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The Future of Event Planning on the National Mall: 2013 Guide to New Event Rules & Regulations

EVENT INDUSTRY, PERMITS

The National Mall has just completed their first renovation of the grounds in 30 years. To protect the new grass and the new irrigation systems, new event planning rules have been issued governing where on the National Mall events can be held, and where tents and structures can be pitched. The Decibel team has created a comprehensive chart to clarify the new regulations for the event planning community.

The New National Mall Grid: Mall Turf Panels

Under the new system, the National Mall is broken up into numbered panels. Each panel has been assigned a designation of turf area or non-turf area . Turf areas are panels covered by grass, while non-turf areas are covered either by trees, or by gravel or cement, like walkways and hardscape panels.

Each panel is assigned its own rules in terms of event capacity and event type. If you re planning to hold an event that involves structures, such as exhibits, tables or tents, be aware that these may not be set up on every panel, and you ll need to book a panel which allows structures.

The below numbered chart shows which panels are considered turf areas and which are considered non-turf areas . Click on the chart to see a larger version.

Turf-Area Events: Assessing the Event Location

The National Mall prefers that events are held on non-turf areas, especially if you plan to pitch tents or use other structures in other words, they d really like it if you d keep off the grass. That doesn t mean that grassy areas cannot be booked for events, just that there are additional rules and costs associated with holding an event on the turf. Before any event begins and after any event is over, the event planners must walk through the event site with a turf manager who will evaluate the pre- and post-event condition of the grass and the irrigation systems.

Event planners will be held responsible for:

• Putting up enough protective turf covering (like a deck) to keep the turf from being trampled.
• Fencing off unprotected areas.
• Paying for new sod if there is a damaged area larger than one square yard.
• Trash removal.
• Paying for damage to curbing and irrigation.

Holding a Turf-Area Event: What s allowed on the grass?

The below items are never allowed on the turf:

• Vehicles of any kind shouldn t be driven or parked on the grass
• Back of house, trailers, generators, boneyards, portable toilets, etc.
• Vehicle-mounted equipment such as signs, LED screens, media towers and light towers
• Plywood or landscape fabric material

The below items are sometimes allowed on the turf, with approval from the National Park Service:

• Seating, pedestrian surfacing, bike racks, cardboard recycling or trash containers
• Equipment that does not exceed 10 pounds per square inch in weight
• Structures less than 500 square feet
• Structures more than 500 square feet, if weight does not exceed 10 pounds per square inch

Non-Turf Area Events

Even if you hold your event in a non-turf area, the traffic your event generates may effect the turf. For this reason, the National Mall will require that:

• While setting up the event, you keep set-up equipment five feet away from the curb
• Tents, stages, tables, exhibits and other structures set up on non-turf areas must not be so large that vehicle and foot traffic is forced onto the curb or turf.

The Active Wear Index

The Turf Manager will assess your event on the Active Wear Index , a scale designed to assess how much wear and tear your event will place on the turf, and how much recovery time the National Park Service should allow before permitting another event to be held in the same spot. If your event s Active Wear Index exceeds 250, there may be additional fees associated with your event.

Letting the Grass Heal: Recovery Times

Grass must be given an opportunity to rest and recover. For that reason, not all panels will be open at all times.

Weather conditions & Seasonal issues

Certain weather and environmental conditions can make the grass temporarily more susceptible to long-term or permanent damage. Because of this, the National Park Service reserves the right to cancel any turf-area events during times where weather forecasts or soil moisture indicate the turf would be more likely to sustain damage.

During winter (November 15 March 14), only one event may happen per turf area for the whole season. During Spring (March 15 May 15), Summer (May 15 September 14)  and Fall (September 14 November 14), each turf panel will need a period of rest between events, depending on how many attendees your event.

If your Spring, Summer, or Fall event had:

• Less than 25 attendees, no recovery time is necessary.
• 26-199 attendees, recovery time is 3-5 days.
• 200-4,999 attendees, recovery time is 5-10 days.
• 5,000 50,000 attendees, recovery time is 2 weeks.
• 50,000-249,999 attendees, recovery time is 3-4 weeks.
• 250,000+ attendees, recovery time is 4-5 weeks.

