Major event management concepts and best practices

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Re-Managing the Past: The Democratic National Convention, 2000

The respective Republican and Democratic National Conventions, held every four years prior to the presidential elections, represent some of the most complex and mismanaged of all major events. The shear amount of planning that must go into these conventions in order to bring together a myriad of different types of events in a variety of formats over the course of several days is a daunting challenge, to say the least.

The Democratic National Convention was held from August 14 until August 17, 2000 in sunny Los Angeles. Organizers choose Los Angeles because of improving conditions in the city after decades of deterioration and because California was seen as a crucial state for the Gore presidential campaign (Giroux, 2000). Though that bid for the presidency would ultimately be unsuccessful, an analysis of the planning and management of the Democratic National Convention underscores the importance of the convention and the difficulties that plagued its management from the start. The organizing committee for the convention -- despite the best efforts of hired managers -- allowed ineffectual planning and management to mar the overall success of the convention.

National political conventions for any political party, but especially for the Democrats and Republicans, require high-level professional planning in order to be considered a success. In essence, these political conventions are enormous infomercials, in which each respective party makes a bid for coveted political seats -- most notably the presidency. Any convention that attracts as many as 45,000 attendees, the media, and various high-ranking political officials requires strict management. Organizers must consider a variety of factors including the presentation of the party's image, politics and politicking, fund-raising, and the logistics of handling such large numbers of people for several days (Ray, 2000).

The purpose of this study will be twofold. First, I will present a brief, if probing, analysis of the Democratic National Convention held in Los Angeles in 2000. This analysis will explain some of the basic management techniques employed during the convention, but will primarily highlight the inadequacies in planning and implementation that were noted before, during, and after the convention. This will illustrate some of the key management problems that shadowed the proceedings and limited the effectiveness of the convention.

Second, I will discuss potential changes in the management style and process that could have been implemented at the time in order to improve the quality of the event, ensure its smooth implementation, and improve its chances of long-term success for the Democratic Party. The suggestions made in this part of the study will be based on the analysis and rough conclusions drawn during the analysis of the original convention proceedings. In this way, the suggestions made will be based on historically demonstrable issues that developed during the original convention. In all, I will conclude that the 2000 Democratic National Convention suffered most dramatically from ineffectual early planning and management. Relatively minor management changes made during the early stages of the event could have prevented the eventual difficulties that emerged during the final implementation of the convention proceedings.

Concept: Known Issues with the Convention

Issue #1: Timeliness

The 2000 Democratic National Convention was off to a lackluster start in the months leading up to the actual event. A political extravaganza on this scale requires extensive pre-planning, at least 18 months in advance. Nonetheless, the Democratic National Convention Committee didn't even settle on Los Angeles as the site of the convention until May 1999, a full four months after the Republicans had chosen their host city (Giroux, 2000). The late start had a definite effect on the planning process. Valuable time that could have been spent fund-raising or organizing the various logistical issues of the convention was wasted. Management of the event was already off to a bad start.

Issue #2: Last-minute fundraising

Additionally, the committee was slow to hire the requisite staff for the convention and failed to make prompt and quite necessary decision regarding security and transportation issues. Fundraising was also off to a slow start, behind schedule even as the convention itself loomed closer and closer. In June 2000, only two months from the actual start of the convention the organizers had raised $31 million, still 12% shy of their contractually obligated goal of $35.3 million (Giroux, 2000). A 12% deficit might not seem excessively terrible, but it amounts to more than $4 million in this case. To raise $4 million in less than two months, when all the usual contributors have already been tapped undoubtedly placed even greater pressure on the convention management.

Issue #3: Technology integration

Further complicating the matter was the fact that the Democrats were billing the 2000 convention as an e-convention, with an array of Internet and telecommunications options available for participants and attendees (Giroux, 2000). This placed a new burden on managers who now had to organize and integrate new infrastructure into the convention proceedings because the Democrats wanted to cement their image as the party of the future. Technology management issues are never simple or easy. The available technology must be acquired as well as the necessary software. Compatibility must be checked, systems diligently monitored and repaired as required. Managing the technology alone for an event this size was a significant task for the event organizers, one that was added on top of all of the original logistical issues inherent in the development of national political convention.

