MC Acara: What to Send Before the Event

An MC acara only sounds simple when the brief is finished. The host can carry a welcome, a list of names and a close. They cannot carry a programme that still lives in three people’s heads. What you send before the event decides whether the room hears the right name in the right language. Fees for the host are on request and depend on the hours, the languages and whether writing the script is part of the job.

Use this as a template, not as a script we will invent for you. The roles sit on MCs and hosts. Other notes on planning sit on the blog. When the document exists, send it with the request. We match a host. We do not publish a personal phone number for you to forward the file to at midnight.

Why the MC acara brief matters

The host is the person the room trusts for the next instruction. If that instruction is late, contradictory or in the wrong language, the room does not experience a “content issue”. It experiences a confused event. A brief is how you move the decisions to the day before, when they can still be changed without a microphone.

A useful brief is short. It is the order, the names, the lines that must be exact, and the lines that may be cut. Adjectives such as “energetic” or “premium” do not tell the host who speaks next. A run of show does. If you have not decided, say which decisions are still open so the host does not invent them.

Run of show essentials

One table is enough. Each row needs a time, a segment name, who is on the microphone, how long it should last, and what happens next. Include the walk-on and the walk-off. A speech listed as ten minutes is longer once the person has to get to the lectern and find the clicker. Mark which segments are indoors, outdoors, or in a second room.

Write the language on the row, not in a footnote. If the welcome is Bahasa Indonesia and English, both lines belong on the page. If a session is only in one language because interpretation covers it, say that so the host does not repeat the paper. Note the cue owner: host, show caller, or technician. A cue nobody owns is the one that fails.

A minimum row

• Clock time and duration.
• What the segment is: welcome, talk, film, award, close.
• Who speaks, and in which language.
• The cue in and the cue out.
• What can be cut if the day runs long.

Names, titles and pronunciation

Send names as they must be spoken, with titles. A mis-said company or a flattened personal name is the line people remember. Add a phonetic note from someone who actually knows the person. Do not ask the host to guess from a email signature. If a name must not be said until a reveal, mark who already knows and who must not be hinted at.

Titles follow the protocol you choose. Government guests, clients and internal leaders do not share one default order. Write the order of acknowledgements. If a title is long, give the short form you are willing to hear on stage. The host should not shorten a title by improvising.

Check the list the day before, including people added overnight. A name that arrives as the doors open will be said carefully only if the host is allowed to slow down for it. Put that permission in the note. Otherwise the host will rush, and the rush is where the name breaks.

Sponsor and housekeeping messages

Sponsor lines need a script and a limit. A thank-you of one or two sentences can sit between segments. A product talk is a different booking. Decide the maximum length before every partner asks for “just a minute”. Give the host the approved sentence. Do not leave them to describe a sponsor from a logo on a slide.

Housekeeping is the part guests actually use: where to go, when to return, what to do in a weather change, where the prayer room is, when the coach leaves. These lines are often more important than the joke you hoped to include. Write them in every language the room needs. Put them at moments when people can still act on them, not after the group has already left the hall.

Contingency notes

Write three failures while you are calm. The film does not play. A speaker is late. The outdoor plan moves inside. For each one, say what the host should tell the room, and what they should not explain. Guests need the next action. They do not need a live diagnosis of the fault.

Also say what the host may drop. A filler thank-you can go. A safety line cannot. A second sponsor line can go. The name of the next speaker cannot. If interpretation is booked, the contingency is shared with the booth. A host who changes language order without telling the interpreters will not match what the headsets are doing.

Then send the document. The request form is the path. Mention the city, Bali or Jakarta, the date and the languages, and attach the run of show. Browse MCs and hosts if you are still choosing the role, and the blog if you want the neighbouring notes on launches, galas and interpretation. The fee is on request. It is not printed on the profile. The host’s own contacts stay off the site.