Finally - An Organization for Event Producers

Ever since I began in this crazy business in the mid-1980s, I have felt like an orphan. Why? Because I did something nobody else seemed to do. I acted as a coordinator for all things technical in an event as well as dreaming up creative ideas for decorating and staging the event. I was not a planner or manager. Heck, I hated coordinating buses and airline flight arrivals. Couldn't stand arranging hotel bookings and registrations. Catering was not really my thing. But leave me to the creative and "making the show happen" and I was in my glory. It took a few years, but eventually I realized that the term that defined me was "event producer." Now everyone wants to be one. After all, it's what "causes the applause."

At long last, there is now an advocacy organization for event producers called the Live Show Producers Guild of America (LSPGA), although I am baffled as to why it has to be restricted to America, since they risk alienating many unbelievably talented producers from the rest of the world. Well, let's at least give them a chance. They've only been established since May 2012.

My request for information from them has not been acknowledged but their web site provides quite a bit of information. Supposedly they advocate for anyone who may be a part of a live event production management team, from the Executive Producer down to stage managers. They go on to state that "the LSPGA also welcomes technicians, artisans, crafts people, and essential service providers in the live entertainment industry to be part of the community by becoming involved in their Recommended Services network." According to them, live events include "special events, sport events, live theatre, theme attraction shows, trade shows, touring concerts, and more." Like me, they recognize that such an organization is long overdue.

I think it bodes well for the industry that this organization is now in existence. What would really help clients and make the industry more accountable is to use this organization as not only one for advocating for its members but also one for policing its members. By this I mean that for the far too many event disasters that annually are caused by technical problems - already there is at least one major stage roof collapse in 2012 - the LSPGA should set up an investigative body to determine what happened and have the authority to allocate appropriate punishment, be it membership restrictions, fines, or whatever. This would certainly make the industry at least appear to be accountable to the outside world.

Lastly, they have the stated noble goal of providing accreditation for those in the production business. Again, very worthy. However, if past experience in special events and other "professions" is any indication, this accreditation should be accomplished by a completely independent body and not the advocacy body. But, hey, at least they are starting and for that I give them full credit.

Check them out at http://www.lspga.org.

The Greatest Parade Ever Held?

About a year ago, I promised more posts about ancient events. This post is about another of the many spectacles that occurred throughout history.

In or around 278 BCE, a spectacular event was held in Egypt. Not long after he came to power, Ptolemy II, the son of Ptolemy I (a general and close friend of Alexander the Great), staged a monumental procession the likes of which had never been seen before in the ancient world. Event planners and producers of today could learn some creative lessons from this spectacle.

At the time, Egypt was enmeshed in a series of struggles amongst the diadochi, the generals from Alexander the Great's army and their successors who were competing for the remains of the gigantic empire that had been carved out across western Asia and northern Africa. Ptolemy I and his son were part of this group of competitors. Egypt was rich in raw materials, precious gems, and food. It was one of the most sought-after regions of the empire.

Ptolemy II's goal in staging the event was supposedly to impress and intimidate his political rivals with the sheer magnitude of Egypt's military might and incredible wealth of resources.

So that is the first interesting aspect to this event. Another is the sheer intrigue and mix of personalities involved. They include: Ptolemy II, a voluptuary and dilettante and the son of Ptolemy I; and Arsinoe II, a strong-willed beauty thirsting for political power, and a woman easily the intellectulal equivalent of her future more famous relative, Cleopatra VII. She was the daughter of Ptolemy I and, if history is to be believed, eventually the wife of her brother, Ptolemy II. It was this marriage that later resulted in Ptolemy II being forever known as "Philadelphus" or "loving one's sister."

Finally, all this takes place in Alexandria, the most beautiful, advanced city in the world at that time, thanks to the ingenuity of these same Ptolemies. For want of comparison, it was in those days a contemporary mixture of the debauchery of a Las Vegas and the sophistication of a Paris, London, or New York.

Let us imagine, then, this great city spread out in its whitewashed splendour beside the Mediterranean. It's around the middle of February, 278 BCE.

