The Ultimate Event Legal Checklist - 53

Creative Counsel Episode 53: The Ultimate Event Legal Checklist. Welcome to Creative Counsel with Brittany Ratel. I'm your host Brittany, an attorney for creatives who believes in solid contracts and cute office supplies, and who wants to empower you to be a more confident business owner. Whether you're a creative, influencer, maker, artist, shop owner, or content creator, you are not just a blank. You are a real bona fide business owner. So let's help you own your business and get you legally legit with Brit. Thank you so much for being here. Hello everybody and welcome back. So we have this super sexy topic today of event planning. Actually, you know, I don't really think this needs a whole lot of sarcasm here because of all the things that we talk about, events are pretty cool, events are pretty fun. And while yes, being an event planner is no picnic on the day of an event, I think all the excitement that comes around experiencing an event and the planning and the creativity and motion and just energy of being in a physical space with people can be pretty pretty exciting. And certainly we've seen a huge trend. I was just reading an article about this, about marketing budgets really investing in, you know, in in-person events and experiential, um, you know, marketing and what that means on all different levels, from, you know, conferences and trade booths to smaller events and meet and greets and all different levels. And so, um, if events are part of your business in any way, then you are going to want to listen listen up to today, um, because I have the ultimate event legal checklist. Okay, I have scoured over my notes and my conversations and my experience with working with people on all different sides of events— people who are the speakers at events to people who are holding events, people who are planning them, people who are attending them, um, you know, in all the different kind of industries that you see. And I've put all that together to try to have this really comprehensive list. So, um, But with that in mind, keep in mind that while I'm an attorney, I'm a licensed attorney, I am not your attorney. So if you have any questions after you are listening to this information and checking the show notes and getting even more resources, please contact an attorney licensed wherever you are, okay? Because they're going to be able to listen to your specific set of circumstances, and that will be more detailed than what I can give you here. This is just a general overview of things. There may be parts that may be different depending on what you do and how you do it, okay? So let's get to it, guys. All right, okay, the first thing that we're going to talk about is kind of just general businessy stuff, all right? This is not specific to events, but I find that especially people who have a lot of energy and get started with events maybe don't think about these areas. And so this is kind of 101 business foundations we're going to hit real quick, okay? The first is that you should do a name search when you're naming your event, okay? No matter what kind of event, whether it's small or large, you know, Large events usually start out small, okay? And especially if you want— if you want this to happen again, if it's— you want something to grow and repeat and you want to start building a brand and awareness around it, then pick a name that can grow with you, okay? So pick a name that's available. So what I mean by this is I want you to do a very thorough Google search, okay? That means don't just be lazy and stay on that first page. Keep on scrolling and look for your— the name that you're going to choose for your event and check for different spellings of it. Be really creative here, you know, and also check for different kind of pluralities, check, you know, hyphens, kind of move it all around and make sure, you know, the Google algorithm will do some of the work for you. But just make sure you do a really extensive search. And the other place I want to layer you on top of that search is doing the trademark database, okay? TESS, it's what it's called for short. And you can do a basic search in there. Now, this is like an exact match database, and so if there's not an exact match, it won't show you any results, which is bad news bears, you know. If you do a little test. Search for Starbucks with multiple S's on the ends and it will come up with zero results. But you and I both know that if you are a budding barista and opening your own coffee shop, Starbucks is probably a really poor choice of a name. Okay, you will get that Green Goddess on top of you faster than you can say Seattle. So don't choose that. Um, so keep that in mind when you're doing your trademark search. And if you're thinking about eventually that you do want to protect the name and trademark this or license it or, you know, do some of the other kind of cool things that we talk about on here in terms of, you know, turning this to a business and licensing and growing your intellectual property, then pick a name that is a little bit more fanciful or arbitrary. Means it needs to be a little bit more creative. If you pick a name that just describes exactly what it does, if you are talking about sales and you call it the Sales Conference, you are not going to be able to trademark that, okay? That's a boring name, first of all, and it's just, it's not protectable because anyone who has a