The Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port, a fund-raiser for developmentally disabled individuals, took place the weekend of June 3. With a lineup that included everything from a clambake to a rock concert and a 100-mile cycling challenge, it would be putting it lightly to say there were a few moving targets for Scott Tracy, vice president of special events for Best Buddies International.
The weekend's festivities began on Friday night at Harvard Stadium. Celebrity quarterback Tom Brady, the event chair, played in a flag football challenge as some 5,500 spectators looked on. The game was followed by the new Michael Schlow Celebrity Sous Chef Tailgate party, which had a barbecue-like vibe and catered to 400 guests.
Early Saturday morning, the cycling challenge began at Boston's John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and took riders on a 100-mile route through the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port and onto Craigville Beach in Centerville. As alternatives to the ultra-long bike ride, the challenge offered 50- and 20-mile cycling routes, as well as a five-mile run and a three-mile walk. Finally, a victory party on the beach for 1,500 guests—replete with an award presentation, clambake, and performance from pop singer Natasha Bedingfield—wrapped it all up.
The planning team took a divide-and-conquer approach to keeping the event on track, meeting once a week for a year. "The overall ride is headed by J.R. Fry, vice president of the Best Buddies challenge, who oversees the budget and coordinates all the staff and volunteers," Tracy said. The staffers divided into teams, each with its own leader, to handle logistics ranging from coordinating packet pickup to distributing V.I.P. gift bags and assisting at start lines, rest stops, and finish lines. With a team of two staffers under him, Tracy oversaw the event's parties and V.I.P. receptions.
Tracy was also the main point of contact for the vendors—or "the dictator," as he put it. "Having [worked on the event] for several years, I know when and whom I need to speak with as we move through the planning," he said. "But I strongly believe in keeping everyone informed of changes to the show flow, et cetera, as the smallest detail could affect any number of [vendors.]" In the final days leading up to load-in, Tracy began holding weekly conference calls with multiple vendors "to best figure out the exact timing for each step, so everyone is not falling over each other en masse and competing for the space."
Friday night's load-in at Harvard proved to be the most challenging. "Every four years, the Harvard track team travels to England for a special competition or training, and they need the [stadium] facilities right up to the moment they leave. That moment was the entire morning of the day before the event," said Tracy. The crew ultimately began loading in at noon on Thursday, working until 3 a.m. to complete the task.