The superbly designed stone avenue, Boulevard Argeus, stretches southward from the royal palace for stadia. Although sixty cubits wide, it is an ethnic stew approaching the full boil of overflowing excitement under a searing mid-day sun: soldiers with clanking swords on nervous horses; dignitaries in chariots; rich, perfumed matrons in curtained palanquins; bearded Jews with strange hats; black-skinned Nubians; haughty Macedonians in multi-hued chitons; native Egyptians in diaphanous white linens; snorting work elephants; carts filled with tantalizing fruit and vegetables; and official delegations rushing to appointments. Seers, touts, and itinerant street people fight for attention. The city’s normal population of about a hundred thousand has swollen to twice that number in a tidal wave of humanity from countries surrounding the entire Mediterranean. It's the day before the beginning of the first Ptolemaieia, a festival to rival the Olympics with days of athletic and artistic contests to be held in the city's magnificent stadium, known as the Lageion, and theater. Alexandria is the only place to be.

Two weeks later, the event is climaxed. VIP guests of King Ptolemy II and his sister Arsinoe II begin filling the stadium well before sunrise. At the same time, the hordes of commoners and visitors begin lining the city's wide, stoa-bordered boulevards to get the best spots for viewing what is supposed to be the most lavish spectacle ever seen. The excitement is palpable and Ptolemy does not disappoint.

Arsinoe II, sister and wife of Ptolemy II

Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II

Just as the sun rises a golden chariot upon which stands a handsome, winged youth representing Eosphorus, the morning star, and holding aloft a torch that glows brilliantly, enters the stadium to a tumultuous roar. After him come official delegations from the competing kingdoms of the diadochi, the theoroi, plus priests and sacrifices to honor all the Greek gods. They first pass beneath the royal box, and bow profusely to Ptolemy before they circle the stadium in a clockwise direction and exit out the porticoes.

Then Silenoi, followers of the god Dionysus, in purple and scarlet himatia run into the stadium to stop the people in the stands from approaching the parade. They are acting as parade "police."

There follow myriads of other representatives and symbols of the god - satyrs holding gilded lamps…people dressed as Nike with golden wings…then more boys in purple tunics…and forty satyrs with gold crowns and painted bodies. Then the god Hermes…then Penteteris, a voluptuous beauty, tall and adorned with quantities of gold. She has a superb dress. In one hand she’s holding a garland of peach blossoms; the other one has a palm branch...more satyrs with garlands of gold ivy leaves. Then actors from the Guild of the Artists of Dionysus...

Now a section of the procession that represents the mythical life of Dionysus - a large wagon with a hundred eighty slaves pulling it by ropes. It holds a tall statue of Dionysus wearing a purple garment. The statue is posed as if pouring wine out of a golden goblet. A canopy shades the entire statue…another statue that represents Nysa, the place in India where Dionysus was nursed. The statue moves with no person applying his hand to it...the wagon holding the statue is drawn by sixty men and in it the tall female statue is in a sitting position, clothed in a gold tunic. She stands up on her own, pours milk out of a golden bottle, and then sits down again. She is crowned with gold ivy leaves and holds a thyrsus. A parasol shades the wagon.

Next come over three hundred slaves pulling a huge cart on which is a gigantic wine press full of grapes. Sixty satyrs trample the grapes, singing a song in praise of the wine press to flute music. The bald and fat, drunken tutor of Dionysus, Silenus, presides over them. The newly-pressed wine runs out from the bottom of the cart, leaving a purple trail in the dirt of the stadium track. Then another wagon even larger than the last with six hundred men drawing it. There’s a sack on it of sewn leopards’ skins that must hold three thousand measures of wine. This cart too allows its contents to escape onto the track…and now more bumbling fools—a hundred twenty satyrs and silenoi, all wearing garlands. They too carry casks of wine, bowls, and gold goblets…then sixteen hundred boys crowned with ivy and vine leaves and clad in knee-length white chitons march smartly through the stadium porticoes. They all carry a variety of gold and silver wine coolers. After them, hundreds more boys enter carrying drinking cups. They run up into the crowded seats and offer the entire audience a draught of sweet Mareotic wine, refilling the cups from the coolers as necessary.