Recovery time from structures (stages, tents, etc.)

If your event included structures, like tents, stages, booths, or mounted signage, additional recovery time may be needed. There are also restrictions on how long you can leave structures up (this includes set-up and take-down time) times vary per season.

• In Spring, structures can stay up 5 days. Recovery time is 5-10 days.
• In Summer, structures can stay up 2 days. Recovery time is 2-3 weeks.
• In Autumn, structures can stay up 5 days. Recovery time is 5-10 days.
• In Winter, structures can stay up 7 days. Recovery time is 5-10 days.

Where to Pitch Your Tent: No Stake Zones

In the new renovation, the National Park Service is detailing where the irrigation system will be buried. For the center turf panels, there is a 10 no stake zone setback around the entire panel, and a 20 zone going east-west in the center of the panel. On the tree panels, there is a 10 no stake zone on the interior path side of the panel. These are detailed in the image below.

Closing Thoughts:

These are just a few of the many new permitting rules that govern events on the National Mall. We have done our best to highlight the biggest changes, but there are many more details not covered here. Feel free to call or email with any questions on the details.

PR Week Award

COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS

Congrats to the team at Ketchum DC and their client DoubleTree by Hilton on the Product Brand Development of the Year award! We loved being a part of the tour and the award couldn t have gone to a better team! For their PR Week submission, Ketchum included a great writeup of the tour itself. You can see it on the PR Week Award Site, or read on below.

Since 1986, DoubleTree by Hilton has been giving a warm chocolate chip cookie to every guest upon check-in as a symbol of the brand s enhanced care culture. Just in time to celebrate the sweet treat s 25th anniversary, Ketchum was tasked with raising DoubleTree by Hilton s brand awareness. The agency recognized that the cookie was central to the brand s story and organized a summer campaign in which the Cookie CAREavan, a branded food truck (a first among hotel chains), traveled more than 15,000 miles coast to coast through 50 cities distributing and donating a total of 250,000 chocolate chip cookies. Ketchum leveraged existing events, including ComicCon in San Diego and pride festivals in Chicago and Key West, FL. The firm also reached out to mayors and government officials, securing July as the DoubleTree by Hilton Chocolate Chip Cookie Month in Texas and Tennessee. Cities including San Francisco, Atlanta, and Detroit named the CAREavan s arrival as DoubleTree by Hilton Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. A Facebook tab displayed the route, relevant tweets, and sweepstakes for free hotel stays, which resulted in nearly 29,000 new likes and more than 10,000 sweepstake entries. In addition, Foursquare check-ins at CAREavan stops awarded Hilton HHonors points. The business with the most #SweetBreaks tweets won 250 cookies hand delivered to the office. Results directly attributed to the campaign include a 200{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} jump in unaided brand awareness, a 15{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} revenue boost, and a 125{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} increase in HHonors enrollment, all over 2010. The campaign was recognized in 1,833 media outlets including Today, Good Morning America, and USAToday.com. Mashable declared the CAREavan No. 1 Food Truck for Social Media Marketing. One judge praised the campaign as brilliant and bigtime. Another judge agreed, saying, The effort put a fresh new twist on the food truck concept and blended in a terrific cause element.

NSBW 2011

COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS

We are back in full swing at the 2011 National Small Business Week events in D.C. Just finished the second day and getting ready for Friday. A few quick photos below.

As promised, below are a couple of images from the event.

Linda McMahon Election Night Press

Linda McMahon Election Night Press

We had a ton of media for election night here in CT. Here you can see Christiane Amanpour doing her live standups throughout the evening.

PHOTO GALLERY?

Glass Packaging Institute 2013 Spring Meeting

COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS

We just wrapped up the Glass Packaging Institute s (GPI) Spring Meeting in Washington, DC. 

The meetings last week were held at the Law Offices of Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius. Not only do they have fantastic conference and meeting facilities, but also one of the best views of Washington, DC. They are located on Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from some of the most famous Washington DC landmarks.

