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Make a start
One step at a time.
5 steps
Start with the synthetic worked example or other non-sensitive inputs. Run one prompt at a time in your chosen AI tool. Replace any bracketed placeholders with the requested material, check each reply, and supply the source or earlier outputs that step needs. Paste them again if the tool lacks that context.
Set up the worked example
Open
Open a chat AI that accepts pasted text and start a new conversation. A run of show is a timed event plan. A cue is the signal to start or change an activity. AV means audio and visual equipment; Q&A means questions and answers. Keep a calculator or paper handy to add minutes.
Add the sample
In step 1, replace [paste fixture] with the entire text under ‘The starting point’ (Synthetic input), from ‘SYNTHETIC EVENT:’ through ‘Do not invent safety procedures.’ Include setup, programme order, approved alternatives and unresolved checks. Send the whole prompt. Continue with the later step prompts in the same chat, checking each reply first. Use the fictional event for this walkthrough: the later prompts refer to its people and approved delay. You do not need to paste text from ‘The intended result’ (Illustrative output).
Start with the synthetic example, then adapt each prompt to your task.
01
Extract fixed boundaries and decision rights
Separate a hard stop from a preferred time and a prepared fallback from an idea.
Your starting prompt
Extract venue access, public finish, room-clear deadline, roles, durations, dependencies, approved contingencies and open checks. Keep local-time ambiguity visible. Do not add staff, procedures or booking permissions.
BRIEF:
[paste fixture]
Expect
A summary of the fixed times, agreed roles, activity lengths, required order, approved alternatives and unanswered checks. Venue access is 11:00, the public programme is 12:00–14:00 and the room must be clear by 14:30.
Check
Jo approves programme changes. A speaker delay of up to ten minutes has a specific approved option; a longer delay needs a new decision. Times stay venue-local because the timezone name is not supplied.
If it differs
If a boundary, role or permission differs, quote the matching part of the brief and ask for a corrected summary. If the AI invents a timezone, staff member or venue rule, ask it to remove that detail and keep the gap visible.
02
Build setup and programme cues
Check parallel work against the people who must perform it.
Your starting prompt
Create a cue sheet with start/end, duration, activity, supplied owner, dependency and decision gate. Schedule setup without double-booking Sam for kit setup and AV testing. Derive programme times cumulatively from the supplied start and durations. Show teardown and clearance buffer.
Expect
A cue sheet for setup, the public programme, teardown and the final buffer. Each activity has start/end times, a duration, a supplied owner and the conditions that must be met before it can begin.
Check
Sam’s kit setup is 11:10–11:20, followed by AV testing at 11:20–11:40. The normal programme runs 12:00–14:00; practice is 12:55–13:30 after the demonstration and reset. Teardown ends at 14:25, leaving five minutes before room-clear.
If it differs
If a time differs, add the listed activity durations from the start time and identify where the sequence first changes. Ask the AI to recalculate from there without changing the brief’s durations. If one person has overlapping tasks, ask it to restore the supplied setup order.
03
Rehearse the authorized alternatives
Calculate the full changed sequence rather than saying it should fit.
Your starting prompt
Apply the approved ten-minute speaker-delay option to this sample. Show each revised cue and how the Q&A reduction offsets the delay. Keep minimum durations and the public finish fixed. Separately show the projection-failure route with the same demo duration; do not assume backup materials are present.
Expect
Two separate alternatives: a full revised sequence for the approved ten-minute speaker delay, and a same-length demonstration using printed cards if projection fails. The delay option needs Jo’s decision; the printed cards still need confirmation.
Check
With the delay, orientation is 12:20–12:30, demonstration 12:30–12:55, reset 12:55–13:05 and practice 13:05–13:40. Q&A becomes 13:40–13:45. Closing and exit still finish by 14:00; no other duration is shortened.
If it differs
If the delayed plan overruns or shortens another activity, ask for a full recalculation using only the approved Q&A reduction. If the projection alternative is marked ready, ask it to restore the printed-card check and Jo’s decision if those cards are missing.
04
Make unresolved cues actionable
Every blocker needs a decision owner and a condition for proceeding.
Your starting prompt
Add pre-doors checks for the emergency contact, accessible route and printed backup. For a delay beyond the approved limit or missing practice materials, identify the blocked cue and the decision Jo must make. Do not invent safety instructions, new activities or approval to extend the venue booking.
Expect
A short list of checks before doors open, plus the blocked activity and decision needed if the speaker is later than allowed or practice materials are missing.
Check
The venue emergency contact, accessible route and printed backup cards remain unresolved until confirmed. Missing practice materials block practice. Jo must decide changes beyond the approved delay; the venue finish is not extended automatically.
If it differs
If the reply fills a gap with a made-up contact, safety procedure or activity, ask it to replace that detail with an open check and decision owner. If it calls a check complete, ask what supplied evidence supports that claim; keep it open when there is none.