More "floats" with statues and scenes follow - a wagon decorated as the bed chamber of Semelê, the mother of Dionysus and another decorated as a large cave, the cave where Dionysus was raised. Live doves and pigeons fly out of the cave for the people to catch by long threads attached to their legs. The cave also has running fountains of milk and wine...another wagon containing a beautifully painted statue of the god riding on an elephant. Sitting in front of him on the elephant’s neck is a satyr crowned with a golden chaplet...then five troops of asses ridden by crowned silenoi and satyri...

Sarcophagus with Triumph of Dionysus - Marble from the island of Proconnesus, Turkey

Courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerub-baal/2534611388/

 These scenes were depicted in much greater size and with much greater pomp in the Grand Procession, but no artistic renderings exist of the procession.

The next section of the procession is preceded by the singularly unattractive smell of wild animals...twenty-four chariots drawn by four elephants each enter the stadium, clouds of dust surrounding them and covering the spectators on the lower rows of seats...The elephants randomly trumpet, snort and deposit their breakfast on the track, adding to the general stench and mess... then a ridiculous parade of foreign animals pulling chariots ensues—goats, antelopes, buffaloes, ostriches, zebras. Two costumed boys also ride on every animal. Camels carrying spices bring up the rear, but there's much more - huntsmen with thousands of dogs…men carrying trees with birds and beasts of every country…hundreds and hundreds of sheep, Ethiopian oxen, an immense white bear, leopards, panthers, lynxes, caracal, vast numbers of horses, enormous lions, a cameleopard, and a rhinoceros.

A depiction of ancient Alexandria looking southwest along one of the wide boulevards (Meson Pedion)

on which the Grand Procession could have travelled

By now it is well into the afternoon and the procession of symbols, floats, and wealth continues with some politically subtle messages of the time - a cart with a large colorfully painted statue of Dionysus flying to the altar of Rhea, the earth mother, being pursued by his real mother Hera. Priapus, his son, stands by him crowned with gold ivy leaves. The second cart contains exquisitely designed statues of Alexander and Ptolemy I, both crowned with gold. A statue of Arête with a gold crown stands beside Ptolemy. Again, another statue of Priapus is with them, wearing a gold crown of ivy leaves. A fourth statue wearing a golden diadem and representing the city of Corinth also stands beside Ptolemy. The two carts are followed by women in sumptuous dresses, jewelry, and gold crowns. They all hold signs announcing cities in Ionia, Greece, Asia, and islands, all of which were under Persian control before Alexander conquered them.

There follow two chariots with oversize symbols of the cult of Dionysus. The first has a golden thyrsus ninety cubits long and a silver spear sixty cubits long; the second contains a gigantic golden phallus a hundred twenty cubits long wreathed with golden garlands and having on the end a golden star six cubits in circumference. Right after this are three hundred musicians with gold crowns and playing gold kithara enter the stadion. Immediately after, a tremendous dust cloud returns. It precedes the entry of two thousand black sacrificial bulls adorned with gilded horns, gold frontlets, gold crowns in the middle of their foreheads, gold necklaces, and gold breastplates. 

The procession must surely be near the end. A magnificently decorated golden statue of Alexander rolls in, borne on a chariot drawn by lumbering elephants, their snouts constantly swinging. Beside him stand statues of Nike, the companion of Zeus and the winged goddess of victory, and Athena, the goddess of war. An ivory and gold throne for Ptolemy Soter (Ptolemy I) is paraded in by slaves. On it is a crown made of ten thousand gold coins. It is followed by numbers of similar thrones, some of which hold crowns and some golden horns, then an obnoxious display of wealth - hundreds of gifts, items of booty, and seemingly useless icons carried in by slaves or creaking, shiny carts. Most of the items are oversized exaggerations of what they represent.

