Hargrove, an institution in the Washington, D.C., event-planning industry, sets the stage for the inauguration.Although President Barack Obama's rallying cry may have been change in Washington, when it came to selecting a special events company to help with the inaugural festivities, consistency was key. Hargrove, an event, trade show, and custom exhibit company based in Lanham, MD, has been involved with inauguration ceremonies since 1949.
It was then that the now 80-year-old Earl Hargrove Jr. and his father designed "eight or nine" floats for President Harry Truman. Last spring, Hargrove sold the company to his daughter, Carla, and his son-in-law, Tim McGill. Though the couple now runs the show, Hargrove designed this year's parade floats.
Experience is vital in producing inaugural festivities, Hargrove says, as preparation takes place with only a few weeks' notice for events featured on the world's stage.
"We started planning in the summer without a contract. We were gathering resources and creating a list of event professionals we could bring in from all over the country to help us," explains McGill.
As Official General Contractor to the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC), Hargrove set the stage for 18 official events, ranging from receptions and dinners to the Lincoln Memorial concert to 10 official balls and parade floats. In addition, the company handled events for private organizations. In total, the company worked on 44 events in 34 venues over five days. The company was responsible for all staging, decor, graphics, sound, lighting, and video.
Obama Ovation"During one of our first days installing the staging at the Lincoln Memorial, President Obama showed up with his family to see the Memorial. This wasn't unusual as he is a very hands-on individual. The Secret Service shut down the work crew and had them stand off to the side to let them enjoy their family time," explains 48-year-old McGill. "Another day, the President showed up at PIC headquarters, where Carla had a temporary office, to thank everyone and let them know how much he appreciated their efforts."
The effort made by the entire Hargrove company was Herculean. For four weeks leading up to the inauguration, the company was abuzz 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hargrove's Lanham complex contains about eight acres of warehouse, manufacturing, business, and creative offices.
"From Christmas on, Carla and I worked, on average, 14-hour days. The whole company was just working on adrenaline," McGill says.
Normally, Hargrove employs a staff of 200. Three weeks before the inauguration, 600 event specialists were brought in from across the country to help.
"I feel very fortunate every time we have the opportunity to be on the world stage. Every time you witness something like this, the hairs on the back of your neck stick up, you get chills," explains McGill. "But the excitement level and intensity surrounding this inauguration was unlike anything we've ever seen. The crowds were unbelievably generous. They were excited and so well behaved." It has been widely reported that there were no arrests or major incidents during the inauguration and parade that followed.
Another record was that Obama had the largest security contingent of any president's swearing-in. This was one of the biggest challenges facing Hargrove, says McGill.
First, there were credentials. "We had six employees handling all of our Secret Service credentials for the close to 800 people we had on site. It took them five full 12-hour days, to secure all of our internal credentials so we could get into the sites after the Secret Service made their sweeps."
Intense security also complicated teardown and setup. Candlelight dinners were held the night before the inauguration in Union Station, the National Building Museum, and the Washington Hilton. "These dinners have a completely different environment than the setting for the ball the next night. We had eight hours to turn that room from a dinner setting to an inaugural ball setting," says McGill. "We had to change the lighting, sound, video, decor, and staging by 8 a.m. when the Secret Service arrived. We used three times the amount of people we usually use to handle the overnight switch."
Celebrity ScrambleThese were all minor hurdles says McGillthe biggest challenge for Hargrove was the "We Are One" inaugural concert held at the Lincoln Memorial that featured the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment. Bruce Springsteen sang with a gospel choir followed by, among others, U2, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor, John Legend, and Stevie Wonder. Denzel Washington gave an introductory speech and Tom Hanks spoke about Abraham Lincoln.
The producer, Ricky Kirschner of Kirschner Productions, was not hired until two weeks before the event. "They had 14 days to put together a concert of this magnitude. We had two of their designers working here for nine straight days, designing in our conference room. As the designs spit out of the printer, we brought them to detailing for fabrication. We were building them immediately. This was challenging, to say the least. We normally have a three- to four-month time frame for something like this, and this was a major television event." Hargrove constructed a 10,000-square-foot floor as well as a variety of other infrastructure components.
Getting around town was another obstacle. "We had 200 tractor trailers delivering staging and decor, and that's not including our lighting, sound, or video equipment. Coordinating those deliveries through the blocked streets and secure areas was a challenge," says McGill. "We operate in DC on a regular basis and are used to dealing with security on a heightened level but this was truly unreal."
What did it take to create all of these events? About 45,000 board feet of lumber; 3,000 sheets of plywood; 500 gallons of paint; 400 rolls of carpet; 100,000 yards of fabric; and 100,000 square feet of signs, seals, banners, and other graphics.\
Political Do-OversFollowing a PIC mandate to reuse and recycle when possible, a flag float from a Reagan inaugural made its fifth parade appearance. The company also swathed stages in used fabrics and utilized recycled signs that were then donated to local school art departments.
McGill says successfully executing one of the highest-profile events in the world will hopefully result in new customers as well as establish a relationship with the Obama administration. Hargrove is one of the few companies in this bleak economy to report growth. "The first quarter of 2009 would have been our biggest ever. Throw the inaugural on top of it, and it just makes it spectacular," says McGill. "We've seen an almost 20 percent increase in business this year. I attribute that to a strategic sales plan we implemented three years ago in which we brought on nine new salespeople. We forecast growing on average between 15 and 20 percent over the next three years. If it wasn't for the economic downturn, we would have enjoyed 30 percent growth."
McGill got to enjoy the fruits of his and his company's labor as he watched the President and Mrs. Obama enjoy their first dance at the Neighborhood Ballnaturally, on a Hargrove custom-built circular stage.
Did the McGills collapse when it was all over? Hardly. "We started staging the Washington Auto Show and the American Society of Association Executives' Technology Show," McGill says with a chuckle.
Originally published March 1, 2009For more ideas, tips, and tools for better meetings and events,
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