conference about sales has to call at a sales conference. Ergo, you can't lock that down. You'd be unfairly squatting on it like a troll on top of that digital, you know, real estate, the intellectual property. Um, you know, same. So, you know, try to have, you know, a little bit more out-of-the-box thinking. There's a couple online websites that I highly recommend that are kind of cool for putting together cool names of stuff. You know, think about something that's close to, or maybe has an idea, but not an exact match. Okay. Okay, so that's on the name. You know, what's in a name turns out quite a lot, Shakespeare. So let's, let's follow with that. And also with that advice, make sure that it's available. So check that you could get the domain, or at least a domain with one of the, you know, normal ending modifiers like a.com,.net, whatever,.info or.org. Check for social media handles and think about possible hashtags and what you would use there. And those should all kind of all coordinate, and you should kind of have a master strategy knowing that those will all fit together. It's part of your marketing plan for unrolling your fun event. Okay, tip number 2 is have a separate business entity. Okay, we've talked about this a lot on here on Creative Council, so I'm going to reference you to some other episodes about this. Um, you know, episode 34 of How Do I Get Started, there's the episode on starting your LLC. Um, I believe that's episode 7. Uh, yeah. Um, so, but you need to— if this is going to be a business, um, and you have any desire of making money, or even if you don't, um, you really need to, you know, events are special. You're having people in a space, you're responsible for them. You, you really need to treat this like a business. That means setting up a separate business entity, okay? I highly recommend doing an LLC. I recommend setting up a business bank account and keeping your business finances separate from your personal finances. That means that you pay with a business credit card, okay? And you keep receipts and you do other official businessy things so that when you are asking the IRS to, you know, allow you to deduct business expenses, it looks like you're legit because you've done it the right way, okay? Don't invent an accounting nightmare for yourself, a bookkeeping nightmare, and mix all this stuff up, okay? The only place your business and your personal assets should boogie down and commingle is on the dance floor, all right? Okay, so keep separate money. So have a separate business entity is tip number 2, and keep separate money like expenses and taxes and keep good records of all that is tip number 3. Okay, my, um, fourth one is, is kind of, um, uh, you know, a random way to fit this in here, but it's to kind of check for materials, meaning, um, check for things that are going to be available. And this especially goes to all of my people who are holding workshops, classes, seminars, things like that where you are teaching or educating about something. And so you're probably providing some sort of materials for your attendees. Um, you know, you have workbooks or handouts, you have audio or video or other things they're consuming that content, um, make sure that you are being smart and being thoughtful about that content before it gets released to people. Um, make sure that you have copyright notices on stuff. Make sure you've thought about the terms of use for someone with that. If you don't think it's clear what people can do with that, then make it clear for them. Answer that question about, is it okay for people to distribute those? Can they make copies? Can they post it in Facebook groups or share it with their friends or their church group or whatever it is? If you have any questions, you think there's going to be some issues about that, then nip that in the bud and tell people, and then tell them again, okay? Because they weren't paying attention. Nobody was reading it. So there's also a way that you can do some of this in an electronic format, but especially for an in-person, I really recommend that you put it— you print it somewhere, and/or you make sure that your attendees, you can say it and what the expectation is. Also make sure that you're talking about the expectation in terms of filming an event? Can people take audio or video recordings? Can they share that? Are they supposed to be tagging you in some way? Attribution. Um, you know, we're, we're living in a, you know, a social media world, guys. So if you don't address it, then people will make their own assumptions and their own practices. So I think it's the best for you to stay ahead of that. And if you have, you know, have a vision of how you want this to go down, let's communicate that vision. Okay. Um, and make sure that whatever you are using, you have the rights to use that. So check out some of our other episodes that we have here about copyrights and trademarks you know, how you can protect your stuff. Oh, Everything's a Remix would be a really good episode. Everything in our series there about how to protect your intellectual property and to make sure that you're sourcing in really good, clean ways that will make it so you don't have any problems, that you're also not taking someone else's stuff and then passing along and just snowballing this problem because it's going to end up in someone else's lap. Okay, so that kind of goes along with some of the other things we've talked about, and