On Monday night, a small crowd of in-house event and meeting planners convened at the CUNY Graduate Center for the Event Leadership Institute's Maverick Series Live to hear interviews with the people behind some of the biggest events in the country, including the N.F.L. Super Bowl and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Facilitated by E.L.I. executive director Howard Givner and XPL founder Kevin White, the program covered topics like how the planners got their jobs, how they source vendors and staff, how they lead their teams, and how they solve last-minute problems.
Perhaps the most talked-about question of the night was, "How did you land the job?" For Laura Schwartz, who worked as the White House director of events during the Clinton Administration, starting as a volunteer while attending American University was the answer. "If somebody [in the office] had a lot of calls, I'd say 'Listen, looks like you have a big event on Tuesday. I don't have class—of course I did, I was cutting class—can I help out?'" said Schwartz. "And instead of answering phones that day, I would be escorting a crew." Now the author of Eat, Drink, and Succeed: Climb Your Way to the Top Using the Networking Power of Social Events, Schwartz worked her way up from being hired as staff assistant, to ultimately filling the position of event director.
Frank Supovitz, senior vice president of events for the National Football League, shared a similar story. He also made copies and coffee early in his career at Radio City Music Hall Productions. "It's really about being open to the opportunities, being versatile, and showing what you've got," he said.
Today, he oversees a team that stages some of the most prestigious sports events in the world, including the Super Bowl, for which planning starts four years in advance. Bringing more than 200,000 people to the host city each year, the Super Bowl calls for extreme security measures, including a temporary flight restriction over the stadium, closing off streets, and installing over 130 magnetometers (the type of metal detectors you see in the airport) to process as many as 80,000 people in just three hours.
Speaking of high-security events, IMG Fashion executive producer Christina Neault produces Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the traveling trade show that, when it hits New York, is considered the city's largest media event and draws more than 100,000 attendees twice a year. For 35 days before the eight-day showcase at Lincoln Center, Neault's team takes over the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to build about 20 tents, each equipped with power, lighting, and restroom capabilities.
Her biggest secret? "You've got to have fun at what you're doing," she said. Overseeing a team of about 500, the Fashion Institute of Technology graduate looks for certain qualities in potential hires. "Someone who's really upbeat, team-oriented, and great work ethic," she said. "I like people who have worked retail or have been bartenders or waitresses—I think [the service industry] gives you the mind-set to work in the events business."
Also managing a team behind one of the largest business events in the country—the Wal-Mart annual shareholder's meeting—is Mark Shearon, founder and managing partner of experiential agency Proscenium, who shared that things don't always go as planned. "You have to have redundancy with every single part of the show, including people, equipment, and even talent," he said, explaining how to always have a plan B.
He went on to share an incident where he had to find a last-minute talent replacement for Susan Boyle and ended up making the arrangements to fly in Miley Cyrus—who had recently launched a clothing line with Wal-Mart—for a performance. "You've got to be prepared," he said, "and think about all the things that can go wrong and have a plan for that."