At registration Tuesday morning the members and guests received their name badges as well as a custom Moleskine notebook as the take home gift for this meeting.  Registration for the members, guests, and staff are one of our roles for the GPI meetings.

Meeting topics this week ranged from Government Affairs to Member meetings as well as Congressional Office Visits on Capitol Hill for some of the GPI Members. Branded handouts and printed packets as well as the organization of agendas and other meeting documents were also handled by the Decibel team.

The members experienced the beautiful view on the 13th floor Rooftop Terrace at the Member s Reception on Wednesday night. The members were able to enjoy hors d oeuvres while they took in everything Washington DC had to offer.

Decibel Management executed many other aspects of this meeting including hotel accommodations at the St. Regis for the members and visiting guests, online and onsite registration, and all banquet and catering needs for the various meetings and reception.

Freebie: Scaled Advance Diagram Icon Set and Powerpoint Template Pack

TIPS & TRICKS

We designed, assembled and released this pack in the hopes that it will help others in the event production industry (and particularly the political event production industry) by making the tedious task of creating political advance flowcharts a little easier.

The idea was to create a ready-made Powerpoint and icon set that allows anyone to quickly construct professional, correctly scaled advance diagram Powerpoints without spending ages tracking down icons and trying to relatively size each piece.

Download now

(5MB download)

We hope to expand and improve this set over time. If you have any requests for new icons to add, questions about the set or how to use it, or suggestions for improving the next version, please drop us a note in the comments below.

Click for full preview

The Set Includes:

1 Powerpoint file: Scaled_Advance_Diagram_Template.pptx, the main working document in this set. This includes car icons for creating motorcades / car plans, indicators for calling out important locations, such as the press room or green room, seating chart graphics, lighting, sound and electrical icons, and a stage builder (more on that below). All icons in the template are provided in both black and white color schemes for dark and light backgrounds.

1 folder of images: Contains all the source jpg and png icons that can be imported into the powerpoint or into other document formats.

1 Photoshop document: Contains the original, editable icon design files in vector smart object layers you can use this if you are familiar with the Adobe creative suite (Photoshop / Illustrator) and you want to change icon colors, shapes, or base grid sizes.

Preview jpg: Shows each of the icons with descriptive names

Readme: This here how-to guide.

Quick Start Guide

1. Copy the Powerpoint document entitled Scaled_Advance_Diagram_Template.pptx, renaming it whatever you like.
2. Open your newly created document, and delete any icons you don t need or won t use.
3. Select all your icons at once, and re-size them to the right scale
4. Arrange your advance diagram
5. Use powerpoint default arrows and shapes to mark out walking paths between the diagram objects
6. Enjoy!

Scale and Grid

The icons were created on a scale of 8 pixels = 1 foot. We ve done our best to preserve and re-create this scale using Powerpoint guides, which are hidden by default. To turn on the scaled guides, open the Powerpoint, go to the View tab, and click the checkbox next to Guides in the top panel. By default, each box created by the guides represents 1 square foot.

You can also use the 24 scale graphic to help proportionally size diagram elements.

Any time you resize an icon in the Powerpoint, it s a very good idea to select all the icons on the page and re-size them all together at the same time, so all your page elements stay the same size in relation to each other.

Stage Builder

There are two main stage building block icons included with the powerpoint and icon set. The smaller block represents an industry-standard 4-foot by 8-foot riser, the larger block an industry-standard 6-foot by 8-foot riser. Duplicate these blocks as many times as necessary to make an appropriately-sized stage.

You can stack multiple elements on top of the stage risers. For example, use the light background microphone icon on top of the dark background stage risers icons to indicate a podium.

Other Notes & Tips

• The pipe and drape icons will tile horizontally if you align them next to each other.
• Use the indicators and markers to create a pathway of events start and end of a motorcade or walking path, stopping point for a press bus or security locations.

The Photoshop Document

If you re familiar with the Adobe design suite, you can use the included Photoshop document to modify the original icons in the set, re-export the icons in different formats, change icon colors, or add other effects.

