Building Buffers: How a Run Time Is Actually Worked Out

When a draft agenda arrives, the first thing I do is ignore the times written beside each item. Those figures are usually hopes, not measurements. I take a blank sheet, write the fixed points first, such as the doors opening, the broadcast start and the hard finish, and then see how much room is genuinely left between them.

Only after that do I place the segments. A welcome that is meant to take three minutes goes in at three, but I mark it as an estimate until someone has said it aloud with a stopwatch running. Learners often skip this step, and their plans look tidy on paper while quietly assuming that nobody walks slowly, nobody laughs and nobody asks a question.

This habit takes ten minutes and saves a great deal of correcting later. By the time a presenter reads the plan, every number on it has either been tested or is clearly labelled as a guess that still needs testing.

• Write fixed points first
• Label every unmeasured time as an estimate
• Leave the agenda's own times until last

The most reliable way to time a segment is to perform it at half effort in the room, with the stopwatch on. A presenter reading their opening remarks silently will always finish faster than one who speaks them, and a moderator who has not yet heard the guests will underestimate the answers by a wide margin.

In the course, we ask learners to record three passes of the same segment: a quick one, a natural one and a relaxed one. The natural time goes into the plan, and the gap between quick and relaxed tells us how far that segment can drift. A segment with a narrow gap is predictable. One with a wide gap needs a buffer nearby.

We also note what causes the drift. A video clip plays for exactly its length, so it carries no risk. A live question from the audience can stretch by a minute without anyone noticing. Knowing which is which changes where we place the spare time.

• Record quick, natural and relaxed passes
• Plan on the natural time
• Note what causes each segment to drift

A common mistake is to add a small cushion to every segment. Ten segments with one extra minute each looks careful, but it produces a programme that finishes early everywhere and gives the team no single place to absorb a real overrun. Spare time works better when it is gathered into a few deliberate spots.

I usually place one buffer before a fixed point, such as a break or a handover to a remote guest, and another about two thirds of the way through. The first protects the thing that cannot move. The second gives the producer a way to recover from an early delay without cutting content the audience came to hear.

Each buffer gets a name on the running order, for instance flex after panel one, so that everyone on the team knows it exists and who may spend it. An unnamed gap tends to be spent by whoever notices it first.

• Gather spare time into a few named buffers
• Put one before every fixed point
• Decide who is allowed to spend each buffer

Every plan we teach carries a short list of cuts, ordered from the least painful to the most. It is written before the show, in calm conditions, and it sits beside the running order. When a programme runs three minutes over, nobody should be inventing solutions with a live microphone open.

The first items on the list are usually small: a shortened introduction, a trimmed sponsor note, one question dropped from a discussion. Further down come bigger moves, such as merging two segments or moving a demonstration to the end and making it optional. Each cut states how many minutes it recovers and who needs to be told.

Running short is handled the same way, with a list of additions that are ready to use. A prepared extra question or a longer closing summary is far easier to deliver than an improvised filler, and the presenter can see it coming.

• Write cuts in order, gentlest first
• State minutes saved and who must be told
• Keep a matching list for running short

Rehearsal is where the numbers meet reality. We run the programme with a clock visible to everyone and mark the actual start and end of each segment in a second column beside the planned one. After the run, the differences show plainly where the plan was too hopeful or too generous.

It is tempting to adjust only the segments that went wrong. I prefer to look at the pattern. If three segments ran long by about the same amount, the cause is often a shared habit, such as transitions taking longer than expected as people walk on and settle. One correction to the transition time then fixes all three.

Learners revise their sample rundowns after a mock rehearsal, and the second version is nearly always shorter in its notes and more precise in its numbers.

• Record planned and actual times side by side
• Look for patterns before fixing single segments
• Revise the rundown after every run

A timing plan only works if the people running the show can read it under pressure. We keep the page uncluttered: start time, length, owner and the name of any buffer that follows. Anything else belongs in the production notes, where it can be consulted without crowding the sheet.

On the day, the stage manager or producer calls the time against the plan, and the presenter does not need to carry a stopwatch. Our learners practise this call in plain phrases, such as two minutes over, flex is open. Short, steady wording keeps the room calm.

When the show ends, we write down the real durations beside the planned ones and keep them with the notes. The next team to plan a similar programme starts with measured figures instead of guesses.