Plan Your Meetings

Back in May, we asked ME Productions to give us their ideas for celebrating the inauguration of three candidates then in contention for the presidency (Clinton, Obama and McCain). Now that we know Barack Obama will become our president in eight weeks, we asked meeting professionals from all over America what they would do if they were part of the official Presidential Inaugural Committee, organizing one of the inaugural balls or festivities.

Unity

“I think a great theme idea would be ‘Unity,’” says Mary J. Koska of Pittsburgh’s The Hutton Group. “This is a historic election that has really brought a lot of people together. So you should have something with MLK and Jesse Jackson and bringing that into the unity of America and what we’re supposed to be as a country. I think in terms of entertainment and décor you’d have to tread lightly — do it elegantly without being overpowering — because these are strong themes. The takeaway should be something clean and new and fresh.”

Change

“My theme would be ‘Change,’” says Denise Brewer of MM Meeting Destinations Inc. in Kernersville, N.C. “At the beginning of the night everything would be black and white — the servers, tables and walls — and throughout the night everything would change to color. The waiters and staff would start to come in with colored vests on. The centerpieces would be white flowers in water that’s uplit with colored lights. The walls change with color changing from old to new. I haven’t gotten a vision of what would be on the walls, yet … maybe past presidents.”

Yes, We Can

“I was thinking more of his ‘Yes, we can’ as a theme,” says Lynn Rich, CMP, of Orlando’s Publicis Meetings USA. “Incorporating things people thought were impossible, but that [were] achieved, like sending a man to the moon — really bold pictures and statements of people that did things they thought couldn’t be done. For example, there was a man who was severely injured in an airline crash and they said he wouldn’t live, or Charles Lindbergh … or the end of segregation. Whether they’re things or events or people, I want to create an atmosphere of hope and optimism — have the whole venue filled with these bold statements. For a centerpiece you could have lotus flowers, because they say lotus grow out of muck, so they are a symbol of new life and renewal.”

Family

“If I were planning the Obama family’s inauguration day festivities, I would put together a scavenger hunt,” says Patricia Mahoney Rivera, a meetings and travel specialist in Long Island, N.Y. “What a great team/world-builder event this could be. Scavenger hunts are educational, fun-filled events. What better way to inaugurate our new president and his family?”

One thing the Inaugural Committee members need to keep in mind is security. “Every single facet of the event and the management of that event will have a layer of security attached, including comprehensive contingency planning,” says Julia Rutherford Silvers, CSEP, the New Mexico-based author of Risk Management for Meetings and Events. “This will have a significant effect on the event organizer’s timeline, procurement practices, site layout, logistics, communications and perhaps even the event’s design. It would require full compliance with and accommodation of the head of state’s protection services (i.e., the Secret Service), without knowledge of their specific tactics. You follow their instructions, no questions asked. On-site change, something most event organizers are used to managing, is not acceptable in this context.”

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Incidentally, the theme for the weeklong series of events leading up to President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in on Jan. 20, 2009, will be “A New Birth of Freedom,” commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

Knowing that theme, how would you incorporate it into an inaugural ball or gala?