The Photoshop file includes each of the icons saved as vector smart objects. If you have Adobe Illustrator installed, you can double-click any icon layer in the layers panel to open that icon in Illustrator for vector-level editing.

The License

The Scaled Advance Diagrams are released under the Creative Commons license, Attribution, Non-Commercial, No-Derivs. You can read the full text of the license by visiting the link below, but in non-legalese, that essentially means that:

• You re welcome to freely share this set with others, as long as you credit Decibel Management as the source of the file. You do not need to put Decibel Management s name on actual advance diagrams that you produce for your own clients using this set, but if you give the icon pack to someone else, you must include a credit to Decibel.
• You may not re-sell this icon set either on its own, or as part of another program or document for sale.
• You may not modify the set and re-distribute the modified version.
• In other words, we love sharing! But we also put a lot of work into this, so please don t be a jerk.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Go nuts! And again, do let us know in the comments if you d like to see any improvements in the future we d love to hear your input.

Congrats Clairemont!

EVENT INDUSTRY

Congrats to our friend Dana Hughens and her team over at Clairemont Communications on today s NCPRSA InSpire Awards. In light of the good work, this song is dedicated to you! Snap I ve Got the Power

NFC Integration for Mobile Tours and Event Environments

EVENT INDUSTRY, EVERYTHING ELSE, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS

One of the best parts of the event production and management world is getting to see cutting edge and new, emerging technologies. This is especially true when companies get together and produce a field ready unit that can be rolled into our current event mix.

As it happens, we had a great afternoon with the team from GEMATouch and Telepathic Graphics show us what they are working on in the NFC world. GEMATouch has developed a NFC circuit enclosed in a fully brandable and printable card.

This has great potential for our mobile tour clients and brands as they are looking to find new ways of engaging their audience.  It also has multiple applications for meetings, conferences and events. The programming and usage also tracks real time analytics.

Function:

Once we determine what we want the end product to be, the system is programmed, and the card printed. This can be a coupon strategy, content delivery, gaming, or any other mobile activation that the client requires. The card is branded with multiple touch points and placed in the activation area. From here, the attendee activation is simple,

1. A guest places their NFC enabled phone near the interactive print

2. Then they touch the desired areas of the print

3. Content is delivered instantly to the phone (no apps, cameras, QR readers or texting needed)

Example:

One of the great and simple examples of execution is deploying these readers for a cocktail function or gala setting. In these types of events, we usually see long lines at the bar throughout the evening. We can reduce and potentially eliminate these lines by utilizing this solution.

To begin, we program the chip to select up to 5 different beverages (e.g. White Wine, Red Wine, 2 Beer selections and the specialty cocktail). At each cocktail table or low round, we place a NFC enabled phone and printed reader. As guests finish their drinks, they can use the system to order additional beverages. An iPad or other computer is set up to receive the order and the server assembles the drink order and takes it directly to their table.

There are a host of other uses, but this one easily demonstrates the idea. For a quick look at the interaction, check out the video below.

Decibel Red Carpet Premiere Event

BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS

Fleishman-Hillard DC and their ONDCP team tasked Decibel to create a red carpet entrance for a press event. This was for the winner of the MTV Unwasted Weekend Challenge.  Decibel traveled to Essex Junction High School in Vermont to turn an Auditorium into a traditional red carpet event. It was a privilege for the team at Decibel to be part of this amazing evening dedicated to the members of the Essex CHiPS program for high school students that stay above the influence of drugs and alcohol. The evening started with the students, parents and speakers having pictures taken on the red carpet. The evening also included speakers from the Essex CHiPS program, the director of the Above The Influence Campaign and the students that created the winning video. Take a look at the video they produced.

Winning Video Entry

Multi Axis Camera Jib

EVERYTHING ELSE, TIPS & TRICKS

So it may be a foregone conclusion, but it seems that some of the event work we do at Decibel does follow us home. Check out the multi-axis camera jib after the jump

As you can see below, Asher developed his own hybrid of the typical camera jib by including a bucket for the mini-fig camera operator using a fire truck ladder, camera, and custom stage.