we'll all link some of those relevant episodes here in the show notes for you so you can listen to them. If you haven't already. Okay, um, tip number 5 is a biggie. We're going to talk a lot about this. Get it in writing. Okay, it's probably no surprise to anyone on here that I, an attorney, Brittany Rettell, believe in getting stuff in writing. Okay, um, obviously a well-oiled, industry-tested attorney-drafted contract is ideal. Shocker that I would admit that. But if that's not an option for whatever reason, if that's just plain not gonna happen, that, you know, get— at least get something in writing. Do you the best that you can of putting something in a Word document, a Google Doc, whatever it is, of what is the arrangement that you guys have agreed to, and put it in writing, okay? Writing is better than email. It's certainly better than an in-person conversation or a phone call, okay? Because people remember stuff differently, if they even remember it at all, okay? Memory— we are not computers. We are human beings, and our memories are very much conditioned and affected by the state of mind we were at, what our blood sugar level was, what we ate for lunch that day, and then what our present mindset is, okay, and the way we're recalling that memory, and it's certainly affected by that. It's just crazy what we're learning now just about a memory, about how much it's affected by our current state and not necessarily when the memory originally occurred. So all that is to say is that memory is not a good record keeper. It's not ironclad. Thankfully, we have so many other great tools nowadays. It's not hard to memorialize something in writing. Okay, so I know what you're thinking. What, what, Brittany, what are you talking about? What do I need to get in writing? Okay, these are some examples of things that if you have this stuff going down in your event, this is the stuff you need to get in writing. Okay, a contract with your venue. Really important you have a written contract here. Okay, maybe they provide a contract, maybe you provide a contract. Either way, something needs to be in writing, okay? That kind of venue contract needs to talk about what services are being provided and/or not provided. Both are important, okay? We want to know what we're dealing with here. Who's doing setup? Who's doing cleanup? What are the expectations for that? What's the timeline for that? What about AV equipment? What about electricity, um, extension cords, stuff like that? Tables? All of that really needs to be laid out. Okay, it's really important to have that. I would also say that you need to have very clear about who is selling tickets to the event and the exclusivity of who can offer tickets. I've unfortunately had it happen to a friend of mine that they were kind of using a more unconventional venue that maybe wasn't as used to doing this, or I don't know what— why they thought this is okay. But she'd taken all the steps to prepare and have, you know, and have an event there, and she had booked vendors, and she had then sponsored things and had this great elaborate thing and sold tickets to it, only to show up there and see that the venue itself was also selling tickets but undercutting her by a couple of bucks. You can imagine her frustration and disappointment and outright like anger that the venue was just like cutting her off at the knees. Like, why would someone buy from her if they could have just gotten in for a couple bucks cheaper? Anyway, um, it was, you know, a huge misunderstanding that could have been avoided with just really clarifying that obviously if you're booking the venue and it's a place where maybe you're not booking the entire part of the venue, can people have access there? How are you going to protect that? What kind of gatekeeping is going to be going on? And to clarify that the venue does itself does not have privileges being able to invite or to sell tickets to places. Okay, um, you also want to check to see, um, if they're, uh, or actually we're going to go on this about the image rights. Um, okay, so that's definitely with venue. Okay, the next piece is that we want to talk about vendors and contractors. Okay, so these are the other people, the third-party service providers like caterers and florists and balloon artists— yes, that's a thing, I'm looking at you, that balloon girl— and other specialties that will come in and maybe help you. You know, ice sculpture people and musicians and, um, you know, volunteers, interns, you know, lighting, set, music, whatever, all different things that might help you pull off an event. Um, these service providers, you also should have a written contract too that should have similar things. You know, they should have a really comprehensive and clear list of what's the service being provided, how is payment going to work, or do you pay them up front, are there milestones, you pay them at the end and they're going to invoice you. Um, it's really important to discuss on this and with the venue on what happens with cancellations. Okay, nobody wants to think of their event event getting canceled, but sometimes it happens, okay? And we need to know what— what are the— how is this going to look like, you know? Who is going to be taking the risk if this event has to get canceled? Um, if it has to get canceled for weather, who's making that call? How many days ahead does that need— that call need to be made? And if it is, who still gets