Plan your Show with a Workback Calendar

A successful show requires successful planning. It is often easier to start from the live date and then work backward to determine what elements you need as part of your planning process. This will give you your workback calendar, which is similar to any other project workback schedule.

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Important tasks for planning your show

We have outlined the must-have items to have in place if you are on a tight timeline and planning a show within two weeks. With practice some of these will become second nature, and you won't need to dedicate time to them before every show. But to start, you'll want to think each one through.

Examples of 2 week, 3 week, and 4 week workback calendars are at the bottom of this article.

Tip: use our downloadable Show Checklist alongside the steps in this article.

(☝️) items only required for your first show

2 weeks before your show or earlier

• Finalize the details of your show (date, time, host, products, etc)

• Start working on designing your show’s flow (Run of Show)

• Confirm the details of your equipment (computer, cameras, microphones, etc)

• Start building your promotional plan

• Start working on your show assets

• (☝️) Make sure Stage TEN and your Shopify store are connected if you're planning a shopping stream.

1 week before your show or earlier

• Finalize your show assets, and organize the products you want to feature into a Sale (if applicable)

• Rehearse the show and check all equipment and internet speed

• (☝️) Ensure your Shop app and/or website (Shopify-powered or not) are set up with the Stage TEN Player

• If you’ll be going live regularly, promote the time and place so your audience can plan to tune in, and knows where to find it.

Tip: Once you've set up your Shop app card, encourage your audience to sign up for notifications there. This way they won't miss your exclusive launches and discounts.

The week of your show

• Promote! Promote! Promote! Using your existing social platforms is a great way to get the word out

• Rehearse again if it will make you more comfortable and ready to perform your best

• Go LIVE!

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Example Workback Schedules

Here are some examples of workback schedules we've used in the past, depending on how much time we have (or want to spend) to prepare.

2 Week Prep (Click to Download)

3 week prep (Click to Download)

4 week plan (Click to Download)