The weekend before the Gala there were no end of details that needed attention. Seating arrangements were changing every ten minutes. This one had an unexpected guest; this one had two cancellations; an A-list artist is now coming. Working from a magnetic board, tables were shuffled around the room like chess pieces as we desperately searched for good placement for all of the top-tier table buyers. How bad is it when you've sold 15 $75,000 tables and there are only 6 really great spots in the room?
The caterers, upon seeing the makeshift kitchen area on the gala floor, announced that there was not enough space to serve both the first and second courses from the kitchen so they needed to pre-set the appetizer. Our Gala Co-Chairs were not happy.
Artist Casey Reas, who designed the digital visuals for the Gala arrived from L.A. to do some hands-on adjusting and see what the work actually looked like in the large gallery where the dinner would be held. Ten computers were set up behind a draped half-wall from which he could see and manipulate the visuals, change speed and colors and order of what appeared on the screens hanging from 16 different points on the ceiling. After months of reading descriptions and listening to explanations, we were finally going to see the end product, the art work that would embody the New Media theme. Our A/V consultants were on hand installing projectors, operating the controls and standing by for further instructions.
The Co-Chairs and other Development staff showed up to take a look at the table placement. They were underwhelmed by the artwork, which, admittedly, looked a little dim in a room of undressed tables, no chairs, no lighting and gray walls. Momentary panic set in; it was too late to do anything but try to convince everyone to withhold judgment until the bride was dressed, coiffed, and walking down the aisle, bouquet in hand! We needed to focus on more important things - like which table were we going to place behind a column with partial view of the stage. At a minimum of $5000 a ticket, no one was going to be happy with that seating.
Calls were coming in from people who desperately wanted tickets to the Studio Party, the 9pm bash for the younger crowd that would start in the museum's lower level while the dinner guests were enjoying their main course. With limited capacity and the sponsors hankering for more comps, it became necessary to add to the growing waitlist of people who would be contacted when/if tickets became available.
It was becoming frustrating trying to find places to seat the select members of the press who had been invited to the dinner. All perfectly respectable journalists, but no one seemed to want one at their table, feeling, I suppose, that it would restrict the conversation, or worse, lead to embarassing exposure in who knows what media outlet. Doesn't anyone just want publicity anymore? I thought it would be a cinch to find a spot for an intelligent, attractive, sophisticated journalist writing for a swank French magazine, but it was like trying to find someone to take your ugly sister to the prom.
We had reached our financial goals, but now we had to deliver an event worthy of a world-class museum and a guest list of A-list collectors, distinguished artists, art, fashion and entertainment world celebrities and generous sponsors eager to see the return on their investment. All that was left now was to put on the show. This is what keeps event planners up at night...thinking about the one million and one moving parts of an event and the ever present possibility of one or more of those parts not functioning or going haywire.