paid? Because if the florist has already bought her flowers and already started work, then I can guarantee you she's expecting some money. Um, and same thing for other service providers who maybe already started making food or whatnot. So you need to know when is your like drop-dead line? Like, this is the date where you can pull the, you know, push the kill button on the event versus not. And how much money are you going to be out? That needs to be clearly set out. Um, and some contracts I've seen, I think it's really smart that you have like a sliding scale where it's like, if you cancel 90 days ahead, it's this. If it's 60 days ahead of this, and then it gets down to a timeline where we're not canceling unless we have like a force majeure event, which force majeure means like it's a disaster movie. We're talking about like Armageddon, twister, hurricane, flood, fire, like war, insurrection. That's pretty much it. We're talking about like utter and complete disaster to the scale that we cannot feasibly hold this event. And so we're, you know, we're going to cancel our responsibilities and people are just gonna go home and, um, you know, and make their own way. But barring that, um, you need to talk about what happens if if you— if and when you have to cancel. Okay, um, especially if they're— if you've put yourself on the hook for that, you're gonna make a certain number of sales, then you need to make sure that you can cover your costs, um, you know, with, with the projected sales. Is there any clause in there where if you don't reach a certain amount of ticket sales by a date that there's a way that you can cancel the event and you're not on the hook for everything? So a really important, uh, piece to— I would also highly recommend listening to the episode, especially if you are in the conference event arena, that I, um, the interview that I did last year with Gabrielle Blair, the founder of Alt Summit, which is an incredible, you know, few, you know, thousand-person conference, creative summit over like 6 days in Palm Springs. But she's a seasoned event coordinator and founder, and she has a lot of great wisdom up there about how she started and grown her event, and also how she, you know, what they do now in terms of their, their money policy and kind of their business model with making a profitable event that. I think you'll find a lot of really great tidbits in that episode. Okay, um, the other one that I want to mention that you'll need stuff in writing is, uh, partners. Okay, if you have a business partner, um, with this event, if you are partnering certainly with any other organization or anyone else where you are— you have other people who are doing your work, if this is not just a one-woman show, then you need to have that in writing. Okay, I would highly suggest you write down how are you guys breaking down expenses, how are you breaking down profits, who's making decisions, who's the contact person, If you have two people helping with the event, then, you know, let's split the baby and make it useful. You know, I have, have a detailed list of who's coordinating who so that you guys just don't have two people who are micromanaging each other, okay? Because that's just creating double amount of work not having it. So, um, and that all can be really helpful to be put in writing in terms of that. Um, okay. Um, and especially if you're doing business with friends, I will say this, that even with smaller events, you know, I've seen— I've had friends do you know, kind of fun parties or fundraiser events or even like styled shoots, and they don't put anything in writing because it's with friends. Oh, come on, you know, we know each other, nothing's going to happen. Um, and nothing does until it does, guys. Um, and if you especially are working with family or friends or people that you care about the underlying relationship with them, then you really need to make sure that you're doing what you can to get things in writing so that that relationship is preserved, okay? That you are going to be all set, what you need to be doing moving forward. Oh, and also mention that I've seen another growing trend, which it's a little weird, um, but I mean, I can understand where they're coming from, is make sure that you've clarified in any of your contracts or your discussions with other people who are going to be at the event who has image rights. Okay, um, this is a growing trend that I see among venues, is where they are saying that they get image rights or you have to check with them first before you release any images, um, which is a little and it's kooky because the only one who has image rights is the person who took the image, okay? The person who snaps the shutter on the camera owns the picture unless you've made arrangements in writing. In writing, you got that otherwise, okay? Um, so that means if you're not party to a contract with the photographer, if you don't have a deal with the photographer, then you don't have— you don't have a deal with the photographer and they don't owe you squat. So, um, just I would clarify, and especially in this age of social media where everyone needs content and everyone's got a whole big Instagram feed to fill up and Pinterest board, whatever. Um, just make sure that there's a, um, a meeting of the minds, um, that's clear about what the policy is going to be there on who's taking pictures, um, how many photographers are going to be there. That can be