Corporate Event Venue Site Visits in Cairo: The Technical Checklist

The tour a venue gives you is a sales tour. It shows you the room at its best: lights up, chairs straight, nothing plugged in. The visit you actually need is a technical one, and it asks a different set of questions - the ones whose answers turn into money on load-in day.

Almost every expensive surprise on a corporate event in Cairo traces back to something nobody measured before the contract was signed. A ceiling that is lower than the drawing at exactly the point where the truss needs to go. A single service lift that every supplier has to share. A power supply that is fine until the kitchen and the air conditioning are both running. None of these are the venue's fault. They are facts about the building that were never checked.

Here is what to check, in the order that matters.

Power

Ask for numbers, not reassurance. "There is plenty of power" is not a specification.

• Total available load in amps, and whether the supply is single or three phase.

• Where the supply points sit physically, relative to the stage and the screens.

• Whether that supply is shared with the kitchen, the air conditioning, or another event in the building.

• Whether the venue provides distribution, or whether your production partner brings it.

• Generator access, and where a generator can stand, if the building supply is thin.

The failure mode here is rarely a blackout. It is a rack browning out mid-keynote because a compressor started somewhere you cannot see.

Ceiling height and rigging

Measure to the lowest obstruction, not to the ceiling. Sprinkler heads, ducts, chandeliers and lighting bars all sit below the number on the drawing, and they tend to sit below it in exactly the place you wanted to fly something.

• Clear height at the stage position, and again at the back of the room.

• Whether the venue permits rigging at all. Many do not.

• If it does: how many points, where they are, and their rated load in writing.

• If it does not: whether there is floor area for ground support, because towers and base plates need it.

A three-metre screen is never a three-metre problem. Add the ground support beneath it and the truss above it and the real requirement is closer to five. The AV and LED specification guide covers how screen size and pixel pitch follow from the room.

Load-in

This is the section that quietly decides your build schedule.

• Loading dock or door dimensions, height and width, measured rather than described.

• Lift dimensions and weight limit. LED panels and staging decks are heavier than they look.

• The route and distance from where a truck can park to where the stage goes, including every step and threshold.

• The access window: from what hour, and whether it is exclusive to you.

• Whether another event shares the dock, the lift or the corridor on your build day.

The floor

• Floor loading limits, especially on upper levels and above car parks.

• Whether wheeled cases and trolleys are permitted, and whether floor protection is mandatory.

• What the surface actually is. Carpet, marble and raised flooring each change how staging beds down.

Sightlines

• Columns: where they are, and how many seats they kill.

• Ceiling height at the back rows, which decides how high the screen has to sit to be seen from there.

• Any balcony or tiered section, and what it can genuinely see of the stage.

Sound

• Reverberation. Clap once in the empty room. A long tail means speech intelligibility will cost you money in system design.

• Adjacent spaces, and what is happening in them on your date.

• Whether the venue runs a sound limiter, and at what level it trips.

• Any noise curfew, and whether it applies to the build as well as the show.

Connectivity and blackout

• Wired internet, not only wifi, if anything is streamed. Ask whether a dedicated line is available and whether it is charged separately.

• Whether the room can go dark. Windows, blinds and skylights decide whether projection is viable at all, and how an LED wall reads on camera.

The house systems

• Is in-house AV mandatory, optional, or charged either way?

• If it is optional, is there a fee for bringing an outside production partner?

• If it is mandatory, what exactly is installed, and was it specified for a programme like yours or for a wedding?

This single question moves budgets more than anything else on the list. Settle it before the deposit, not after.

Schedule

• Build access, rehearsal window and strike deadline, as three separate numbers.

• What overtime costs, and who is allowed to authorise it.

• Whether strike has to happen the same night.

Who should be on the visit

The person who books the venue and the person who has to build in it should walk it together. A planner sees flow and guest experience. A production team sees amps, points and access. Both are right, and the questions above only get asked if the second person is in the room.

If you are still choosing between buildings rather than checking one, start with the venue selection framework, which covers the venue tiers and the cost drivers behind a headline hire price. Once the venue is confirmed, the checklist above is what turns it into a build.

Wampum Events runs technical site visits as part of stage design and construction and full conference and summit production across Egypt. Part of the TePee Group.