Question

You are the general manager of a 16,000-seat arena located on the campus of a state university in Iowa. This is a presidential election year, and the Midwestern states are considered a pivotal region for both the Republican nominee and the incumbent Democratic president who is seeking re-election. Campaign strategists for the sitting president feel it is extremely important to hold a campaign rally in the heart of the Midwest to gather support and gain momentum for re-election. You receive a phone call from a representative with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) asking for available dates in September, during a time when you have a relatively open schedule. After a quick review of your calendar, you find a Saturday in September that is open and acceptable to the DNC. They are also requesting the use of the Friday before to appropriately prepare the arena and to have the Secret Service sweep and secure the venue. The president has had a very controversial first term. The country has experienced a slumping economy, an unparalleled environmental disaster, and an ongoing foreign war. The campaign rally will most likely attract hundreds of protestors to the venue protesting a number of decisions and policies which the president has enacted. The safety of the president and all of his supporters is of primary concern. You are asked to attend a meeting with the DNC two months before the president’s campaign rally to help create the two-day event timeline and to advise the DNC of potential venue issues that need to be planned for. Assignment While events designed to attract a large number of guests to the venue are desirable from a business perspective, they also bring with them an increased degree of responsibility. During all such events, event managers literally hold the safety and well-being of the guests in their hands. Whether the audience is a small meeting group or 100,000 sports fans, the responsibilities and need for precaution remain the same.

1. Make a list of potential issues that should be discussed at the meeting.

2. Understanding that the Secret Service controls all aspects of security for a presidential visit, what else needs to done to prepare your venue and your event staff for this event?

3. Outline the contents of a special training program for your event staff to best prepare them for their responsibilities.

Answer 1

The President of any state holds a very designated and reputable position. Hence, if an event or an assembly is going be under his presence, then the arrangements have to be done accordingly. No compromise shoud be held in terms of service, security and the hygeine.

Ans 1. To make any assembly successful, a proper planning and discussions over it is important. Being a general manager, you should be very practical and has to discuss all the possible issues and the parameters of this assembly. Some of the potential issues that needs to be discussed in the meeting are as follows :

A. The Time when the rally would begin and what would be the approx. ending time of the rally.

B. Lining up of Speakers : What all people would act as a speaker in the rally.

C. Planning of Logistics : This is a crucial issue which needs to be highlited. Logistics include, how much sound equpments do they need, do they need the media coordinator, do they need the visual and sign coordinator. Do they want us to contact all the media for this event.

D. A very crucial point that have to be discussed will be of the security. Since, the president's security is of utmost importance, and since the event would be involving various political leaders and audiences of n number of view points so there might be chances of various clashes hence how much security peronnels shoud be approximately appointed. Do they have arrangements for air security as well or not.

Ans b. Since this event would involve presidents presence hence his security has to be safeguarded and for that multiple preperations has to be done. Some of the preperations are listed below :

1. Multiple security teams/ officers should be outsourced for this event. The officers should be equipped with latest security devices and equipments and ammunition.

2. A strong security will have to be imposed at the front gate so that each and every person should be thoroughlly screened before giving entry to the event.

3. The place where the president would sit, the entire area of a big space have to be covered by land and air security.

4. Every point shoud be equipped with cctv camaras.

5. Not only, on the security side but also on a general side multiple prepartion has to be dont to make this assembly a memorable once.

6. Seats should be checked and if there is any damage, it should be fixed. Proper decorations has to be done.

7. For this staff should be trained as per the training program, that we wont discuss in the third part of the question.

Ans 3. Since, multiple roles and responsibilities have be be enforsed to the staff so a detailed special training is required for all the staff members to make this event a big one :

a. Staff should be divided into groups, and each group shoud be assigned a particular category to look after it. each group should have plenty of staff members so that nothing is left untouched and each group should have a leader staff member to check everything is on it;s pace.

b. The group looking after food arrangement, shoud be instructed that proper hygeine should be followed.

c. The group looking after security. concern, should be enforsed with roles and responsibilities to hire and outsouce multiple teams of security officers.

d. A special group should be alloted the task for welcoming the speakers, president and all the legislative sub ordinates.

e. All cleanniness should be followed at the event area and that has to be alloted to one group.

f. All other tasks like logistics, transportation etc should be done diligently and properly.

Hope this helps !!