I had a situation where I set up my audio and 10 minutes before the panel was to begin speaking the lead speaker insisted on replacing the table with a bigger one.

My audio set-up was removed, the new table was brought in, and when I tried to reset my audio to the way it was, My producer freaked out because he didn't want to "delay" the panel in any way.

The lesson here is your producer needs to respect your space. If all your producer does is worry about not starting late when the organizers of the event are changing the tables 10 minutes before the start of the event, you are working with the wrong person.

Frustrating, but unfortunately common. Events starting on time or not is a pretty big deal to most clients whether it's a concert, lecture panel, etc.
Having been on both sides of the coin many, many times, the producer simply needs to be made to understand that the quality of his audio or video will be compromised due to last minute changes whether it's lighting, sound, focus and so forth. Even though it's not run n' gun, it's the same concept.

Well said.

The weird part was we weren't videotaping the event for picture, just for audio, so why worry more about how the table and distance between the chairs "looked" to the audience rather than how the final recording would sound?