How To MC A Business Event At Short Notice

11pm.  You're drifting off into the wonderful world of sleep when your phone starts ringing.  Who could it be?  It's a client.  "Remember the conference and exhibition I told you about?  I need you to MC the opening ceremony.  9am tomorrow.  Can you do it?"

Talk about short notice!  And how does one really prepare so little time to the event? Here are critical questions you should get answers to.

Are you available?

Of course, you need to first be physically present to MC the event.  So, first hang up and quickly flip through your diary.  If you're not free on the date and time, too bad for your client.  Offer to recommend someone else and go back to bed.   However if you will be available, call your client back and ask for more information.

What information do you need?

You need to know what the conference is about, who the audience and speakers will be, and what the program lineup will look like.

Ask the organizer to give you a general picture of the event.  Confirm from him who the audience will be. Since it's an opening ceremony of a conference and exhibition, the audience is likely to include delegates and exhibitors as well as the media.  Ask the organizer to email you the program lineup and brief profiles of all the speakers.

How much will you get paid?

If you're doing the job as a favor for a friend, skip this question.  However if you are a professional MC, you deserve to be rewarded for your services.  Remember, the organizer called you at that late hour because he really needed your services and is expecting you to do a professional job.

How do you prepare?

As the MC, you must have enough general knowledge on the conference subject matter to speak intelligently about the main issues.  Even if the organizer emailed you a bunch of conference documents, you wouldn't have enough time to read them fully to absorb the contents.  Remember your event is less than ten hours away.

What's your solution?

Here's what I did when I got a late night request to MC an e-commerce conference and exhibition the following morning.  I went online and headed to YouTube.  In the search box, I typed in "what is e-commerce".  In forty-five minutes, and while putting my clothes together for my assignment the following day, I watched two online videos.

The first broke down the concept of e-commerce and the other featured Jack Ma, Alibaba Group CEO making a presentation at an international e-commerce conference.  Still on YouTube,  I searched for "e-commerce in africa" and found another conference presentation on the challenges and opportunities of doing online business in Africa. Not bad for a spot of last minute research don't you think?

What do you do on the day?

1. Get to the venue a least an hour early.
2. Familiarize yourself with the room and the equipment you'll be using (microphone for you,projector for the presenters).
3. Introduce yourself to the speakers and confirm the correct pronunciation if their names are unfamiliar to you.
4. Check to see if there are any changes to the program emailed to you earlier.  Makes sure you have both soft and hard copies of the speaker profiles and program.  If one version fails, you'll have a backup.
5. Establish who your unique contact will be during the event so that information about any changes can flow freely between you and that person.

Even though you weren't given sufficient notice, you've done enough preparation to ensure a successful event.

You're good to go!