The Perils of Older Amphitheaters

Came across an article which details the struggles many older amphitheaters are facing during this current transition within the concert industry. In this instance, Mesa Amphitheater is not facing a challenge from the current economic climate (any more than anyone else, that is), but from its design limitations and competition. Having produced a number of shows at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin (which based on the article had many of loading and production issues as that of Mesa Amphitheaters), I have experienced first hand many of these challenges and can say they do prove detrimental to booking a number of production-heavy events.

However, there may be an upside for those looking to produce smaller or less intensive events - such older buildings offer professional-quality space at a great rate, and will likely bend over backwards for you if you can bring much needed exposure.

Mesa Amphitheatre struggling to make a comeback (azcentral.com)

Selecting An Event Site

Rarely a day goes by where my travels don't take me into a building or other locale that makes me think “I should really hold an event here”. It can be any random fact about the place that triggers it – the shape of the room, the ambient quality of the sound, or some indescribable quality that just makes it feel “perfect” for a production. Unfortunately, the reality of selecting an event site involves so much more than the ambiance of a place. In fact, it ideally a lengthy and meticulous process that relies heavily on planning, reason, and practicality, and much less on the inherent feel of the environment. After all, environment can be created for an evening...loading docks and parking facilities are a bit more difficult to materialize out of thin air.

In my opinion, site selection should be divided into three distinct phases, each with a defined set of actions:

1. Development Phase
2. Survey
3. Analysis and Selection.

In this article, I'll be dissecting each of these three phases, detailing the steps that should be taken, and offering my insight into each.

Development Phase

The first step in selecting an event site begins long before you set foot on a potential site. It involves determining and detailing what your site requirements are. Although it seems obvious, many producers have only a vague sense of what their needs are at the time of the site survey, which inevitably leads to difficulties later on during production. To avoid such issues, you should begin your selection process by detailing as many of your site requirements as possible. These may include the following:

1. Time-line of your event


2. Physical size requirements (be sure to account for attendance, legal capacities, and production size).


3. Location – consider not only city/state, but neighborhood, street, etc. Be sure you're aware of what else may be happening during your event.


4. Environment – should it be held indoor, outdoor, mixed?


5. Load in/out requirements – how many trucks, buses, other vehicles are you estimating?


6. Access – how much difficulty are you willing to put up with in accessing the site?


7. Power requirements – How much will you need based on your production estimates to date. NEVER low-ball this number.


8. Staging areas – you'll likely be receiving deliveries much quicker than you're able to distribute/erect them. How much staging area do you anticipate you'll need.


9. Delivery access – where will deliveries be received? Will they be happening during the event? How can you access them without disrupting your event?


10. Hospitality/Artist areas – you'll inevitably have “VIP's”...where will you put them? Likewise, if there are performing artists or hospitality parties, you'll want to allocate space for that as well.


11. Parking (both production and public)

Once you have determined as many of your needs as possible, the your next step should be to develop a one-sheet document listing your requirements, in an easy to understand format. This document is important, as it will ultimately be given to potential site holders prior to your survey, and the information contained may save you time should they determine their site will not fit your requirements. A word to the wise - only include information you feel comfortable releasing to potential venues PRIOR to selecting them as your site. After all, although we all like to believe our business partners are on the up and up, you may not want to release critical details at this stage for confidentiality or other reasons. A good line to remember is “when in doubt, leave it out”. If everything else checks out, you should be able to answer the omitted questions during your survey.

Only then, after you've detailed all of your site requirements on paper, should you even begin to research potential event sites. By waiting until this stage, you've hopefully avoided the development bias that comes with having a per-determined site in mind, and can therefore bring a greater sense of objectivity to the site selection process. A brief rundown of the steps involved in the research and selection of your preliminary site options:

• Brainstorm your site ideas with your production team. Be open at this point to all potential venue ideas, and not overly restricted by your budget concerns.


• Develop a preliminary list of venues you'd like to pursue. Try to identify the appropriate contact for each venue ( a great job for your interns as it's not always obvious at first glance)


• Place a preliminary phone call to contacts, and give them a brief outline of your event. Send them your one-sheet summary to review to ensure they believe their capabilities will match your scope.


• Should the potential site owner agree with your plan thus far, set up a physical site survey. At this point, there should still be no discussion of money (if they regularly hold events, they should be able ascertain a preliminary number based upon your one-sheet.)

Site Survey

If you've done a thorough job of identifying your needs up to this point, your walk-through should be relatively straight forward. You simply want to examine all parts of the potential site, using your one-sheet summary as a checklist to confirm what capabilities the venue has (it's often easier to condense your one sheet into a simple checklist for internal purposes). Some hints for conducting the actual site survey:

• I highly recommend that you bring along a production/facilities manager to perform the walk with you. They're a great resource for deciphering the more technical aspects of the facility. Suggest that the venue do the same if they have someone available.


• Take notes on what you see, and be sure to detail the benefits as well as potential issues with each building (remember, most issues can be overcome if all other aspects are acceptable).


• Take photos of all venue areas, especially those you feel will best suit your production. Request a venue diagram if one is available.


• Do not commit to anything at this point, no matter how perfect the venue may seem. Let them know your time-line for decision, and ask for a rental estimate at this point.