really confusing if some— someone thinks they're the exclusive photographer and then there's a bunch of other, um, you know, upstarts, um, you know, getting in their shot or whatnot. And that if people have the expectation or the belief that they're getting photographs, that that's worked out. And maybe that there's fees or money laid aside or some sort of deal, um, or arrangement with the photographer, whoever it is that I would actually be the one taking pictures and have access to that, and who you should be speaking with about any of those arrangements. Okay, um, and the last person that I want to talk about that you might need something in writing with is sponsors. Okay, so these are the people, um, who you are— are helping you pay for this event, they're helping you pull it off. Okay, so whether it's for-profit or not, sponsors can be a really great way to phrase some of your costs and to get more buy-in and stakeholders in and involved with your event. So if you are offering sponsorship at any level for any of your events, you definitely want to have formal sponsorship agreements in writing that talks about how is— what is that going to look like, okay? And these agreements, because I've negotiated these on either side before, should obviously talk about payment. It's probably most important. Um, what's the service or the deliverables that the sponsor is getting? Are they getting a booth? Um, do they get to hand out swag? Are— is there going to be an experiential thing, some sort of giveaway or promotion, or, um, do they get to put something in the swag bags? Um, do— and who's going to help clean up and set up their booth? Do they have to provide their own people? How many tickets do they get? Where are they supposed to park? Um, you know, who's covering the airfare? Who's, you know, who's handling logistics for that? Who's the point person in contact? Um, those are all really good things to have in that sponsorship agreement. And then I would especially make sure that you address some of the logistics of deliverables. If you are creating content, like if you have a promo video or content that's coming out, flyer, newsletter, website, whatever, to promote the event, and you want to highlight your sponsor, then you're going to need their logo files. You might need content from them or ad copy or whatever else that you've promised them. Um, make sure you know what you need, who you're supposed to get that for, that they know you— they're supposed to give those high-resolution files to you and by what date, so that this is not held up in the process. Um, and that if there's someone who needs to have approval of this, you know who that is. Ideally it's one person and not a huge committee of people, otherwise good luck on meeting your editorial deadlines. Um, but all of those things should be in a contract somewhere, okay? So you guys know that you're on the same page. So, um, yeah, and know what the expectations are. How soon are they supposed to show up? Are they setting up their whole booth? Are you supposed to be setting up for them and they're just coming with the bag full of candy? Like there should be no surprises here because the last thing you want is for your sponsors, um, to not have a great experience, um, and to not like working with your brand, or else it's unlikely that they will be return customers. Okay, and it's great if you don't have to have a hard sell, if you have someone who had such a good fit and a good experience in working with you that they want to come back and want to support you and your event again and again. Okay, okay, I lied a little bit, just, just a little one. The last thing that you want in writing is if you have any speakers or any guests at your event. Okay, so whether you're doing an educational event and these are, or these are side stage speakers, or you're having like a keynote speaker, um, I would also highly recommend that you have some sort of speaking agreement that talks about similar to all the stuff we've talked about. Again, when I've negotiated these and drafted and prepared these for clients, both the ones hosting and professional speakers and people who do this as part of their business, Um, it's obviously very— it's very important that we talk about what the speaker fee is. A really fancy word for this is like an, um, an honorarium or something. Um, you know, I think it comes from the days where people would speak at universities. But when— if, if someone says that and you're like, oh sure, and you, you nod and you act like you know what that is, um, that's what that is, okay? It's a speaking fee. So, um, but you— it's really good for us to know what that is. Does that include anything else? Are they covering airfare or transportation? Ground transportation once they get there? Is there per diem for food? What is the timeline? How long is the person speaking? What is the topic or the nature of their speech? You want to make sure that if you think you're buying a rah-rah, you know, TEDx-style keynote speech and someone comes in and launches into a giant sales pitch, you know, you're not happy and they're probably not going to be very happy and certainly your attendees are not going to be very happy. So make sure you're clarifying what the speech is supposed to be about, what the content is. Again, if you need headshots, you need files for them, get all that ahead of time so that you can promote and you're ready. And, you know, look