Instagrammable after all ?

I’m also not including things like the guestlist, lanyards, programmes, or signs explaining where to go or where the toilets are. These should go without saying really.

This list really is for everything else. A lot of things can and will go a ‘little bit’ wrong with any event, so here are the things I intend to bring to help in that eventuality, and to hopefully help the event run as efficiently as possible:

Gaffer Tape
Cable Ties
Bulldog Clips
VGA to HDMI Adapter
Sound cable
Double-sided Tape
String
Sharpies
Paper (A4 and notebooks)
Safety Pins
Scissors
Paracetamol/Plasters (the venue has a First Aid kit but it’s nice to have a few things of your own too)
Money box with change (paper and coins)
Bin Bags
Blue tack
iZettle for card payments
Highlighter pens
Folder with contact details of everyone participating in the event, including mobile numbers and hotel addresses and numbers.
List in a document on my phone of Twitter handles of every artist and shortlisted person (because they’re not always easy to find so this saves time when livetweeting)
Magnetic tape
Baby Wipes
Mint
Extension Cord
USB stick
Mini flashlight
Mobile charger
Power bank (with its charger)
Tripod(s) for camera and phone
Camera and laptop
Spare batteries for Camera (charger for batteries)
Extra memory card for Camera
A banging playlist on your Spotify
Some kind of energy bar/snack in case you don’t have time to eat
A bottle of water

These are things I won’t be needing, but you will, if you are handling drinks yourself:
Bottle opener (cap and corkscrew)
Ice. There’s never enough ice. (if handling drinks. Don’t forget a bucket or receptacle for the ice)
Pitchers

What’s on the checklist for your next event?

Edit

I’d like to add these excellent suggestions for additions by my friends Angela, Julia and Sarah:

small swiss army knife
Strepsils for artists with sore throats
small sewing kit
hipflask with gin for emergencies, stress, or relief!
A sign up form for your mailing list so they find out about your next event (to be GDPR compliant, make sure this is double-opt in, i.e they must confirm the sign up digitally afterwards too)