What appears to be the end approaches as the first ranks of the infantry march in step into the stadium, all in polished bronze breastplates and helmets. They carry sarissas. In ranks of ten abreast, there are 57,600 of them. The infantry is then followed by 23,200 cavalry, all in polished brass with helmet feathers flying. The whole army takes almost three hours to pass through the stadium. It is a truly impressive and intimidating example of Egypt’s military might. At the end, night has enveloped the Lageion as Hesperus, the evening star, rolls through in his golden chariot. Just as Eosphorus did, he holds aloft a flaming torch to signal that the spectacle has ended.

So here's my question. Would we even attempt to duplicate such an event today? Would politicians and special interest groups allow it? Would you as an event planner or producer be willing to plan it?

References:

• Athenaeus of Naucratis. The deipnosophists, Volume I, Book V. Yonge, C.D. (Ed.). London: Henry G. Bohn. pp. 287-352. Retreived August 12, 2009, from http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Literature.AthV1.
• Bennett, C. (2008). Arsinoe II. Egyptian Royal Genealogy. Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://www.geocities.com/christopherjbennett/index.htm.
• Bevan, E.R. (1927). The House of Ptolemy: A History of Egypt Under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. London: Methuen.
• Lendering, J. (April 9, 2007). First Syrian War (Carian War; 280-279). Livius.Org. Retrieved March 16, 2010, from http://www.livius.org/su-sz/syrian_wars/1a_syrian_war.html.
• Rice, E.E. (1983). The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 209-210.
• Tarn, W.W. (Nov.1928). Ptolemy II. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 14:3/4. pp. 246-260.

Another Look at the Last Supper

Since this is Easter Week and Thursday evening is the traditional time when the Last Supper would have been celebrated, and since I last talked about banquet seating, it seems an appropriate opportunity to discuss the seating and style of the Last Supper.

In reality, according to customs at the time of Christ, the seating arrangement and style of banquet would have been nothing resembling the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, it would have probably been in keeping with the Greco-Roman banquet. This formal style of banquet originated with what is known as the symposion, an ancient Greek social institution, usually reserved for males. Think of it as the prototype for today's business meeting, except with a lot more drinking and entertainment. The first part of the meal was called the deipnon, the actual eating part. The second was called the symposium. During this second part, guests lingered over wine (diluted with water in the traditional Greek fashion) and enjoyed entertainment generally in the form of music and dancing.

This style of banquet was adopted by the Romans and and in their inimitable way, changed to suit their needs. It was in place at the time of Christ. There were many common features of the banquet, but four important ones included:

1. Guests reclined on couches rather than being seated at a table as is common today. Typically, each guest would recline on his left elbow on a cushion, with feet outstretched on the couch. He would then have his right hand free for eating and drinking.
2. Couches were placed according to a sliding scale of social rank, most often in a U-shape or a crescent-shape by the time of the Roman empire. 
3. Guests were provided with a servant who would remove their sandals and wash their feet as preparation for reclining. 
4. In most cases, food would be served on removable trays placed on small tables within reach of the diners. 

The following images portray the style of the symposium and the later Roman banquet.

Greek symposium or symposion

Roman banquet

Worth noting from these images is the closeness of the diners to each other, often - in the case of the Roman banquet - even sharing a couch amongst three or more. It is undoubtedly this closeness that aided the social bonding so inherent in the ritual practice of the banquet. It solidified group identity, as did the sharing of wine and bread.

The seated position of the diners, notably angled and with feet extended to the back of the couch, enabled their feet to easily be washed by servants, as was the custom, and which was a part of the Last Supper. Of course Christ took the part of the servant.

With respect to the seating arrangements, the later Roman banquet which was likely the one most closely resembling the Last Supper, used three tables, the lectus summus, lectus medius, and lectus imus. They were set up in a horseshoe shape around a room known as the triclinium or three-couch room. Seating was arranged according to tradition and using positions that numbered starting at the left-most end of each couch as one faced the inside. The host originally sat at position #1 at lectus summus or more commonly at position #3 at lectus imus. That would probably have been the position of Jesus. The guest of honour or locus consularis was position #3 (or the last position) at lectus medius. This would probably be the position of Judas at the Last Supper, or immediately to the left of Jesus.