at those AV needs again. Do they— are they going to need PowerPoint slides? Are they going to need that set up? Do they need a mic? What type of mic? Do they need pop-up and walk-up music? Okay, if so, take care of that and any other of those logistical needs to make sure that your speakers feel comfortable, that they feel taken care of. Especially if you're to the point where you're hiring more, you know, bigger names and professional speakers. You want to make sure they have a good experience with you and that they want to come back and help you with your event. Okay. All right. Um, the next thing that we want to talk about, number 6, is waivers. Okay. Um, and this is waivers, W-A-I-V-E-R. Um, and I'm sure you guys are familiar with these, you know, if you've ever gone to a water park or a trampoline place or gone skiing and, you know, signed— had to sign one of these at basically signs your life away that says that they can basically kill you, um, and you can't do anything about it, and they'll take your firstborn child too. No, I'm just kidding, but only sort of. Um, so waivers, yes, are these documents that we sign where we literally are waiving our right to sue whoever it is is providing this thing that we're doing that may have inherent danger in it. We are saying, yep, we get it, we're human beings, we are mortal, we are— we could do you know, we could be subject and we could, we could get hurt, we could die, we could, you know, have an asthma attack, we could get knocked over by stuff, yada yada. Um, so some big level thoughts that I want you to think about waivers— we're not going to go too in depth on this— is that, um, you can never ever like waive away negligence, okay? Which means that if you have an event and you have employees, people who are working for you, okay, or an independent contractor, whatever, they're representative, they're agents of you. And they are negligent, meaning like they're acting like unreasonable people, they're acting like douchebags, okay, pardon language, but you know, they're not doing the normal things that human beings do. If someone tells them, hey, there's a big puddle right there, and they give someone the bird and they don't do anything about it, that's negligence, that's bad, and then someone gets hurt, it doesn't matter if they signed a waiver, okay, you're in trouble. And I hope that you've gotten a good attorney and a good insurance policy, and are just prepared for a really fun legal battle there. So just something to keep in mind, that as much as— as important as waivers are, you always need to be doing a good and reasonable job to protect the health and safety of everyone present at an event, okay? And we'll get into a little bit more about what are those— some specific things that you should think about and kind of have as part of your event plan and your planning process so that you've thought about the reasonable things that an event planner would have. Um, okay, so, um, with the waiver, the easiest way to satisfy this and to get this covered in your court is to have it as part of the ticketing process. Okay, and if you're using some sort of ticketing software provider like an Eventbrite or, or whatever, um, most of these online providers have a way that at the checkout process people have to click and agree to, um, to the terms and conditions of the event, okay, and have to say they agree to your— and they, you know, agree to your waiver, okay. So that's a really great place to put it, is right there. And, and if you need language for one of those releases, this is something that I have and I sell in my shop at creativecontracts.co. I'll put the link in the show notes, um, and you could get yourself your own special event liability waiver that will talk about all the things that say that you should have here, which is that it should say, look, I know that I'm a human, accidents happen. I know that there's risk for potential injury, you know, because of activities, especially if you have any kind of more dangerous activities. You know, if you have people rock climbing or doing trust falls or, you know, eating food and eating, you know, blowfish, whatever, make sure you've, you've talked about all of that. Um, I also think that, um, what you should have in this policy is about a— is a media release. And this is basically a release that says, hey, we are planning on taking photography, photos and video at the event, and your face might be in some of them, and we love your face, and we want to be able to share your face, and, uh, you're, you're going to be okay with that. We're not going to pay you for that, anything. Okay, that's basically what these event waivers are saying. Um, you know, if you've walked into a theme park, you've probably seen sometimes they have these on the back of your ticket, or they'll just have them on a giant sign being like, hey yo, Just FYI, our cute little helpers are going to be coming around taking pictures, and if they take your picture and we slap it on our website, you know, kudos to you, but we're not going to pay you for that. Um, if you want to do the same thing, if you plan on— which most people do, unless you have, you know, uh, an event that has maybe is a more sensitive nature and you don't think people would want to be photographed, in which case I wouldn't put this language in there because they'll probably be really miffed about it. Um, but if you're planning on taking pictures and sharing