Issue #4: Keeping to the schedule

Finally, Gary Smith -- the executive producer for the 2000 Democratic National Convention -- since noted that there were major problems with the timing of the speeches and organization of the speakers during the convention itself (Solomon, 2000). The senators and representatives -- not to mention the other personalities conscripted for this convention -- had an apparent propensity for running over their allotted time during the convention. There was a very real concern that network television coverage of the 2000 Democratic National convention would be pushed out of prime time and that the networks would subsequently drop the feed from the convention center (Solomon, 2000). Thankfully for the organizers, this did not occur. Nonetheless, it represented a significant threat to the overall success of the convention, since television was the primary means by which the convention proceedings would reach millions of Americans. Though it is no easy task to hurry senators along during this kind of event, different management techniques could have been successfully employed to improve the timeliness of the event.

Concept: Potential Management Solutions

Solution #1: Start early

Sometimes the simplest management solutions can be the best. In this case, the 2000 Democratic National Convention suffered dramatically from a lack of extensive pre-planning. The Democratic National Convention Committee seemed content to wait until the last possible minutes to select a site for the event, to hire the necessary staff, and to address known logistical issues. The first step should have been to hire a competent and on-task management team following the conclusion of the 1996 Democratic National Convention and then encourage that team to lay the appropriate foundation for the 2000 convention as many years in advance as at all possible.

When time is of the essence, there is no reason to wait until the last minute to begin preparations for an event as large or as complex as a national political convention. By waiting so long to begin the planning stages of the event, the event predictably suffered. Organizers were forced to make compromises and settle for logistical solutions that may have been less than ideals but which were entirely necessary given the self-inflicted time constraints. Beginning work on the project in a timelier manner would have resulted in a smoother implementation and a higher overall event quality.

Solution #2: Secure funds sooner

This solution naturally follows from the last. Fund-raising, as with other elements of pre-planning for the event, suffered because organizers waited an excessive amount of months and years to begin the event planning in earnest. The Democratic National Convention Committee should not have been scrambling to raise over $4 million in the final months leading up to the convention. Rather, the fund-raising process should have been started more aggressively in the immediate aftermath of the previous convention in order to ensure that all of the convention's contractual obligations could be met without difficulty.

To that end, I might suggest a specific management solution. Unlike the Republican conventions, the Democrats make it exceedingly difficult for independent vendors to sell merchandise during the political convention. In fact, vendors were outright forbidden from participating directly in the 2000 convention. Investigation illustrated that this was a matter of politics and produced a real, if unethical, benefit to a key fundraiser and former party chairman. Mark Weiner's company Financial Innovations is given sole license to sell official convention merchandise and products for the Democratic National Convention (Jacobson, 2000). This unethical attempt to line the pockets of a major party contributor should be stopped purely because of its questionable nature. However, there are other, more beneficial reasons to do so. Bringing in a larger number of outside vendors -- perhaps contractually obligated to the convention to provide part of their proceeds to the convention in the form of donations -- could improve the donations secured by the organizers for the convention, all the while encouraging competition and expanding the array of products and merchandise available to attendees of the convention.

Solution #3: Technology with a grain of salt

In their haste to incorporate new technology into the 2000 Democratic National Convention, organizers may have bitten off more than they could chew. Previous conventions were successfully run without such an extreme reliance and integration of telecommunications and Internet solutions into the basic structure of the convention. This suggests that the success of the convention is not a function of the available computing power of the organizers. Rather, the success will be based on successful management of the event.

With late pre-planning stages prior to the beginning of the convention, it seems evident that the Democrats emphasis on the convention as an e-convention was a poor idea. It placed increased management and logistical stress upon the individuals responsible for incorporating this technology and likely added very little real benefit to the overall success of the event. For the added cost and hassle of the technology integration, event quality was not substantially improved. The lesson here should be to streamline operations as much as possible, especially when working with a truncated timetable. The resources that were employed to make the convention more technologically savvy could have been better spent on fundraising or logistical issues.

Solution #4: Keep on schedule, even if it means cutting off a senator

This may be one of the most difficult aspects of management, because little can be done beforehand to prevent speakers from running over their time limit. This issue must be dealt with live in order to successfully mitigate the negative effects. In the case of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, the speakers were allowed to speak well over their allotted time limit and the result was that the convention proceedings were pushed out of prime time, threatening continued network coverage, crucial as the most important speakers are usually reserved for the end.