The Slap Heard Around the World: When Events go Off-Kilter

Typically, the headlines emerging on media the day post-Oscars are all about who won Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Not so with last night s 94th Oscars, as these headlines demonstrate:

Will Smith Smacks Chris Rock on Oscar Stage After Jada Pinkett Smith Joke Variety

Violence Instead of Words : Will Smith Condemned for Hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars The Guardian

CODA Triumphs at the Oscars but Onstage Slap Takes Center Stage New York Times

Just to recap the series of events for anyone who is, like, whoa, what did I miss? (perhaps due to a brief weekend coma or, I don t know, a 14-day Peruvian ayahuasca-fueled silent retreat ya, that one was for those of you who read Will Smith s recent memoir):

Comedian Chris Rock was onstage at the Oscars to present the Oscar for best documentary feature.

Rock first took a prod at Javier Bardem and his wife Penelope Cruz, who were both nominated for top acting Oscars, stating now, if she loses, he can t win.

This was followed up by a dig at Smith s wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, saying Jada, I love ya, G.I. Jane 2, I can t wait to see it.

The camera pans to Pinkett-Smith, who rolls her eyes, visibly annoyed.

12 seconds later, Rock is moving on with his announcements and then says uh oh as Smith approaches him.

Smith smacks him, and then turns around and returns to his seat.

Rock says to the audience, Wow. Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me , as the audience laughs.

Smith yells at Rock from his seat, keep my wife s name out of your fucking mouth , audience laughter starts to die down.

Wow dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke, Rock shoots back.

Keep. My Wife s. Name. Out. Of. Your. Fucking. Mouth, Smith reiterates even louder.

Flustered, Rock says, I m going to, before then saying, this is the greatest night in the history of television.

End scene.

For those of us watching the Oscars as it live streamed, it was widely originally assumed to be a part of the act (and judging by the audience s laughter, they thought so too). Until it became apparent that it wasn t. Watch the uncensored video here.

Less than a half hour later, Smith went on to accept his first-ever Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard . During his acceptance speech he apologized, through tears, to the Academy and to his fellow nominees, and alluded to art imitating life, drawing parallels between his King Richard characters crazy father tendencies and his still-hot-to-the-touch outburst, stating love will make you do crazy things.

Pinkett-Smith has been quite outspoken about her battle with alopecia and has opted to embrace her hair loss by shaving her head, hence the sensitivity around the bald joke.

We are betting that the smack heard around the world brought flashbacks to any event planner who has ever had their live event proceed not quite according to plan. When the show must go on, when minutes matter, when your audience (or in the case of the Oscars, millions of spectators around the world) is watching, how can you roll with the punches (ha, see what we did there)?

Breathe

Yep, this is a biggie. Stay calm. People are watching and looking to the event organizers as an indication of how to react. Staying cool and collected will help to boost morale around you and will help you to think more clearly and rationally about your next steps. Strategies for staying calm during an event crisis include taking deep breaths, focusing on the present, and even temporarily removing yourself from the situation if needed.

Turn to Your Event Safety and Disaster Plan

Disaster planning is a must-do for large scale events. Disasters come in all shapes and sizes, not just of the smacking and swearing variety. Elements of your disaster plan should include:

  • Venue layout with exits and muster points clearly identified.
  • Strategies for potential health and safety concerns and event escalation processes.
  • Evacuation and shelter-in-place plans.
  • Clear direction on how to deal with unacceptable behavior from event stakeholders.
  • Contact information for key personnel.
Keep the Lines of Communication Open

In the absence of communication, people will jump to assumptions. Which is why it is so important to have a crisis communications plan as part of your disaster planning, one that identifies all relevant stakeholders, how they can be communicated with in the event of an incident, and who is responsible for delivering this communication.

but Also be Clear About Who is Authorized to Speak

There is a reason why we didn t see Carl from accounting speaking to the media about the Smith-Rock altercation after the fact. Because Carl from accounting has no damn business speaking on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on public relations manners.

Choosing the right spokesperson is critical. This individual will serve as the public image of your organization and should be able to present the organization in a positive light. Spokespeople need to feel comfortable in their role and be able to speak confidently in a variety of contexts on a variety of topics, whether in one-on-one meetings with journalists, on the phone, in a public meeting, or at a press conference. Having a designated spokesperson will add credibility to your event and ensure your message is consistent.

Learn From the Experience

All event planners should conduct some manner of post-mortem after every event. The idea behind the post-mortem meeting is to review the various elements of the completed work, track the entire life cycle of the project, and illustrate aspects that need to be discussed. Depending on the size and scope of the event, this could be a brief recap of lessons learned, or it could be a deeper exploration involving multiple parties.

To get an idea of what feedback your team members have before the meeting, you can submit a post-mortem questionnaire. Having a pre-meeting questionnaire gives all members of your team the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions and ensures that no random detail goes unnoticed. Anonymizing a survey often results in more honest feedback, and an anonymous survey itself can save you time in the meeting by allowing you to jump straight into discussing next improvements and steps.

Event planning done right is a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, executing, evaluating, and improving.

As any event planner can attest to, the reality is that troubleshooting and live events go hand in hand. Ideally that troubleshooting is more minor audio issues and less smacking and cussing, but without a crystal ball there really is no way to tell what fun surprises your event will have in store for you. Which is why event planning is best left to the experts a team that you know will stay calm and steer your event through the storm. Like the team at Decibel Events.

What Else Happened at the Oscar s?

While the Smith-Rock incident dominated headlines, there was also an award show that happened on Sunday, a big and high profile one where several meaningful honors were bestowed. Here are some of the non-violent highlights from last night s event:

  • The Oscars had three hosts this year – Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes. As Schumer quipped, the Academy hired three women to host because it s cheaper than hiring one man. Zing!
  • CODA , a coming-of-age story of a girl with deaf parents, was the big winner of the night, taking home Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur. Kotsur, the first deaf man to win an Oscar, delivered his acceptance speech in American Sign Language (ASL), and instead of the typical clapping from the audience, the Oscar s audience raised their hands in a gesture of silent applause.
  • Another first was Ariana DeBose, the first openly queer woman of color, winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in West Side Story .
  • Dune took home six awards, including Best Cinematography.
  • There was some long-awaited cast reuniting moments, including cast members from Juno , The Godfather , Pulp Fiction , and White Men Can t Jump . Also, there was a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion of sorts, as Chris Rock had appeared in the sixth season of Will Smith s 90s sitcom. Sorry, we couldn t resist.
  • Fashion-wise, the red carpet did not disappoint. Timothee Chalamet, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Chastain, Elimia Jones, Simu Liu, Venus Williams, David Oyelowo, Lily James, and Zendaya were especially fashion-forward.

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