pictures of your event on social media, on your website, on flyers, on your wrap-up, you know, report that you give to your sponsor, then make sure you have permission to do that. Okay, if you can identify someone's face and if you could see someone's face, meaning like you can tell who it is, then you need their permission. Okay, if you have like a shot from the back of the room and it's just a sea of the back of heads, um, then you're okay. But if there's any kind of like closer-up shot where you can see somebody then you need their permission, okay? And it's a heck of a lot harder to go after the fact and try to figure out who someone is and to try to go and get their permission. It's pretty much, you know, damn near impossible depending on what you're doing. So, so please put your, put your waiver, your media release waiver in there so that you will be all set, okay? Um, and again, that language is included in the event release that I have at creativecontracts.com that you can Okay, um, next tip is I want you to check on insurance. Okay, we want to make sure that we have a general commercial liability insurance. Okay, um, and if you are hosting events, then you should have this, especially if you're doing it more than once. Um, if you have an event with a lot of people, you should have one of these. Um, just get it, get it, don't whine about it. It's just a cost of doing business. It's what happens when you have human beings in a space, because human beings can get hurt and they can make stupid choices. Okay. And this is what you're protecting against you. It's another layer of protection, you know, above and beyond an LLC. So look at that. If you— if you look at to see if venue has insurance or any of those contractors that we talked about, you know, is your caterer— are they, you know, are they— do they have a food handler's permit? Are they bonded or insured like you would expect them to? Just look into that and the insurance. Sometimes your insurer will request and need that other people need to have insurance, so you'll need to have a copy of their policy on file. Maybe your employer needs to have that. If you're working for a big corporate event, it's likely that they're going to want to know what the insurance situation is on anyone that's touching this event. So just know that that's part of the deal and that's part of your compliance and kind of risk assessment. So do your research and have that already. Okay, touching that and very similar is with licenses. I would recommend that you check with your city or your county to get a license. Okay, if there's a lot— you know, some businesses that you can kind of get away with and don't have to have a business license per se. In-person events are usually not one of them. Sometimes if it's just a one-time event, they'll wave you off and say you don't need it. But depending on how many people and where it is and how you're using the space and what you need for parking and what you— what if there's any noise going on or any loud music or anything like that, you really are going to want to check and make sure that you have any necessary licenses or permits in the jurisdiction where you are. Okay, and speaking of playing music, if you are playing music and it's anywhere in the public, you really need to get on and get— make sure that you have a blanket music license to do that. So you can play stuff from the radio and the TV without needing this, but basically anything else that you're doing, a public performance of music, you need to have the appropriate licensing. So So I recommend going to ASCAP, that's ASCAP, or BMI are the two major music publishers here in the US. And you can look at what the licenses are, you'll kind of answer some questions about what is your venue or event, where is it, how many people are there, for how long, and then you can just, you just pay for your, your licensing fee there. So it's not too crazy. And it's certainly better than getting sued by one of those big music giants and having a whole lot of, you know, some copyright infringement Problems on your case. Um, okay, and so that's with, um, kind of the insurance, really fun sexy part. The last tip, um, is to make any collaborations legit. And like we talked about, um, if there's anyone else that's a stakeholder, that's an important person that's involved with this event, then make sure that they are on the same page with you, literally, legally, in all the ways that we've talked about. Okay, um, and especially, um, some of the things that we want to talk about to make sure that we can have the best case scenario of planning with health and safety is that we— you should have a plan beforehand and also kind of have these available the day of, ready to go. Um, you should have a plan for accessibility. Okay, um, is— do you know where the wheelchair, you know, ramps are? Are there any elevators available? Um, is— make sure that you've taped things down to make it accessible. Um, so really make sure that you're complying as best as you can, especially if this is a public event. Then you really need to do the best that you can as a public accommodation to make sure that you're respecting the ADA, the American Disability Act. Okay, plus it's just a decent human thing to do to make sure that your event is accessible as possible to everyone that would want to attend. Okay, like we talked about, make sure safety— that you've done your due diligence, that there's