As I drift off to sleep I proudly review the day in my head:
10:00 Management team that stayed in Bloomington arrived on site to prepare for the teams arrival
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| T-Shirt, Job Description and Wristbands moving into place |
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| Marking the Lot for the Trucks (Dee gets to play with sidewalk chalk) |
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| 43 Radios ready to go (maybe Vince will not loose his today) |
Kitchen Set and ready:
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| 30 Ovens and 60 hot boxes ready |
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| 20 coolers ready for pasta salad |
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| Calm before the storm sitting here quietly awaiting arrival (that is one big a-- kitchen by 6:00 we were using every inch of it) |
11:00 am back up in Indy the trucks are loaded and all the Supervisors and Chefs leave for Bloomington.
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| Supervisors and Chefs Check in (Glamour Chef poses for the camera) |
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| Last minute things are loaded |
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| Trucks ready to go (5 refers head down with food) |
12:00 pm The Clam before the storm. Two days of set-up and now the field house sits quietly awaiting the arrival of the staff.
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| Space Ready |
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| Bars Ready |
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| Behind the bars- ready for bartenders |
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| A Look inside the center of the bars (storage area built in middle of the bars) |
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| so peacful |
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| Buffets ready for food |
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| View of the buffets for the back |
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| Dessert stations ready |
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| Assembly Hall ready (this is where the guest will go before they come to us for food and beverage. We have nothing to do with this space but thought it was a cool shot and wanted to share) |
1:00 Supervisors & Chef arrive in Bloomington. We start with a tour and a meeting before we have quick bite to eat:
1:30 The first crew of service staff are checking in back home in Indy:
4:30- 6500 Desserts come of the refer trucks and get put into the middle of the room at the dessert station. Strategically placed according to plan, on the shelves and organize perfectly in the "back"room.
5:00 - The first load of food comes off the trucks. It is time to put the 1680 pounds of pasta salad and 21 cases butter chips into cooler to be disbursed around the room.
5:30 - Runners & 2nd wave of Bartenders have separate meetings while the Kitchen move the pallets of cold food to there holding stations spread around the room and drop the first round of pans in the ovens.
6:00 - Clearers and Dumpster/ Utility Meeting begin while the kitchen stays on schedule making sure the sternos are lite on the buffets and the hot boxes are turned on.
6:30 Transporters move first round hot boxes into place at the holding stations and the holding chefs get their areas ready.. While coffee arrives and is transported into place and the trash transporters meet.
7:00 Begin loading buffets while the servers finished up their meeting, received their assignment with their hats and aprons and moved into place.
7:30 EVENT BEGINS
The crowd come to us in very manageable waves. After the company awards presentation we got about 1700. With 24 buffet lines and 40 bartender ready and waiting we handled this like pros. It was a piece of cake. We were so prepared it felt like nothing.
The next wave came after Jeff Foxworthy was done with his act. I went over to assembly hall to see how things were going and take a look at the crowd. I watched the end of the show and we able to give my team a heads up when the next wave was coming their way. About 3000 head to the fieldhouse this time. I stood outside between the two building and said "here they come"...."there still coming"...."oh my, this is a tone of people, they are still coming your way how are you guys doing"......I hear back "We are doing GREAT we've got this nailed!!"
A good size crowd hung around and then after the final act about another 1500 come over and joined us.
10:30 Stop Liquor Service...... well that what the plan but the client was having such a great time and there were guest still having fun so they asked us not to..... Party On!!
The Client was thrilled!!! Gave me a BIG HUG and said thank you over and over again.
11:00 Event Ends....
We were so organized we even had a "Clean-up plan" - We have 400 people on staff and only 40 were staying for clean up. Each person that was not scheduled for cleanup got a load out assignment, for example the servers had to but out the sterno of their chafer they were serving out of, but the serving utensil in it, put the top on and carry it back to a designated area (all 120 chafers were off the floor and packed in 20 minutes).
The worst part of the evening was sitting in the back sorting out all the beer, wine and soda out of each tub. We had to do that on site because we were loading the unused product back onto the local distributors trucks that they were picking up first thing in the morning.
2.30 AM - What troopers!!! Left standing was the wonderful fantastic group of people who have been working NON STOP since Thursday morning. EVERYTHING was loaded, trucks were locked and the venue was clean. 100% ready to pull out. WOW!! Probably the most impressive part of the entire event.
