How to Run a National Political Convention
From someone who’s been at the center of two of them
Tomorrow, tens of thousands of people will travel to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. They’ll make history when they nominate the first woman for president. To do it, they’ll need credentials, accommodations, press, food vendors, speaker line-ups, green rooms, translators, sign language interpreters, a stage production on par with doing the Oscars every night for a week, media hook-ups, working Wi-Fi, and, crucially, enough bathrooms to accommodate everyone.
There are a lot of moving pieces, and hosting a successful event like that doesn’t just happen. It takes years of planning. I know, because from 2006 to 2008, that was my job: I was the Chief City Planner for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver (which of course saw another historic nomination).
What goes into these giant media spectacles, and live events, that can change the course of the country’s future? Here are just a few considerations:
1. A big convention means big security.
Because of the size of the event, because of its importance, and because of its attendees, the U.S. Secret Service designates National Party conventions a “National Special Security Event.” It’s the highest classification level they have, and it means federal security resources (led by the Secret Service) are marshaled to help make the event safe — it’s not just a bureaucratic definition. The National Special Security Event designation is an indicator of how high the stakes are.
2. You can’t do it without your city’s support.
Conventions take coordination and work from every corner of the city — and that’s just to avoid screwing up anything in the form of week-long traffic jams, insufficient crowd control, and so on. Making the Convention that every resident can be proud of, that delegates enjoy, and that shines under the national spotlight takes a whole different level of effort.
In 2008, I was lucky enough to work with our community and neighborhood groups to help coordinate their involvement in the planning for the week and in the event itself. From across every corner of the city, Denver residents, businesses, and community leaders were excited to be part of the process. That got reflected in how the city at large responded to the event: everyone coming together for a celebration, not a hassle.
3. So you’ve got volunteers. Now make sure they’ve got something to do!
Volunteers from across the state wanted to part of the largest convention ever held in Colorado. We had so many volunteers that at first we didn’t even know what to do with them all. Then someone had a great idea: Why not enlist volunteers to help give a warm welcome to our delegates? We formed what we affectionately referred to as “clapping squads.” As the delegates arrived at the start of the Convention, we would greet them with the warmest Denver welcome we could. It made delegates, many of them longstanding, incredibly hardworking party organizers, feel like rock stars. And it made volunteers feel like they were an important part of the event — because they were.
4. Find yourself a situation room. You’re going to need to keep track of situations.
Deep in the basement of Denver’s City Hall, we created a Convention situation room that we packed with a dozen monitors and a member from every essential team: emergency managers, Secret Service, and public works. We monitored feeds from across the city to make sure every last piece went off without a hitch — managing traffic, demonstrations, you name it, all to keep Denver and its visitors safe. That basement room is also where I would wind up watching most of the speeches that week.
5. Roll with the punches — you’re going to be fine.
As August 25 approached, everything was looking good. We had planned for nearly two years and things were falling into place right on schedule.
Then we got word from the campaign: then-Senator Obama didn’t want to deliver his keynote at Pepsi Center, the indoor arena. It was too small. He wanted to deliver it outside at Mile High Stadium, where 84,000 people could watch from the stands.
There was just one problem: The Convention team had spent nearly two years getting security ready for Pepsi Center and we had just weeks to change everything. My team scrambled into action. We worked with Secret Service, local law enforcement, and Public Works to create new security perimeters and entrances, reanalyze traffic impact, create fresh bike trails and walking paths, connect with neighborhood residents who would be impacted, and reassign our eager volunteers. David Plouffe, the campaign manager, analyzed 200 years of weather patterns to guess our chances of a thunderstorm. We moved heaven and earth to make it happen, and crossed our fingers for good weather. (We got it.)
6. There’s something special about the room where it happens.
In 2012, I got a chance to see the Convention with my own eyes instead of watching through a security monitor. As National Political Director on President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, I flew to Charlotte to meet with room after room of groups and delegations — all with a message for the President.
The meetings were long, the conference rooms were tight, and we weren’t running on much sleep. But I’ll never forget the conversations I had with Democrats who had traveled from across the country to be there. Sitting down with a state delegation, a caucus group, or with representatives of the Native American tribes, and listening to their stories was such a powerful reminder of why we were all there in the first place.
7. Don’t forget your tickets to the big night.
The last few weeks of 2008 were so busy that I never even had time to figure out where we city planners would watch Senator Obama’s speech ourselves. We wound up watching from the section of the stadium all the way back behind the stage, and I couldn’t see a thing. But I could hear the thousands and thousands of people cheering wildly. I’ll remember the moment he took the stage, that thunderous applause and his face on the Jumbo Tron of Mile High, for the rest of my life.
8. Take a deep breath and a long look. Remember: This is history.
The 2008 Convention was my very first. What I remember most isn’t the time I spent in meetings or the number of conference calls I had to make sure every detail was handled. What I remember was the overwhelming pride we felt as citizens of Denver, seeing history happen in our city. We — joined by thousands of delegates and tens of thousands of supporters — were there when Democrats nominated our country’s first African American candidate for president.
We made history that night eight years ago, and everyone there felt the sense of something momentous — of barriers being broken.
This week in Philadelphia, Democrats will make history again when they make Hillary Clinton the first female nominee for president. I know they’ll feel that history, too.
