Specialist · Entertainment Booking

Who this track is for

This track is for anyone who books performers: event planners, corporate event and marketing teams, venue coordinators, school and community organisers, and wedding couples who want to understand the process before they sign. It is also useful for performers who want to see booking from the client's side. It builds on the core lesson on matching entertainment to audience and room, so taking that first is recommended.

What you will be able to do

By the end of the six lessons you should be able to describe the main act categories in the GTA market and how they are typically booked, choose the right act for a format, audience and room, read and respond to a technical rider, check rigging and ceiling requirements for aerial and circus acts, negotiate fair contract terms, write a clear performer brief, and use entertainment to draw traffic at a trade show booth.

How the lessons build

The track moves from the market to the match to the paperwork. Understanding how acts are priced and booked comes first, so you know whether to approach a performer directly or through an agency and what lead times to expect. Matching acts to events follows, with the entertainment finder used in depth. The rider and rigging lesson then covers the technical checks that most often derail a booking: clear height, certified rigging points, floor surfaces, power and venue rules on fire and haze. Contracts and the performer brief cover what to agree and what to tell the act. The final lesson applies all of it to trade show sales entertainment.

Time and connections

Allow about an hour and a half of study, plus time to complete the worksheets for a real or sample event. Learners planning a specific booking often take the rider lesson alongside their own venue's floor plan. The entertainment finder, entertainment hours planner and performer tech rider template are the tools used throughout the track.