According to the gospels, John at one point leans toward Jesus at the urging of Peter and asks him who will betray Jesus. With the disciples in these positions, it would be very easy for Jesus to whisper back without being heard by Judas who would be sitting on the other side of him. Thus, John was likely at position #2 at lectus imus and Peter probably at position #1 at lectus summus (remember also a place of honour), across the dining area from John, making his possibly surreptitious motion easy to be seen by John because of the way they would be reclining.

The following diagram depicts this layout.

Of course, we will never know exactly what transpired or where everyone was, but it is interesting to look at the Greco-Roman tradition and make educated guesses.

Happy Easter!

References:

• Smith, D.E. (2003). The Greco-Roman Banquet as a Social Institution. Meals in the Greco-Roman World Consultation, AAR/SBL Annual Meeting.
• Smith, D.E. (2003). From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
• Pope, Msgr. C. (2010). The Seating Plan at the Last Supper. Archdiocese of Washington. Retrieved April 5, 2012, from http://blog.adw.org/2010/01/the-seating-plan-at-the-last-supper/.

Banquet Seating

One area that continually causes problems at events in hotels and conference centers is the capacity of a dining room and the discomfort that overcrowding causes guests. It has been my experience that this usually results from a hotel or conference center trying to maximize profits by squeezing as many guests as possible into a room for dinner. I must qualify the statements that are to follow and say that they are general and not intended to denigrate any specific person or organization. 

For example, a given group may expect 560 guests to attend a farewell dinner and the conference hotel has a dining room that only should seat 500. The Catering Director will more often than not try to accommodate the extra 60 persons by adding places to the dining tables. If the hotel uses only 60-inch rounds, and the room should only have 50 tables, Catering may suggest that the extra 60 can be fitted in by adding an extra one or two places to all the tables. This could cause discomfort for those diners who must sit at these tables.

A long-time friend and colleague of mine, Mr. Bruno Patassini, the now-retired Catering Director of the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, recommends the following table capacities and center-to-center distances in order to permit maximum comfort and optimum service.

Round Tables

• 60-Inch Diameter Rounds: This table is best suited to eight diners. Optimum spacing between tables is 12 feet, center-to-center or edge-to-edge. This permits adequate space for uncrowded dining and table service. A minimum of two feet between opposing chair backs should be allowed.

60-inch rounds

•  66-Inch Diameter Rounds: This is a compromise table size favored by a few hotels and venues, but it is not as popular as the 60-inch round. It does, however, allow for much more comfortable dining for eight persons. Center-to-center spacing is 12 1/2 feet when planning table layout.

• 72-Inch Diameter Rounds: This table is one size larger and the seating capacity is nine or ten persons. Optimum center-to-center table spacing is 13 feet, again to permit comfortable seating and safe table service by wait staff.

72-inch rounds

•  Rectangular Tables: The normal size for these tables is eight feet long x two and a half feet wide. They comfortably seat six guests using a general rule of thumb of approximately 24 inches width x 18 inches depth for each place setting. Less comfortably they can accommodate one more person on each end. The drawing below is an example of a creative layout of rectangular tables into small conversational groups.

Rectangular Tables

According to Patassini, table place settings should be 24 inches wide to allow for adequate space for each diner.

The distribution of tables throughout the event space is being explored much more creatively than in the past. As mentioned above, optimum table layout design within the event space should allow for a minimum of two feet between chairs at any two adjacent tables. Furthermore, tables should be optimally placed no closer to walls than two feet. This permits safe foot traffic and meal service and is useful in planning room layouts, most often done now on CADD drawings. Frequently, event planners and entertainment producers will bring entertainment right into the audience, which requires much more space in and around tables. Wide aisles and extended stages and dance floors are becoming more common, making the need for detailed floor plans using CADD that much more important.

If you are an event manager or producer, don't be persuaded to make your guests uncomfortable. Insist on maintaining the proper number of seats at tables and adequate distances between tables. In fact, put it into your contracts with venues and caterers to ensure it will happen.

Have You Considered How Productive You and Your Company Are?

