Every asset that hits the screen, accounted for.

Content management is not file wrangling. It's owning the single source of truth for everything the audience sees — and being the person who can answer any question about it, instantly, in a dark room, ninety seconds before doors.

Most content problems on show site aren't content problems. They're someone making a local decision without knowing what it costs three cues later. So I start by understanding the entire show — every segment, every hand-off, every dependency — and then the file work becomes obvious.

1. Phase 01T‑minus 6 weeks

   Read the whole show

   Objectives, audience, run of show, segment by segment. Who speaks, what they need, what the moment is supposed to feel like. I ask the questions producers wish someone had asked earlier.

   • Draft run of show, annotated with content owners
   • Every screen, surface and aspect ratio mapped
   • Known risks flagged in writing, early

2. Phase 02T‑minus 4 weeks

   Build the spine

   Naming convention, folder structure, intake path, deadlines that are real. Set up once, correctly, and it holds under pressure for the whole run.

   • Single intake channel — no content by side-channel
   • File spec published to every contributor
   • Version log live from day one

3. Phase 03T‑minus 2 weeks

   Chase, check, conform

   Content arrives late and wrong — that's normal, and it's planned for. Every file is opened, checked against spec and conformed before it ever reaches the playback system.

   • Fonts, links, embedded media, build order — all verified
   • Aspect and safe-area checked against the real screen
   • Status visible to the producer at all times

4. Phase 04Load‑in

   On site, in the room

   Content on the playback machines, cued to the run of show, tested on the actual screens with the actual switcher. Backed up in two places before the first rehearsal call.

   • Playback and backup machines mirrored
   • Every cue fired once before anyone watches
   • Run of show reconciled with video, audio and lighting

5. Phase 05Rehearsal

   Absorb the changes

   Rehearsal is where the show actually gets written. Changes come fast and from everywhere; my job is to take them all, keep them straight, and make sure the version on the machine is the version everyone agreed to.

   • Change log kept live, timestamped and attributed
   • Reissued run of show after every major pass
   • Nothing changes on the machine without a record

6. Phase 06Show

   Quiet, and ready

   By showtime nothing should be interesting. I'm on headset, one cue ahead, with the answer to any question and a fix for the thing that just changed.

   • Live edits handled without stopping the show
   • Every department told, every time
   • Final files and change log archived for the client

Thorough is a process, not a personality trait. Being careful under pressure isn't something you summon on show day — it's something you build weeks earlier, so that on show day there's nothing left to be careful about.

Naming

One convention, no exceptions. Every file self-describes: show, segment, cue, version, date. You can read a filename in the dark and know exactly where it belongs.

Versions

The current one is obvious. Never two files that might be the latest. Superseded cuts are archived, not deleted — recoverable in seconds if a decision gets reversed.

Redundancy

Two of everything that matters. Mirrored playback machines, a local backup and an off-site copy. Tested by actually failing over, not by assuming it would work.

Change log

Written down, every time. Who asked, what changed, when, and which cue it affects. It ends the "I thought we cut that" conversation before it starts.

Comms

Departments hear it from me. A content change is a video change, an audio change and a lighting change. Everyone affected is told directly.

Handoff

The client keeps the record. Final content, final run of show, full change history — packaged and handed over. Next year's team starts from fact, not from memory.

Plates are placeholders — drop Tim's real show photography into assets/gallery/.

• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager
• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager
• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager
• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager
• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager
• 20XXClient / show nameContent Manager

Formats

Corporate keynotes · General sessions · Product launches · Broadcast · Hybrid

Tools

PowerPoint · Keynote · Google Slides · Playback systems · Media servers

Scale

Single-screen breakouts through multi-screen arena shows

Tim is Chief Operating Officer of SmartSuite Tech, where the same frustrations that show up on show site get built into software. Presenter tools have always been designed by people who don't run shows — SmartSuite is what happens when the people who do get to design them instead.

Role

Chief Operating Officer

Company

SmartSuite Tech, Inc. ↗

Field

Presentation & live-show software

Position

Patented technology

• ShippingPatented

  SmartNotes

  Speaker notes that live inside the deck. Clickable pages of notes per slide, no scrolling, and everything saved right inside the .pptx — so the notes travel with the file instead of beside it.

• In developmentPatented

  SmartPrompt

  A pro teleprompter built into the slides. Script where it's needed, scroll-free and cue-friendly on stage, across PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides.

Visit SmartSuite Tech ↗