Exercises: Rentals and Production

This is a counting-and-scheduling chapter. Do the arithmetic, and draw the load-ins.

Difficulty guide: ⭐ Foundational (5–10 min) · ⭐⭐ Intermediate (10–20 min) · ⭐⭐⭐ Challenging (20–40 min) · ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced (40+ min)

Part A: Conceptual Understanding ⭐

A.1. Name the three inputs to a rental order and explain what goes wrong if you omit each.

A.2. List the six counts everyone gets wrong, with the correction for each.

A.3. Why is glassware counted at 2.5–3 per guest? What happens at one per guest, and when?

A.4. Name the four tent subsystems. Which is most often omitted from a quote, and roughly what does it cost?

A.5. Explain the difference between staking and ballast, and the two questions to ask at a site visit.

A.6. A 20-amp circuit at 120 V. What is the nominal wattage, what is the usable wattage, and why do they differ?

A.7. Define without looking back: distro, cable ramp, the flip, damage waiver, utility locate.

A.8. State the six load-in dependency rules.

Part B: Applied Analysis ⭐⭐

B.1. Build a rental order. 165 guests, 21 tables of 8, an all-inclusive venue that supplies tables, chairs, and basic linens but no tableware. The caterer supplies chafers and serving pieces only. Build every line. Then state which three lines you would double-check with the caterer before ordering.

B.2. Count the linens. An event has 18 dining rounds (60″), 10 cocktail tables, a double-sided buffet on four 6-ft banquets, a cake table, an escort table, a gift table, and two bars. How many linens, in how many sizes, and what are the sizes?

B.3. Size three tents. For 90, 150, and 220 guests, each with a dance floor, a band, one bar, and a buffet. Compute required area, then choose a frame size — and for each, state whether a longer narrower tent of the same area would work, and why or why not.

B.4. Power budget. An event has: a 5-piece band, 600 ft of incandescent string lighting, 20 LED uplights, a restroom trailer, a caterer with three electric warming boxes and two coffee urns, a photo booth, and two fans. Compute the load, add headroom, and specify a generator. Then recompute with LED string lighting and a propane caterer. What is the difference worth?

B.5. Draw a load-in. Access at 2 p.m., ceremony at 5 p.m., guests from 4:30. A 40 × 60 tent (4 hours), flooring (90 min), 19 tables and chairs (2 hrs), lighting, linens, florist, caterer, bar, and DJ. It does not fit. Find every way to make it fit and price each.

B.6. Cost the flip. 140 guests, ceremony in a garden, reception in a marquee 60 feet away, cocktail hour on a terrace with a view of the garden. Compare a second chair set against a flip, including labour and the visibility problem. Recommend one.

B.7. Audit a rental contract. Using §13.6's six terms plus Chapter 8's twelve clauses, list what you would check and what you would ask about, given a raw site with a 200-foot carry and a Sunday-morning removal deadline.

Part C: Real-World Application ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

C.1. Get a real price list. ⭐⭐ Contact a rental company in your market and request a full price list. Build the rental order template around their actual line items. Note what they carry that you did not know existed.

C.2. Price a tent properly. ⭐⭐⭐ Get a quote for a 40 × 60 frame tent for a specific date at a specific outdoor site in your market. Ask specifically for: flooring, sidewalls installed and standby, lighting, heating, anchoring method, install and strike time, permit requirements, and the wind clause. Report how much of that you had to ask for versus how much was volunteered.

C.3. Do a power walk. ⭐⭐ At any venue you can access, find the electrical panel. Record the service, the number of circuits, their ratings, and where the outlets are. Compute usable wattage. Then compare it to §13.3's load table for a typical wedding.

C.4. Watch a load-in. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Get onto any event's setup. Record the actual sequence, the actual times, and every place the plan diverged. Write 600 words. This is the single most valuable exercise in Part III.

C.5. Ask about strike. ⭐⭐ Ask a rental company: what is the price difference between same-night strike and next-morning collection, and what do you need from a planner to make either work? Then ask a caterer who bags the linens.

C.6. Build the power worksheet. ⭐⭐ A reusable calculator: load list, sum, 25% headroom, kW, generator size, fuel estimate. Test it on B.4.

Part D: Synthesis and Critical Thinking ⭐⭐⭐

D.1. Cross-chapter integration. The floor plan (Ch.11), the vendor matrix (Ch.12), and the rental order (Ch.13) are three views of the same event. Build the single worksheet that generates the rental order automatically from the floor plan and the caterer's exclusions. What does it need as inputs, and where would it go wrong?

D.2. Critique the raw site. Using this chapter's arithmetic, construct the strongest possible case that planners should steer clients away from raw sites entirely. Then respond. What would you have to believe for a raw site to be the right choice at a $42,000 budget?

D.3. The margin question. §13.4 requires everything to finish 45 minutes before guests arrive. Argue that this is excessive — that it costs early-access fees, crew premiums, and vendor goodwill for a margin that is usually unused. Then respond. What would you do at a venue where 45 minutes is genuinely impossible?

D.4. Transfer. Compare event load-in with a domain that solves the same problem: theatre get-ins, film unit moves, trade show installs, or concert touring. Pick one, find out how they sequence and schedule, and import two practices.

D.5. Design the checklist. The chapter lists eleven common mistakes. Design a pre-order checklist that would catch all eleven, executable in under fifteen minutes by someone tired. Then test it against B.1.

Part M: Mixed Practice (Interleaved) ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

M.1. (Ch.11 + Ch.13) A floor plan shows 19 tables at 5 ft spacing in a 40 × 60 tent. Check whether it fits, showing the arithmetic. If it does not, what are the three options?

M.2. (Ch.5) Adding twelve guests takes a wedding from 138 to 150. Trace every rental line that changes, including the ones that are step costs.

M.3. (Ch.9) The rental company's certificate names them as insured but the venue only as certificate holder. It is eleven days out. What do you do, in what order?

M.4. (Looks like one thing, is another) A tent quote comes in dramatically below two others. Give the four most likely explanations and the question that distinguishes them.

M.5. (Ch.12 + Ch.13) The caterer's RFP response said "3.2 kW." At the pre-event call they mention they are bringing two electric warmers "just in case." What has changed, and what do you do?

Part E: Research and Extension ⭐⭐⭐⭐

E.1. Build the tent-cost model for your market. Get quotes for three sizes from two suppliers, itemized for tent, flooring, sidewalls, lighting, heating, anchoring, and permit. Build a table that lets you price any tent in ninety seconds. This is a market asset.

E.2. Investigate temporary power for events in your area. Find a production or generator supplier and ask: what sizes do you carry, what do they cost with distro and fuel, what noise levels, and what do planners typically get wrong? Write 600 words.

E.3. Research the wind and weather clauses in tent contracts across three suppliers in your market. At what wind speed do they refuse to erect, at what speed do they strike, who decides, and by when? Write it up — and then work out what a planner's rain plan should say given those answers. (Chapter 28 will use this.)

Solutions

Selected solutions: appendices/answers-to-selected.md. Templates: appendices/appendix-a-templates-and-worksheets.md. Rubrics: instructor-guide/additional-assessments/all-assessments.md.