Free agenda tool
Run of Show Template
This is a free run of show template you can fill in and re-time in the browser — no download, no spreadsheet, no sign-up. It opens pre-filled with a realistic four-hour event day, from crew call through to load-out. Change the crew call time, or push any single item by five minutes, and every row below it re-times itself, so your run of show stays accurate every time the schedule moves.
12 items, 240 minutes, pre-filled and fully editable. Free, no sign-up.
Total length
4 hr
Finishes at
11:30 AM
- 7:30 AM
- 8:00 AM
- 8:30 AM
- 9:00 AM
- 9:05 AM
- 9:10 AM
- 9:40 AM
- 9:50 AM
- 10:20 AM
- 10:40 AM
- 10:50 AM
- 11:00 AM
Run of Show Template
| Time | Agenda item | Owner | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:30 AM | Crew call, AV check and comms test | Technical director | 30 |
| 8:00 AM | Speaker rehearsal and mic check | Stage manager | 30 |
| 8:30 AM | Doors open, registration and walk-in music | Front of house | 30 |
| 9:00 AM | Walk-in loop ends, house lights down | Technical director | 5 |
| 9:05 AM | Host welcome and housekeeping | Host | 5 |
| 9:10 AM | Opening keynote | Keynote speaker | 30 |
| 9:40 AM | Audience Q&A | Host | 10 |
| 9:50 AM | Panel discussion | Moderator | 30 |
| 10:20 AM | Break and networking | All | 20 |
| 10:40 AM | Sponsor segment | Sponsor lead | 10 |
| 10:50 AM | Closing remarks and next steps | Host | 10 |
| 11:00 AM | Room reset and load-out | Crew | 30 |
| 11:30 AM | Finish | 240 |
Your agenda says 15 minutes. Your speaker takes 23.
Planned time on paper and what actually happens live are two different numbers, and every minute of the difference comes out of whatever was scheduled next. asktimer.com is the part that runs after the agenda is written.
A real countdown for every speaker
The minutes on this page are a plan. In the room, the plan needs enforcing. Load the same running order into asktimer.com and every speaker gets their own confidence monitor — a large countdown for their slot that turns green to amber to red as their time goes, readable at a glance from the podium. No card waved from the back of the room, and no speaker quietly wondering how long they have left.
Audience Q&A tied to the same session
The audience opens one link on their phones, submits questions and upvotes the ones they want answered, so the question the room actually cares about rises to the top instead of the loudest voice getting there first. The speaker can show that list on their own monitor when they're ready for it, and whoever is hosting marks each question covered as they work down it — so nothing gets asked twice and nothing gets lost.
One link each. Nothing to install.
A private link for the host running the show, one monitor link per speaker, and one public link for the audience. Everyone opens a browser tab — no app to install, no accounts for your speakers or your attendees, and no software to get working on a venue laptop ten minutes before doors.
How to use this Run of show template
- 1
Set your start time
Type the time the meeting actually begins. Every row below recalculates its own clock time from that one field, so you never re-type a single time again.
- 2
Edit the items and durations
The template is already filled in with a realistic running order. Rename anything, add the person presenting it, and set how many minutes each item gets.
- 3
Add, remove and reorder
Move an item up or down and the whole schedule re-times itself instantly. Nothing breaks the way it does when you drag a row in a spreadsheet full of hard-coded times.
- 4
Check the finish time
The running total and the computed finish time sit at the top. If the finish time is later than you promised people, trim minutes until it isn't.
- 5
Copy or print it
Copy the whole agenda as plain text to paste into an email or calendar invite, or print a clean one-page version for the room.
What goes in a run of show
A run of show is not the public agenda. The agenda is what the audience sees: the talks, the breaks, the times printed on a lanyard. The run of show is the internal document the people making it happen work from, and it covers the hours either side that no attendee ever thinks about — the crew call, the comms check, the speaker rehearsals, the walk-in music, the room reset. If your run of show starts at doors open, it is missing the half of the day where things actually go wrong.
Every row needs three things: a time, a duration, and a name. The name is the one people skip, and it is the one that matters. A row that says "video plays" with nobody against it is a row where two people each assume the other has it. Put a single owner on every line, even the obvious ones, and the gaps in your crew plan become visible on the page instead of in the room.
Build in slack deliberately, and label it. A twenty-minute break in the middle is a real break for the audience and a twenty-minute buffer for you, and if the morning has quietly run six minutes long, that break is where it gets absorbed. Events that run to time are almost never events where everything hit its mark — they are events where the overrun had somewhere to go.
Put your run of show on every screen
Load this running order into asktimer.com and every speaker gets their own full-screen countdown for their slot — green, then amber, then red — while you keep the whole run of show on the host view and move it on with one click. Free to start, nothing to install, and your speakers just open a link.
Run of Show Template: what usually goes wrong
- Write the times you will actually call, not the times you hope for. If speakers historically start two minutes late, the run of show that says 09:00 is wrong every single time, and the crew stops trusting it.
- Version it and date it. A run of show changes right up to the morning of the show, and the classic failure is one crew member working from yesterday's print-out.
- Put contact numbers on the same page. The moment you need the AV lead is not the moment to go looking through email for their number.
- Rehearse the handovers, not the content. Talks rarely break a schedule; the thirty seconds where a laptop won't switch and nobody knows who is talking does.
- Give each speaker only their own slot, and give them a clock. A speaker who can see their own countdown ends on time far more reliably than one being signaled at from the back of the room.
Frequently asked questions
What is a run of show?
A run of show is the internal, minute-by-minute plan for an event: every segment, cue, handover and break, with a time, a duration and a named owner against each one. It covers the whole working day rather than just the public schedule, which is why it usually starts hours before doors and ends after load-out.
What is the difference between a run of show and an agenda?
The agenda is the audience-facing list of what happens and roughly when. The run of show is the crew-facing version of the same day in far more detail, including everything the audience never sees — rehearsals, comms checks, room resets. Most events need both, and they should be built from the same timings so they cannot disagree.
Is this run of show template free?
Yes, completely. There is no sign-up and nothing to download. Edit it in the browser, then copy it as plain text or print a clean one-page version for the crew.
Can I use this run of show template for a virtual or hybrid event?
Yes. The structure is the same — the crew call becomes a platform check, the room reset becomes a stream wrap. If you are running hybrid, keep one run of show covering both rooms rather than two that drift apart.
How detailed should a run of show be?
Detailed enough that someone who has never seen your event could run the next ten minutes of it. If a row cannot be executed without asking a question, split it into two rows.
More free agenda templates
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- Team meeting agenda templateFor the weekly team check-in. 45 minutes of updates, blockers, priorities and one real deep dive.
- Board meeting agenda templateA formal 90-minute board agenda: minutes, declarations, reports, matters for decision and risk.
- Conference agenda templateA single-day conference: registration, keynote, Q&A, breakouts, lunch, panel and lightning talks.
- Workshop agenda templateA facilitated three-hour workshop: framing, silent ideation, group work, playback and prioritization.
- Agenda template with time slotsThe generic time-slotted agenda. Set a start time, give each item minutes, times fill themselves in.
- Run of show cue sheet templateCue by cue, for the crew calling the show. Standby, video roll, mic live, stage reset — each with its own duration.
- Podcast agenda templateAn episode rundown with real timings. Cold open, segments, mid-roll and listener questions, from levels check to sign-off.
Turn this agenda into a live run-of-show
Load the same running order into asktimer.com and every speaker gets a live countdown, your audience gets Q&A they can upvote from their phones, and you get one link each for host, speaker and audience. Free to start, nothing to install.
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