Parking permit for the 24-foot shredder? Check. Security detail for the guy Leonardo DiCaprio played in that Spielberg movie? Check. Undercover cops to keep the Hare Krishnas off the stage? Check. Just a few of the items on Andrew Yard's planning checklist for the New York City stop of Shred Across America, a multicity tour that promoted Staples' document shredders by educating the public about identity theft.
For the tour, Staples partnered with Frank W. Abagnale (identity thief turned identity theft expert portrayed in the recent movie Catch Me If You Can, pictured here), who spoke about preventing identity theft; people were also invited to bring old bills, financial statements, and other sensitive documents to shred. In New York, some showed up with bags full: "That was one of the factors in measuring the event's successwhether people brought items to shred," says Yard. "In some cities, they had to empty the shredder truck in the middle of the event."
Keep on Truckin'
When your convoy consists of an SF200 (that 24-foot-long mobile shredding unit) and a trailer to haul the event's tents and tables, parking is an issue. Most events were held in front of Staples stores, and "sometimes stores would say they'd block parking and then didn't, or they wouldn't leave enough room," says Yard. "The best way to handle it was to have our guys get to the site the night before and leave the vehicles overnight." Unless they had to drive from, say, Columbus to Cincinnati in one day.
The tour kicked off October 17 in Boston and ended November 23 in Scottsdale, with no Saturday, Sunday, or Monday dates. "We went from Boston to New York to Philly to Baltimore with no break," says Yard. It could have been worse: "It was originally going to be 30 cities. The time frame was the biggest challengeStaples wanted everything held between the end of October and Thanksgiving."
Cult Following
Yard had security on hand to protect the "couple of thousand dollars' worth of shredders people were testing out," but in New York, he hired a couple of off-duty cops because "every day we went to Union Square to take measurements for our stage and tents, the Hare Krishnas were there doing their chanting. We thought they might jump onstageyou never know. But they weren't even there the day of the event."
But other uninvited guests did drop in. "Some homeless people saw some of the food set up for Frank and thought it was a free buffet," says Yard. "We just told them, politely, 'This is a private event, but if there's any left over when we're done we'll give you some.' And it turned out there was plenty left over, so they were quite happy at the end."
Shred Across America
Planning team: 5
Time spent planning: 5 months
Organizer: Synergy Events (for Staples)