05
Audit the printed version
Verify arithmetic, role overlap and dependency order before anyone relies on it.
Your starting prompt
Recalculate setup and programme times from the brief. Check prerequisite order, agreed owners, role conflicts, summed activity durations, hard stops and teardown/clearance buffer. Independently recalculate the approved delay branch and verify no minimum duration is breached. For this sample, the expected totals and deadline checks appear under Checks. Flag every unresolved gate.
Expect
An audit of the times, activity order, owners, role conflicts and both programme versions, with every unresolved condition still listed. The written cue sheet remains a draft for human review.
Check
Add the normal programme’s minutes: 10 + 10 + 25 + 10 + 35 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 120. In the delayed version, ten minutes of orientation replace ten minutes of Q&A. Teardown is still 14:00–14:25, with room-clear required by 14:30.
If it differs
If the audit finds a mismatch, ask for the affected schedule to be corrected and recheck the full sequence yourself. Do not treat a draft as approved while a hard stop, required preceding activity or pre-doors check is unresolved.
Optional: improve the result
Build a cue-change log
Keep one approved running version and show exactly what an incident changes.
Advanced prompt
Given a cue sheet, a timestamped incident and the event lead's explicit decision, return a revision number, affected cues, old/new times, remaining buffers and unchanged hard stops. Reject changes beyond the supplied approval. Test a 15-minute demo delay with only the original ten-minute contingency authorized: show the unresolved five-minute shortfall and request a decision rather than silently cutting another activity.
Optional: use your own input+
Plan from your own event brief
Start a new chat with non-sensitive event details you are authorized to share. Use role labels; omit personal contact information and attendee data. Fill the placeholders below. After checking the extracted boundaries, send these messages one at a time in that chat, checking each reply: “Build a cue sheet for setup, programme, guest exit, teardown and buffer. Show start/end, duration, supplied owner, required earlier tasks and decision gates. Avoid conflicting tasks for the same person.” “Calculate complete revised schedules for my approved alternatives only. Preserve protected durations and fixed deadlines. Keep missing approval or materials unresolved.” “List checks needed before doors open, blocked activities and decision owners. Ask for decisions about delays or material shortages outside the supplied approval. Do not invent safety procedures.” “Audit all schedules against my brief. Recalculate times; check task order, role conflicts, approvals, fixed deadlines and clearance time. Return corrections with unresolved conditions still visible.” The sample’s later prompts name its people and permissions, so use this separate route. The original advanced extension is sample-only unless adapted to your own incident, schedule and explicit approval.
Your own-input prompt
Help me draft a run of show, meaning a timed event plan, using only my brief. Start by extracting access and finish times, the room-clear deadline, roles, activity durations, tasks that depend on earlier tasks, approved alternatives and open questions. Keep the supplied timezone or mark it unknown. Identify any missing information before inventing a schedule. We will check this summary, then build cues with start/end times and owners, test only approved alternatives, add unresolved checks and audit the arithmetic and role overlaps. Do not assume permission to shorten activities, add staff, extend bookings or invent safety procedures. Return written text only; do not book, invite, publish, contact anyone or change another service.
EVENT BOUNDARIES AND ROLES
[Paste the date, local timezone if known, venue access time, public start/finish, room-clear deadline, agreed roles and who can approve changes. Mark unknowns.]
ACTIVITIES AND REQUIREMENTS
[Paste setup, programme, exit and teardown activities, their durations, owners, required order, materials and other conditions for starting.]
APPROVED ALTERNATIVES AND OPEN CHECKS
[Paste the exact changes already approved, their limits and who may invoke them. List unresolved operational checks. If no alternatives are approved, say so.]
Check your own result
Activity durations add up to your event’s actual times; setup, guest exit, teardown and any buffer are accounted for.
Each activity uses a supplied role, follows its required earlier tasks and avoids scheduling one person in conflicting tasks.
Every alternative stays inside its explicit approval; an unresolved conflict goes to the decision owner.
Contacts, access arrangements, fallback materials and safety procedures are not invented or marked confirmed without evidence.
Show, then try
See the shape of the result.
This input is synthetic. The output is a written illustration of the intended result, not a verified AI-tool run.
01 / The starting point
Synthetic input
SYNTHETIC EVENT: Make & Mend workshop, 2026-11-21. All times are venue-local; timezone name is not supplied. No real venue, attendees or reservations.
Confirmed access 11:00. Public programme 12:00–14:00. Room fully clear by 14:30.
Roles already agreed: Jo is event lead/host, calls transition cues, delivers welcome/closing, moderates Q&A and approves programme changes; Sam demonstrates and answers Q&A; Quinn owns room reset, leads practice and answers Q&A; Lee handles AV; Ari handles check-in and coordinates guest exit. All five help with teardown. Jo performs the final room-clear check.
