I was engaged to help facilitate possibly the strangest Oscars show in the Academy’s existence. It turned out to be a challenging, but wonderful experience.
While COVID is still a very real factor, how do you put on an elegant event for hundreds of attendees while keeping everyone safe? I can’t speak to every effort that went into it, but my touch-points included plenty of space for people to spread out, insane air handling/filtering capacity in every space, plus all the considerations we’ve become accustomed to on film sets (daily testing, copious PPE and a team to make sure it’s in use properly and consistently, regular cleaning, etc…).
One real challenge was how to seat the 300+ attendees in the 150 Main Show seats. Further, being a televised award show, we needed each person to be in the right place at exactly the right time.
The usual low-hanging fruit of announcements or runners through the crowd were right out… both on the grounds of COVID safety and just a terrible attendee experience. Nobody likes to feel herded, particularly while wearing a ball gown or tuxedo.
Our solution was to devise a system to send tailored SMS messages to each of our attendee's cell phones, giving them personalized instructions on where to go and when to be there throughout the evening. As an attendee, you would have arrived and immediately received a welcome message and directions to spend time in one of the beautifully appointed lounge areas. Later, as the time for your award category approached, you'd receive instructions to meet your host at a specific location to be guided into the main showroom. Now, let's say you left your seat for the restroom on a commercial break and lingered just a bit too long... well then, you'd get a message from me that we need you back in your seat just as soon as possible (we can't have empy seats on camera, after all).
On each 3-4 minute commercial break, a portion of guests were exited to our lounge areas, a cleaning team sanitized their seats & tables, and new attendees were prepped and seated for the next award category. It was a brain teaser for sure but overall went incredibly smoothly.
This was all made possible through the efforts of an amazing team of event pros tasked with keeping the nominees safe, the show running smoothly, the talent in place on cue, and providing a delightful experience for attendees. I can confidently say that the team performed spectacularly. I am humbled beyond measure to be counted among these amazing folks.
If you need help moving people around under seemingly insane constraints, give me a call. I got you.
