Know Your Limits

People often over-extend their limits: lift too much weight, eat too much food, or watch too much TV. When planning an event, this topic is rarely discussed; do you know an event’s limits? We take for granted that buildings and supporting structures are just going to function. They do every other day of the week right? Well…

Let me share an experience I had. During this particular event, we managed to discover, all in one day, the various limits of, not only the building our event was in, but the people serving as well. The basic outline of the event was a 3-day, 5-show concert. But not just a concert. It was a family-friendly outreach event with 2 hours of activities before and after each 1-½ hour performance. Over the course of the 3 days, 10,000 attendees crossed the threshold.

It was an incredible sight. Indoor ice skating rink, train rides, a room full of non-melting snow and snowball fights, igloo building with boxes, inflatables, a coffee shop, bookstore, and a 20-foot Christmas tree surrounded by the most amazing train display you can imagine. Within the concert, there were multiple contracts involved for the various performers including aerialists, musicians, spoken word artists, bands, contemporary dancers, and a choir, to name a few. 

It took 532 volunteers, 50+ technical and production people, and 150 staff members on top of the performers and musicians, to pull off this extravaganza. Here’s the incredible lesson we learned….

We were in a mega-church in a suburb that was on septic and well water. After two 70-minute morning church services, two hours of family activities, and a 1-½ hour concert, between the first and second show of the day, the building was running out of water. The pumps couldn’t keep up with the demand for toilets, coffee, dishwashing, handwashing, drinking fountains, and making snow that doesn’t melt….. We had reached the limit of the well. Of course, this was very shortly followed by the need to shut down the bathrooms. We had reached the limit of the septic field. The day wasn’t over yet, we still had another concert for 2000 people still to come who would be expecting two more hours of family-friendly activities, not to mention toilets…

Long story long, by the afternoon of the last day of the event, we met the event’s limits head-on. We had now established where the limit was for the well water and pump, the septic field’s capacity limit, the backup water tank’s refill rate, electrical output limit, volunteer team’s troubleshooting capacity limit, staff stress level limit, the fire marshal’s tolerance limit, and oh so much more. The silver lining, we now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, just where the line was when planning a future event in this facility. These are the moments in event planning that build that thick skin (see my previous blog “Put On Your Thick Skin“) and feel like being on the frontlines (check out “Planners on the Frontlines?”).

Do you have a crazy story about reaching your event’s limits? I’d love to hear about it! Share it here or you can email me.

Please share this blog on your social media and with others who plan events.

Do you work with volunteers? Check out Tracy’s book Cultivating a Healthy Volunteer Team on her website tracybaer.com.