Who brings what, who gets in when, and whose insurance covers it

The supplier pack is the same every time: publish it

Load-in times and whether they are negotiable, vehicle access and height restrictions, parking, lift dimensions and weight limit, available power and where the sockets are, noise curfew, what the venue supplies versus what must be hired, and the clearing-down deadline. This is a fixed document. An assistant that can answer from it turns a week of identical emails into nothing, and it is the single highest-volume unglamorous win available here.

Insurance and certification are gates, not questions

Public liability cover, PAT certification for hired equipment, food hygiene registration for an external caterer - these are conditions of entry, and the expensive failure is discovering a missing document on the day. An assistant should state the requirement at the moment of first contact, say what format is accepted and by when, and record what has arrived. It must not judge whether a submitted certificate is adequate; that is someone's named responsibility.

Never let it grant access or vary a time

"Yes, come at two" from an assistant is a commitment about a building somebody has to open, with staff who have to be there. Load-in changes touch other suppliers' slots and often the previous event's clear-down. The correct behaviour is to state the published window, record the request for a different one, and route it to the coordinator with the event named - not to approve it.

Every supplier question is also a client fact

A florist asking about a delivery time is telling the venue something the client may not have: that there are flowers, from whom, arriving then. Capturing supplier contact against the event, rather than in a separate thread, is how a coordinator arrives on the day knowing who is expected. Most venues hold this nowhere, and reconstruct it by phone on the morning.