Entertainment Booking and Talent Management for Events
Event entertainment programming covers the craft of shaping audience experience — from timing and flow to the emotional arc of a live event. This program gives you structured access to that craft.
Program Structure
Course Outline
- Module 1: The booking process from start to finish — an overview of every stage
- Module 2: Writing a talent brief that gets useful responses from agents and performers
- Module 3: Evaluating proposals — what to look for beyond price and reputation
- Module 4: Contracts and riders — what must be included, what is negotiable, what to avoid
- Module 5: Budget management — working with limited entertainment budgets without cutting corners on quality
- Module 6: On-site talent management — arrival protocols, green room setup, show-day communication
- Module 7: Post-event wrap-up — payments, feedback, and maintaining relationships for future bookings
Assignment structure
Each module has a short written assignment. The final assignment asks you to complete a full booking file for a hypothetical event, including a talent brief, contract summary, and day-of management plan. Instructor feedback is provided within 7 days.
Booking is more than finding a name
Sourcing entertainment for an event involves contracts, technical requirements, scheduling dependencies, and relationship management — all before the performer ever arrives on site. This course covers the full process, not just the search.
Where most booking mistakes happen
The most common problems in entertainment booking are contract gaps, unrealistic technical expectations, and poor communication between the talent and the event team. Each of these is preventable with the right process in place, and each module in this course addresses one of them directly.
What the course covers
You will work through how to build a talent brief, evaluate performer proposals, negotiate fees and riders, draft a basic performance agreement, and manage the relationship from booking through post-event wrap-up. The course uses examples from corporate events, private celebrations, and public festivals.
A well-written talent brief saves more time than any negotiation tactic — it filters out mismatches before they become problems.
Budget realities
One full module is dedicated to working within tight budgets — how to find strong acts at lower price points, what to negotiate on and what to leave alone, and how to set client expectations around entertainment costs. No idealized scenarios — the examples use real budget ranges.
Who teaches this
The course is led by Orsolya Fekete, an event producer with 14 years of experience booking entertainment across Eastern and Central Europe. Her approach is direct and grounded in the kinds of situations that actually occur during event production cycles.