SETUP
11:00–11:10 Jo and venue representative: access/layout check.
11:10–11:35 Quinn: arrange practice materials after layout check.
11:10–11:20 Sam: set demonstration kit after layout check.
11:20–11:40 Lee and Sam: AV/demo test after kit setup.
11:10–11:30 Ari: set check-in desk after layout check.
11:40–11:50 all crew: briefing led by Jo.
11:50–12:00 final checks; Jo decides doors-ready.
PROGRAMME, in this order
Doors/check-in 10 min.
Welcome 10 min.
Demonstration 25 min.
Room reset 10 min.
Guided practice 35 min; requires completed demonstration and reset.
Q&A 15 min.
Closing 10 min.
Guest exit 5 min.
Teardown 25 min after guests exit.
APPROVED CONTINGENCIES
If projection fails, Sam has a prepared 25-minute no-screen demonstration using printed step cards; Lee and Sam must confirm materials before doors.
If Sam is delayed by up to 10 minutes, Jo may host up to 10 minutes of orientation and shorten Q&A to a minimum of 5 minutes. Demonstration, reset, practice, closing and exit durations cannot be shortened under this approval. Public finish remains 14:00.
Longer delays or missing activity materials need a new Jo decision; do not invent consent to cuts or booking extensions.
Unresolved before doors: venue emergency contact, accessible route and final check that printed backup cards are present. Do not invent safety procedures.
Copies text only. For image or file tasks, use the source files named in the steps too.
RUN OF SHOW · Draft from synthetic brief · 21 Nov 2026, venue-local time
SETUP
11:00–11:10 | Access/layout check | Jo + venue representative | Gate: confirmed access
11:10–11:35 | Practice materials | Quinn | After layout check
11:10–11:20 | Demo kit | Sam | After layout check
11:10–11:30 | Check-in desk | Ari | After layout check
11:20–11:40 | AV/demo test | Lee + Sam | Demo kit ready; confirm printed no-screen backup
11:40–11:50 | Crew briefing | Jo, all crew | Setup tasks complete; resolve emergency contact and accessible route
11:50–12:00 | Final checks / doors-ready decision | Jo with crew | Required operational checks resolved; do not mark them complete without evidence
PUBLIC PROGRAMME
12:00–12:10 | Doors/check-in | Ari | Jo's doors-ready decision
12:10–12:20 | Welcome | Jo | Check-in opening complete
12:20–12:45 | Demonstration | Sam; Lee on AV | Tested AV or confirmed printed fallback
12:45–12:55 | Reset for practice | Quinn; Jo calls cue | Demonstration complete
12:55–13:30 | Guided practice | Quinn | Demo complete and reset ready
13:30–13:45 | Q&A | Jo moderates; Sam + Quinn answer | Practice complete
13:45–13:55 | Closing | Jo | Q&A ends
13:55–14:00 | Guest exit | Ari coordinates | Closing complete
14:00–14:25 | Teardown | All five; Jo checks room | Guests exited
14:25–14:30 | Five-minute clearance buffer | Jo | Room must be fully clear by 14:30
WORKED TEN-MINUTE DEMO DELAY (only if Jo invokes approved option)
12:20–12:30 orientation, Jo
12:30–12:55 demo, Sam
12:55–13:05 reset, Quinn
13:05–13:40 guided practice, Quinn
13:40–13:45 Q&A, Jo/Sam/Quinn (approved 5-minute minimum)
13:45–13:55 closing; 13:55–14:00 exit
Teardown still 14:00–14:25. The ten-minute gap is offset by shortening Q&A from 15 to 5 minutes. No other duration changes.
CONTINGENCY CUES
Projection fails: Lee reports; Sam confirms printed cards and uses the prepared same-length alternative. If cards are missing, pause for Jo's decision.
Sam delay exceeds 10 minutes: the approved adjustment is insufficient. Jo must choose an explicit programme change before a revised schedule is treated as agreed; do not extend finish or silently cut practice.
Practice materials missing: Quinn tells Jo before doors; guided practice remains blocked. Do not replace it with an unapproved activity.
PRE-DOORS HOLD LIST
Confirm venue emergency contact, accessible route and printed backup cards. Use the venue's procedures; no emergency instructions or contact numbers are invented.
This is an operational cue sheet. No event, booking, invitation or promotion has been created.
These checks use the worked example and its particular facts. With your own material, check your actual names, numbers, sources and rules; do not reuse the sample’s values as the answer.
Unsaved checks stay in this tab and reset when you reload. If you choose Save guide, its current example checkmarks are kept in this browser when storage is available.
!
A few things to watch for.
Adding a buffer without removing time elsewhere in a fixed-length programme.
Moving an activity ahead of a prerequisite to hide a delay.
Calling an unconfirmed fallback ready or inventing permission to overrun.