A serious point I'd like to address - All to often, event producers walk into a site survey not to objectively analyze a building, but to seek confirmation of their own “pre-selection”. If you do so, you're more likely to overestimate a building's capabilities, or accept a higher degree of incompatibility with your event. Aside from making matters more difficult later on, doing so will also cause you to overlook a myriad of creative venue possibilities. Best to walk in with an open mind.

Analysis and Selection

Once you've completed all of your scheduled surveys, you're finally ready to settle down and make some decisions. If you've done the appropriate amount of preparation during the first two phases, the selection process should be a moderately straight-forward process.

1. Compile all of the information you've collected for each venue. Include all diagrams, photos, checklists, and other notes.
2. I'd recommend calling a meeting together with a representative of each interested department to review the documentation. At a minimum, your production manager should be involved.
3. Review each packet. Based on your discussions, set aside all venues that prove the wrong fit for this project. Do not throw them away, as you never know when you might need take on a project that will be a better fit.
4. Of the remaining venues, closely scrutinize the benefits and drawbacks of each. Does the size work? Location? Facilities? Does the cost work? By this point in the review process, a clear front-runner should be appearing, but don't skip this crucial step.
5. If you've identified your event site, congratulations! You're ready to contact them and secure your rental. If no clear front-runner emerges, you can continue your discussions until one emerges, or set aside the review process to investigate alternative sites.

As you can see, selecting an event site is hardly a difficult endeavor. However, a well-defined selection process and meticulous attention to detail will allow you to identify the best option for your event while avoiding selection biases that can cloud our judgment and make for a difficult and expensive production later on.

Why You Shouldn't Pursue Live Event Sponsorship

I spend a lot of time on this site discussing the “whys” and “hows” of sponsoring live events. Likewise, I've often detailed the reasons why businesses of all sizes should consider the live events as an ideal format to showcase their products and programs, reward employees and clients, and most importantly, grow their business. What I haven't spoken of much are reasons why or when you SHOULDN'T pursue an event opportunity. Although I contend that there are few marketing opportunities as rewarding as live “experiential” marketing, there are a few reasons why someone may want to forgo an opportunities.

You're trying to be current/hip/edgy/– the classic “all the cool kids are doing it” mentality is a relatively safe position to take in most forms of traditional marketing. In those instances, you often have a longer time period in which to gauge public response to your campaign, as well as the opportunity to make program adjustments based upon the reported metrics. Events, however, are an entirely different animal. Your program window is usually for a very limited amount of time, and the expense of most live programs in both fees and operations cost means a field roll out of an untested idea is much riskier than in traditional marketing.

This in itself should not discourage pursuing live marketing opportunities. However, in addition to knowing the risks involved, you should be honest with yourself as to whether such an opportunity makes sense for your business. Just because the biggest, hippest player on the block has rolled out a great new sponsorship program doesn't mean it's a good idea for you, or a great idea in general. They may simply have deeper pockets and a more careless marketing director.

You don't know the “real” audience – Any business owner will tell you that it makes no sense to spend marketing dollars on people who will never purchase your product or service. However, when discussing their “target” demographic, many of these same business owners have only defined their audience in the broadest of terms – gender, age, and income being the primary qualifiers. In many traditional mass-marketing outlets, this information is often sufficient to develop a successful blanket program that will generate enough response to justify the expense. Events are different, in that the audience is usually highly-specific, by interest if not demographic. If you haven't dissected your audience down to their interests, your potentially missing out on a number of opportunities. Even worse, you may be spending your money on people who will never respond to your program.

For example, imagine that Wally's Widgets has decided to sponsor a local golf tournament for the first time. Based upon their traditional demographic analysis, it seemed like a great opportunity – their target audience being business owners who are predominantly older, affluent and male. However, once the tournament gets underway Tuesday morning, Wally is shocked to discover that the participants are much younger and more diverse in both gender and income than he expected. Worse yet, few have much interest in talking widgets with Wally, making for a very long, lonely, and expensive day. So what happened? Well, for starters, Wally defined his sponsorship participation based upon traditional demographic analysis, rather than considering what his audience's interests were. Likewise, Wally hadn't accounted for the fact that golf has become much more of an "everyman's" game in recent years, diversifying the participant base and further reducing the number of worthwhile impressions. Finally, he didn't consider that many business owners can't steal away on a Tuesday afternoon to play golf. In short, Wally's assumptions about the event and its participants cost him dearly.

You can't stomach rejection – as with most other forms of marketing, the goal of live event sponsorship is to achieve a return on your investment, be it monetarily or in reputation. However, the immediacy of the event marketplace causes many sponsors to expect a correspondingly immediate response. As opposed to the audience being mere figures on a spreadsheet, they stand in directly in front of you - hopefully. As I mentioned earlier, live event marketing carries with it a greater amount of risk than other forms. Although the overall success of your program may not be known for weeks (as represented by increased profits and/or exposure), a failure to connect with the audience will likely be evident immediately. If you're not prepared to risk the time, money, and stress on an untested, short-term program with no guarantee of return, you might want to consider other marketing options.

Despite the above reasons (and any others that may be had), the rewards of live event sponsorship far outweigh the risks. I recommend that anyone pursuing live opportunities for the first time talk to someone who has experience in such matters, be it a consultant or another business with experience. As always, our email is always open should you need insight.