WWYD?

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WWYD

  • insist stage be moved

    Votes: 21 100.0%

  • move the stage yourself

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • turn the problem over to your client to address

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • wait, then choose 1-3 after equipment is loaded in

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    21
Valerie Hicks

Valerie Hicks

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 21, 2006
2,900
2,870
53
Eastern South Dakota
www.squareonesd.com
Okay, here's a scenerio for you....I'll keep the details as concise and objective as possible.

You book a prom in Chicago area...with a school you have not yet worked for. The prom is held in a convention center. You send out your regular technical requirements several months prior to the event (these outline times, space, power, loading, semi access etc). The event is 6/5/09.

On 4/22/09 you receive an email from the catering contact that she has received the information, and the electrician will contact us.

5/21 you email the catering contact to confirm details, and make her aware the electrician has not returned our messages.

5/22 receive multiple emails from catering confirming load in details and schedules.

6/2 you receive email from client regarding details of dance overlooked; there is a coronation at 10pm. at 9:50 announce lineup of candidates, 10pm they will line up the candidates on the dance floor with the crowd around them for a short crowning, followed by king/queen dance.

6/5 arrive onsite and call office as directed. Catering contact sends Jimmy out to direct us for load in and setup. Enter ballrooms to find stage set up. ASk what stage is for...Jimmy radios someone who says it's for the DJ. Tell Jimmy we don't need and can't use stage. Jimmy asks again. He is told (you can hear the other party on the radio) it's for the dj, and they need to use it. Jimmy again tells the other party it is not needed for the dj and are they going to call to have it removed? Answer is no. You tell Jimmy we'll work it out and begin the arduous task of loading in.

Now, make note that the stage is too small to set up your system on. The stage is where your system needs to be set up (due to location of dance floor and space available). As the stage is against the dance floor, you can not set up in front, and there is not room on either side....it is definitely in the way.

Do you:

1) keep trying to have the stage moved
2) move the stage yourself
3) call your client to resolve the problem with the venue
4) load in and hope to address the situation a little later (when you revert back to options 1-3)

Feel free to ask any questions necessary to make a decision....
 
move the stage yourself
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Outside, in the parking lot, in the best spaces, with a sign indicating that the stupid electrician gave us a stage we did not need, would not move it, so we moved it to a very visible spot.

Either that or move it to the principal's office.
 
I think I would ask the client to get involved in this case.
 
turn the problem over to your client to address


If it's a union venue, you don't want to be moving it yourself.

Reminds me of the time we saw Chicago in 1969 at a venue (where horse shows were normally held, so lots of sawdust on the floor, etc.) on the State Fairgrounds. They built a stage the size that would barely hold a 3-piece band.:sqconfused:

Chicago's management, called the promoter and they had to have the union carpenters come in right before the show, tear down the stage and since time was running short they ended up laying the plywood on the venue's floor. All you could see was the top of their heads if you were sitting on the floor.:sqrolleyes:

Sorry, I digress....back to the thread.
 
Val was your client on site when you arrived? If not this might be of future benefit in case venue issues occur such as this.
 
Jon Tuck said:
Val was your client on site when you arrived? If not this might be of future benefit in case venue issues occur such as this.
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No. We later found out she had a family emergency (husband in hospital I believe) so she probably could not have been reached had we tried. Our contact arrived well into dinner. It's actually pretty common that they are NOT around when we arrive as we arrive for setup generally 5-7 hours prior to guests arrival. Nobody else wants to be there that early! lol
 
I would get the venue site manager asap and explain that the stage is not in your contract and for them to present their contract from the client aka School co ordinator and show that in fact it called for the stage. If not its to be removed immediately.
 
DJFuzzy said:
It seems as though the coordinator has issues with size! :sqwink:
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Nope! Not at all! They are being conditioned to expect a DJ with two speakers on sticks or a DJ with a sound system that blends in.

I would have called my client and in the meantime just unload close to the area and wait. If you had not received a call from the electrician before the day, to verify that what they had waiting for you was exactly what you had requested, I would have alerted my client to expect a call at load in time.

What was the final outcome?
 
we must remember Val has 3 hours of setup. We have to consider these things in the process.
 
Jon Tuck said:
we must remember Val has 3 hours of setup. We have to consider these things in the process.
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Doesn't matter! I have done gigs with additional rented gear that took that long to setup so I am familiar with the process. The longer the setup time the more critical it is to have things in place when you arrive. It is not a good thing for anyone when things go wrong, no matter who is at fault everyone looks bad.
 
Jon Tuck said:
we must remember Val has 3 hours of setup. We have to consider these things in the process.
Click to expand...

5 hours of setup actually. :sqerr:




Because I heard first-hand the No, we will not be calling to have it removed, (the question was asked more than 4x), we took the stage down ourselves. I heard how he answered, and the tone told me there was no point in persuing it further through that route. I can't expect Jimmy to do more than that; so moving on.

In addition, the venue had a copy of our tech requirements, and as evidenced by the emails, they confirmed such. I know they had a copy of our needs.

Later, when I was getting yelled at by phone (nobody could come down to their own room to see us in person) I was told they set up the stage "because they have been a client here for years and have always used a stage for their coronation. That's why we have the stage". Now note earlier I was told it was for us. Also note a couple days earlier I got an email from the prom client stating the coronation would be on the dance floor. This was the prom advisors first year. She did not want/expect/order a stage. The venue took it upon themselves to set one up.

The biggest reason for us moving the stage is time. We have only 5 hours to be set up to fulfill our contract. I know we're likely to take a whipping over moving it, but being told they would do nothing already, I could tell that was a dead end avenue. I also couldn't see that getting our client involved would solve our problem any faster (that was the avenue the lady yelling at me suggested as proper). They would have reached the same dead end No answer, only it would take longer to get there. We didn't have that much extra time.

Note: we were setup by 5:30 and first guests arrival was officially 7:45. While we had to be set up earlier so the catering could have the room ready and things like that, we did allow for a cushion, just not one of that magnitude. We were set up in 4 1/2 hours (a very fast set up with such a long load in), and had a stellar event. The clients were tremendously impressed; the venue staff was much more amiable towards us at the end of the night. In the end, the tensions of early on did not affect the performance.
 
Oh, and the electrician....he was there hooking up power when we arrived. It was to our specifications and in plenty of time. Knowing (and triple checking) that he had our tech requirements, I could only assume it was a no-brainer for them. Had it been a concern, he would have called. Sometimes you have to roll with the information you can squeeze out; it does no good to beat the question in the ground. The bottom line is exactly as Houston said....
The longer the setup time the more critical it is to have things in place when you arrive. It is not a good thing for anyone when things go wrong, no matter who is at fault everyone looks bad.
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