Back in August of 2007 I had a blog post about Making a Profit in which I briefly mentioned productivity. I would like to now expand on that and give you a glimpse of the effect of the lack of productivity on your expenses and probably also on your bottom line. 


For simplicity, let's start by assuming that you, as an event planner, are the owner of a sole proprietorship and the only salaried employee in your company. Let's also assume for simplicity that your total overhead is $24,000 (consisting mainly of rent and assorted office expenses). On top of that you would like to personally earn $70,000 per year. That means that just to break even, you will have to bring in $94,000 worth of business in the year. You are someone who charges by the hour, so your hourly billings will have to total $94,000. 


Let's make a third assumption, unfortunately not a very realistic one, to illustrate the point I am trying to make. Let's assume that you know you will get enough business to occupy you for 100% of your available working hours. What, you ask, are your available working hours? Well, to determine what your time is worth in the simplest manner, you must divide the annual company overhead plus your salary as above, by 235 (the approximate average number of working days per year, allowing for 104 weekend days, 11 statutory holidays, and an average 15 working days vacation), then divide the result by 8 (number of working hours per day, so the grand total of annual working hours is thus 1880) to get the final answer. In the case stated above, the hourly fee you will have to charge is $50.00 ($94,000/1880). 


Now, here comes the tricky part. Nobody can devote 100% of their working hours to planning special events. It is impossible. You have many other demands on your time, such as non-client meetings, medical appointments, sales calls, and especially if you are a sole proprietor, lots more. BUT - you still need to make that $94,000! How do you do it. The only way is to charge more than the break-even fee to cover your non-productive time. You should be able to get a pretty good handle on how much time you spend on non-client related activities. At the very least, keep a log of how you spend your time for a couple of weeks and you will get a reasonable estimate. Let's assume that you take an average of 2 hours a day for non-client activities. That means that only 75% (6 out of 8 hours) of your time can be devoted to actual paying clients. You therefore must raise your hourly fee to $66.67 (i.e. $50 per hour divided by 0.75).


That is not the end of it, however. If you are really honest with yourself, how much time do you waste on other activities that are ridiculously non-productive? I ask this because I have had the personal experience myself and they are insidious; they creep up on you until they eat away large portions of your day. Such activities as learning how to use a computer program as simple as Word or Excel by trial and error because you never took a course or didn't think it was worthwhile, chatting on the phone with friends about non-business things, surfing the web, spending too much time on social media that do not benefit your business, extending a coffee break, running inefficient meetings and letting discussions get our of hand, and the list goes on. Again, if you are really honest and decide to track these non-business activities as well as the other non-client business activities, you may very well find that your non-productive time increases to 50% of your day. If that is the case, then your hourly fee will have to increase to $100.00 (i.e. $50.00/0.50). 


You may now be getting close to the point that the market will not bear this fee, especially if you are new to the business. Also, your time will now be extremely compressed so that the work you do may not be of the quality needed to adequately service clients. What to do? Well, you can hire another planner but that adds to overhead so you need more business. You can work more than 8 hours a day but that can be very stressful. You can cut your own salary, but you need that to live. You can actually cut overhead by lowering your expenses or your rent or whatever, or you can be more productive by minimizing non-productive, non-business related activities. That is the best and the cheapest. So if you are in this dilemma, look very closely at how you spend an average day at the office and how productive you are. 


The other influence on your fee is, of course, the amount of business you have, which is what I conveniently eliminated by my assumption. If we bring that back into the mix, then the dilemma becomes much more complicated. After you have been in business for a few years, you can usually get an estimate of what your annual average amount of business is and that can help in determining your fee. If, for example, you have kept good records and can make an estimate that your annual business occupies about 50% of your time, then this must be factored into the calculation of your fee. If you do that, you will thus see that your fee of $100 per hour (remember, you are still very non-productive) will need to increase to $200 per hour i.e. $100/0.50). Well, this is pretty exorbitant so your solution is now not only to cut down on non-productive time but also to do one of a number of other things, namely generate more business as a first step and/or lower your salary expectations until you do generate enough business. 


I hope this helps you start to think about becoming more productive.