I could not be more PROUD!!! Proud of my company, Proud of my staff, Proud of my leaders and yes Proud of myself. So much blood sweat and tears went into this event and it could not have gone any better. Are there things we would change if we did it again, ABSOLUTELY but only because we over planned and over prepared because we can honestly say we just pulled off the event of our lives. Opportunities don't come around for us like this every day and I am so thankful that this one did.
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| 13 trucks all lined up strategically for success |
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| Checking in at the Mainscape parking lot and picking up their packets |
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| After checking in each staff member get one box lunch and a beverage to eat on the bus on the drive down |
2:30 Supervisors and Chefs get prepared for the staff to start arriving:
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| Utility supervisors preparing (look how good this warehouse team looks all dressed up) |
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| Bar supervisors strategizing |
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| Chefs preparing he kitchen |
3:30 - The first wave of staff arrive. Bar backs get checked-in, meet and start getting familiar with the lay of the land:
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4:00 45 kitchen staff arrives and Chef Rach leads meeting
"ok guys, everybody ready!!"
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| Pushing 24 racks of dessert into place |
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| Desserts set and ready |
20 coolers full of butter and pasta
5:00 Ice in troughs: 200 bags of ice were brought inside to ice down 100 tubs of beer and wine
5:00 - Waves upon waves of buses continue to arrive. As each bus arrives they are asked to remain on the bus until the onsite check/in tent and team is ready for them.
7 Buses total of Staff
Holding tent
Transporters arrive and start their tour and meeting:
"You have the toughest job here we are depending on you"
5:30 - Runners & 2nd wave of Bartenders have separate meetings while the Kitchen move the pallets of cold food to there holding stations spread around the room and drop the first round of pans in the ovens.
Keeping to a strict timeline
PUSH!
6:00 - Clearers and Dumpster/ Utility Meeting begin while the kitchen stays on schedule making sure the sternos are lite on the buffets and the hot boxes are turned on.
6:30 Transporters move first round hot boxes into place at the holding stations and the holding chefs get their areas ready.. While coffee arrives and is transported into place and the trash transporters meet.
7:00 Begin loading buffets while the servers finished up their meeting, received their assignment with their hats and aprons and moved into place.
"one scoop"
"Smiles everyone Smiles"
7:30 EVENT BEGINS
The next wave came after Jeff Foxworthy was done with his act. I went over to assembly hall to see how things were going and take a look at the crowd. I watched the end of the show and we able to give my team a heads up when the next wave was coming their way. About 3000 head to the fieldhouse this time. I stood outside between the two building and said "here they come"...."there still coming"...."oh my, this is a tone of people, they are still coming your way how are you guys doing"......I hear back "We are doing GREAT we've got this nailed!!"
A good size crowd hung around and then after the final act about another 1500 come over and joined us.
10:30 Stop Liquor Service...... well that what the plan but the client was having such a great time and there were guest still having fun so they asked us not to..... Party On!!
The Client was thrilled!!! Gave me a BIG HUG and said thank you over and over again.
11:00 Event Ends....
We were so organized we even had a "Clean-up plan" - We have 400 people on staff and only 40 were staying for clean up. Each person that was not scheduled for cleanup got a load out assignment, for example the servers had to but out the sterno of their chafer they were serving out of, but the serving utensil in it, put the top on and carry it back to a designated area (all 120 chafers were off the floor and packed in 20 minutes).
The worst part of the evening was sitting in the back sorting out all the beer, wine and soda out of each tub. We had to do that on site because we were loading the unused product back onto the local distributors trucks that they were picking up first thing in the morning.
2.30 AM - What troopers!!! Left standing was the wonderful fantastic group of people who have been working NON STOP since Thursday morning. EVERYTHING was loaded, trucks were locked and the venue was clean. 100% ready to pull out. WOW!! Probably the most impressive part of the entire event.
I could not be more PROUD!!! Proud of my company, Proud of my staff, Proud of my leaders and yes Proud of myself. So much blood sweat and tears went into this event and it could not have gone any better. Are there things we would change if we did it again, ABSOLUTELY but only because we over planned and over prepared because we can honestly say we just pulled off the event of our lives. Opportunities don't come around for us like this every day and I am so thankful that this one did.
