Creating a successful event is both an art and a science -- one that requires meshing creativity with knowledge. Based on experience blending art and science to produce thousands of events over a 30-year period, Paulette Wolf Events and Entertainment has developed these guidelines.
1. Allow yourself adequate time to plan. Large-scale events require eight months to a year of planning, especially if major entertainment is involved and if the event has multiple components. Mega-events with big-name entertainment have too many details to be handled in a shorter time frame.
2. Learn what's involved in negotiating and producing shows with big-name entertainment. Using celebrity talent is an excellent way to create a special magic for an event. When negotiating with talent to appear or perform at an event, they hold the cards. Some agents won't take your call if they don't know you. Be prepared to chase the agent with plenty of phone calls. And only put one offer out at a time because, in the upper echelons of the entertainment industry, an offer is a contract. You don't want to be forced to pay both Madonna and Jennifer Lopez if they both accept. Once the artist is secured, hiring a reputable, experienced production company is a must. They'll speak the same language as the artist's agent, technical manager, etc., and you'll have a greater chance of making everyone happy.
3. Coordinate your event with all appropriate city departments. If your event is outdoors or in a public venue, it may require coordination with five or six city departments. Each department may have its own special permit. Bringing department heads together in a meeting to clarify the fine points can save many headaches, for example, with red carpet arrivals. From our experience, at least one permit is needed for drop-off and pickup, another for laying down the carpet. For a recent movie premiere in New York City, we needed to assure the city administration that we had the capability to close Broadway in Times Square. The mission was accomplished by showing them a detailed plan for police requirements including a threat assessment, ticket holder requirements, drop-off and pick-up points, and even the location of a tow truck.
4. Security is key in a post-9/11 environment. Security has always been important, but it has become more so in the past two years. Today, threat assessments are needed for most events, not just the high-profile ones where a top public official such as the President is attending.
5. Expect unexpected challenges. Un-expected situations can run the gamut from a union protest to a delayed show start because the celebrity talent didn't have his or her chocolate chip cookies. At our first Super Bowl game in Florida, we were hit with a rainstorm that left the corporate hospitality village flooded and us vacuuming up the water in the wee hours before guests arrived. At another event, setting up a tent the length of the playing field at Chicago's Soldier Field required the use of a crane to lift heavy concrete blocks into place that would keep the tent in place. But we discovered that the crane wouldn't fit through the players' tunnel. We had to let the air out of the tires and remove the crane basket to get it through.
6. Measure an event's success. Determining the success of a complex event has its own unique set of criteria. These usually include attendance, news media hits, and the results of questionnaires. Equally important are the number of repeat clients secured.
7. Get outside help. If your event is truly complex, you'll probably need help from an event management company. If there are a lot of corporate chiefs with a stake in the event, an objective third party can serve as a single point of contact for deadlines, quality issues, and resolving problems that may hamper the success of the event. The experts will not only have great connections which can facilitate the planning and save you money, they'll know things like where you can rent a camel, that protocol dictates that the First Lady must go onstage from the front of the house, that lights and sound should never come from the same power source, and that there is a required number of handicapped porta-potties at a public event (and that the number differs from city to city). That's the kind of knowledge based on experience that can be a huge asset to an organization in planning a major event.