How to brief a production company for a town hall
A useful internal town hall production brief explains who needs to take part, what colleagues need to understand and how the programme should work. It gives the production team enough context to recommend an approach, identify dependencies and price the work accurately.
You do not need to arrive with a camera specification. You do need to describe the audience, the content and the decisions that are already fixed. These are the details we recommend gathering before the first production conversation.
Start with the outcome
Write one sentence describing what colleagues should understand or do after the event. Perhaps they need to understand a business change, hear the reasoning behind a decision or question the leadership team directly.
Then identify the essential messages and who owns them. A programme built around a major announcement will need different preparation from an open discussion with several business leaders.
Include the expected duration, budget range, event date and approval process. If something is provisional, label it clearly. That allows the production team to separate essential requirements from options and explain where a late decision could affect cost or delivery.
Describe how people will join
Give separate estimates for the audience in the room, individual online viewers and people watching together at other sites. Include countries, time zones, languages and any restrictions on workplace devices.
At the DP World EU Regional Townhall, we delivered the programme through Microsoft Teams and a separate web player. The client later reported that more than 18,000 colleagues watched across Europe, including shared workplace viewing. Individual web player connections could not represent that whole audience.
The planning lesson is to describe viewing arrangements as well as headcount. Ask local teams whether colleagues will join from laptops, meeting rooms or shared screens. Decide who will help if a site cannot connect and how colleagues who are working another shift will receive the information.
Explain the programme, including participation
List the speakers, their locations and the types of content they will use. Include slides, films, demonstrations, panels and audience questions. Describe where a presenter needs to move and whether remote guests will have a conversation with people in the room.
Our DP World programme combined presentations, recorded films, two remote contributors and a closing fireside discussion. Those different sources needed coordinated direction, graphics, playout and sound.
Your brief should explain how questions reach the host. Will colleagues submit them beforehand, type them online or speak into a microphone? Who moderates submissions, chooses questions and follows up on anything unanswered?
Give these responsibilities names. A question tool is only one part of the process; someone must connect the audience’s contribution to the live discussion.
Put accessibility into the brief
Ask participants about access requirements early. Include captions, interpretation, accessible documents and any support needed in the venue. Allocate responsibility and budget for delivering them.
W3C’s accessible events checklist recommends sharing accessible materials in advance and giving captioners and interpreters the information they need. It also highlights the importance of microphones for audience contributions.
For DP World’s Sports Townhall in 2025, we configured AI subtitles with English as the main language and translation into 14 other languages. The planning emails confirmed the language options before the invitation was finalised. This was a separate production from the EU Regional Townhall described above, and illustrates why language requirements belong in the brief from the outset.
We can also arrange British Sign Language (BSL), audio description and other access support on request. Specify what participants need rather than assuming that automated subtitles cover every requirement. Agree the approach, preparation and checks with the people providing that support.
For a town hall, that means preparing speaker names, specialist terms and presentation materials before transmission. Ask speakers to explain important charts aloud and ensure questions from the room reach the broadcast audio.
Accessibility also depends on the platform, the shared content and how people run the meeting. The W3C Group Note on remote meeting accessibility considers all three. Check the actual attendee experience, including joining, reading materials and participating, when deciding how the event will work.
Separate venue requirements from online delivery
Share photographs or plans of the space, access hours, power information and an internal IT contact. Explain what the venue already supplies and who is responsible for screens, microphones, lighting and the network.
For DP World, we worked with Conference Craft to turn a London office into a broadcast space. Conference Craft supplied venue AV and technical support, while we produced the live programme.
Our guide to live streaming from offices and unusual venues explores the practical constraints to raise before selecting the space.
The brief should connect event video production requirements with the live streaming route. Identify the approved platform, account owner, access permissions and network testing arrangements. Request a clear explanation of what happens if a connection or contribution fails.
Make agency and AV responsibilities clear
The brief should work for everyone involved in delivery. We have supported SPARQ with video content and live streams for several of its clients’ town halls. We have also supported BRAWL, an agency in Leeds, with town hall video content and live streaming for an international technology company. Our town hall experience also includes supporting productions for British Airways.
When an agency or AV company is leading the project, specify which decisions sit with that partner, the internal communications team and the broadcast crew. Name the people approving content, managing presenters and authorising changes. Share one current running order so that each team can see how its work connects to the programme.
Protect time for rehearsal
Include setup access, technical checks and presenter rehearsal in the schedule. Run through actual slides, films, remote calls and handovers. A speaker joining successfully is one check; hearing the discussion and entering it at the right moment are others.
Our DP World production used an initial setup day followed by technical rehearsal and presenter checks before transmission. That created time to test the programme as a connected sequence.
Allow breathing room in the audience schedule too. A 2021 Microsoft Human Factors Lab study compared four consecutive 30 minute video meetings with meetings separated by 10 minute meditation breaks. Across 14 participants, the researchers reported less accumulated stress related brain activity in the break condition.
This was a small study of video meetings, not evidence for an ideal town hall length. The practical question for your brief is whether people have space between sessions and whether a longer programme needs a genuine break.
Decide what happens after transmission
Specify whether you need a complete recording, an edited programme, captions, a transcript or shorter extracts. Name the approver, delivery deadline and intended audience. Explain which content must remain internal.
For DP World, we supplied a programme file on the evening of the event, followed by an updated version the next day and later distribution edits. These are separate deliverables that need time and ownership in the brief.
Agree evaluation measures beforehand. Viewing connections, estimated people watching together, questions submitted and feedback on understanding describe different things. Report each with its source and limits. A large audience count alone does not establish that the message was understood.
Your town hall briefing checklist
Before requesting a proposal, gather:
- Purpose, essential messages and content owner.
- Date, duration, budget range and approval deadlines.
- Audience locations, viewing arrangements and access needs.
- Speakers, remote contributors, slides and films.
- Question handling and moderation responsibilities.
- Venue information, supplier responsibilities and IT contact.
- Platform, access permissions and testing arrangements.
- Setup, rehearsal and contingency requirements.
- Recording outputs, approvals and delivery dates.
- Evaluation measures and the person collecting them.
A clear brief makes the next conversation more useful. It gives everyone a shared understanding of the programme, the audience and the work needed to connect them.