a plan. What happens if there's a spill? You know, what's the, what's the plan with alcohol? Um, you know, who's serving? Do they have the proper license? Is food being stored the way it should be, you know, heated and cooled and everything else, so no one's going to get sick? Um, is there a plan for noise, and can you only have loud noise till how long? When does it need to turn off? What's the plan for lighting and making sure that it— there's no sketchy lighting scenarios and that people can see what they need to see? What's the plan for restrooms? Okay, uh, everybody poops, guys. Here's, here's a reality there. So you need to make a plan, um, whether and if you are in, in doubt whether the existing facilities are going to be sufficient for your needs, um, then plan on getting some porta-potties, okay? Any range from the basic Honey Buck, you know, to those deluxe suites. But, um, make a plan, because failure to make a plan is also making a plan. It's just making a disaster plan à la Fyre Festival, okay? Which, speaking of, if you have not watched that documentary on Netflix, um, and are in events of any kind, you, you got to, just for the own entertainment entertainment factor. You'll FYRE, you know, based on the incredible and dumpster fire influencer, you know, Caribbean adventure that went— literally went up to like in flames. Um, and, you know, EcoDome disaster. So, um, okay, we talked about alcohol license a little bit. If you need a fire marshal permit, make sure you do that ahead of time. Um, a great tip is that even if you have an outdoor event, what is your contingency plan? If you say, hey, we're doing it outdoors unless unless it's bad weather, our backup location is here. Well, in that backup location, depending on how many people have— do you need to have a fire permit? If so, maybe just go ahead and get that ahead of time, okay? Um, so you're not in a scramble of having to get a hold of that and, and getting that all kosher the day of. Um, if, you know, on top of all the other things that you'd have to scramble if you had a venue change like that. So, you know, do a final safety check the day of. Know about fire alarms. Be familiar with the exits, evacuation procedures. If you need to get someone out or if someone needs to get in, you should know how to do that as the leader of the event, and your staff should know how to do that too. Anyone else who's helping, who's going to be a contact person, so make sure that you've, you've done your due diligence there and can be a good helper. And in case something happens, if someone gets hurt, if someone has a complaint, anything like that, document, document, document, okay? Write down who it was, get their contact information, document what happened, document what you did immediately after to try to remedy and fix the situation. Those are all would be really important evidence. And, you know, an incident report that would need to be— could be really important afterwards, especially if there's any kind of claim that needs to go through to insurance. Okay. Okay. So that is the bulk of what we had today to talk about. Whoo. All right, we got it through, guys. Good job for hanging in there till the end. So, um, I hope that you found this stuff useful about planning your events, okay? And I hope this doesn't, you know, not to play a bad pun here, this doesn't kill your fire— not FYRE, FIRE— of running events. Um, you know, events can be such incredible opportunities to connect on a human level, person to person, but, um, they— there's also a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong. And so with a little planning, um, okay, let's face it with a lot of planning, and especially coming and thinking about some of these legal issues that I've raised today. You can set yourself in a really strong position to not only plan a great event but to execute a great event, which is another thing entirely, okay? So, you know, build it and they will come, and they will have a good time, and they will be safe, and it will be legal, and they will leave, and you'll be able to do it again, okay? Because you've set yourself up up for success. So make sure that you take these tips to heart. If you want this in writing, if you're on the go and you're like, this is all awesome, Brittany, but I'm really gonna need something to check off here, literally a checklist, well, I have news for you. There's one of those in the show notes. So make sure you check out the freebie and get the freebie handout. You also get added to my Legit with Brit newsletter where I give out resources like this all the time. So why, why aren't you up in there? Okay, in that club? Club. Okay, you're— you, you like free stuff, you want to be legit, you want to move your business forward, so you need to come join the party with us, the legal party. Okay, so get legit with Brit, get added to this, get this checklist, and get yourself on the way to a fantastic legal event. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you like what you heard, subscribe. If you really like what you heard, how about leaving me a 5-star review? Okay, reviews and ratings make such a big difference and allow people people to find these resources and help them grow and scale and protect their creative businesses. So thank you so much for being here, for your time. I appreciate you. And remember that you are a real business owner, so let's own that business, okay? In every sense of the word.