Transcript

The transcript below has been lightly edited for readability and clarity. Click any starting timestamp to jump to that exact point in the YouTube video.

Podcast Introduction

[00:00] Don Costante:

Welcome to the Rundown Podcast, hosted by Don Costante, a nationally recognized event presentation expert with over 30 years of experience and author of Beyond the Scoreboard. This podcast takes you behind the scenes with industry leaders to unpack the insights, strategies, and creative tactics that drive unforgettable live experiences. Let’s get started.

Decisions That Define an Event

[00:27] Don Costante:

Every event is shaped by decisions most people never see. The choices made early, the calls made under pressure, and the judgment applied behind the scenes play a significant role in shaping what the audience ultimately experiences. Today’s guest understands that better than almost anyone. Frank Supovitz has spent more than 35 years leading and advising some of the world’s most complex live productions. He served as Senior Vice President of Events for the NFL. Led events and entertainment for the NHL. And founded Fast Traffic Events & Entertainment. His work includes productions such as the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft, Stanley Cup Finals, NHL All-Star Weekends, and international competitions. All in environments where preparation and decision-making are critical. In this episode, we’re going to explore eight areas where decisions define an event. From setting the primary objective and balancing tradition and change, to working with partners and broadcasters, preparing for the unexpected, and learning what an effective after-event evaluation looks like. I’m ready to get started. Let’s meet Frank Supovitz. Hi, Frank. Thanks for joining me on the rundown today.

Meet Frank Supovitz

[01:45] Frank Supovitz:

Oh, it’s great to be with you, Don.

[01:47] Don Costante:

I got to tell you, this is an episode that I have been waiting for, for a long time. You’ve been on my radar. Such a huge fan of what you do. So, I’m excited today.

[01:56] Frank Supovitz:

Well, that’s very kind of you. I’m a big fan of yours as well.

[01:59] Don Costante:

Well, thank you. So, we’ll get right into it. I think the best way to start, I always ask this question because I just think that it’s great, specifically for the young professionals out there. Frank, can you get us started today by giving listeners a quick walkthrough of your career journey, where you started, the key stops along the way, and what you’re doing today?

Frank Supovitz’s Career Journey

[02:20] Frank Supovitz:

Absolutely. And I would say that my job trajectory is not necessarily the one I would recommend for anyone. And the reason is, I started in this business about 40 years ago. You know, the world has changed. The academic world has changed. The entertainment world has changed. And certainly, the sports world has changed. I actually started while I was still in college. I was an usher at Radio City Music Hall in New York. And I learned the entertainment business there from kind of the ground up, inside out. Worked in the front of the house. And when I had graduated college, I was offered an opportunity to stay on at Radio City and become part of management. So, I stayed in the operations department for a little while. Then the marketing department learned all about how to promote and market entertainment. And then one of the last things that I did there, 16 years later, was I was assigned to be the director of special events. And the director of special events back then was for Radio City anyway. They were not only a theater at the time, but they were also a production company. Today, they’re just a theater. They don’t really do anything outside of their walls. But at the time, they wanted to get into that. So, I ended up being in the division that created, produced, managed major sports events, major public events, bicentennial events for the Constitution, corporate events for Polaroid, ITT, Coca-Cola, those types of things.

[03:53] Frank Supovitz:

And that is where I got my very first exposure to sports and sports events when I was the associate producer of the halftime show for Super Bowl XXII. And now we’re up to Super Bowl XXX. So, that tells you just how long I’ve been doing this. Fast forward, I was offered an opportunity to start the events business for the National Hockey League in 1991 and decided, well, let me leave the supplier side of the equation, go to the user side. And then work on not only, you know, a great sport, but a sport that I had followed ever since I was very, very young and ended up being in charge of the All-Star Game and the skills competitions, the games overseas in Europe and Japan, award shows, the draft, business meetings, you name it. And did that for 13 seasons. And then was offered the opportunity to move to the NFL, where I took on responsibility for the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl, the draft there, the NFL kickoff events at the beginning of the season. And then ultimately, again, international games, primarily in the UK and Mexico. And then after that, you know, so we can get to the end of the question, or at least the end of the answer. For the last 12 years, I’ve been doing my own thing with Fast Traffic Events & Entertainment. So we fill in a lot of blanks for people on either producing events like the pre-race show for the Indy 500 or the Hall of Fame game at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for example.

[05:28] Frank Supovitz:

And sometimes we’re involved in venue consulting during the development process, like we were at Pier 17 in New York City, where we helped develop at the South Street Seaport, the rooftop at Pier 17 that opened up in 2018 and became an incredible event and concert venue.

[05:47] Don Costante:

Wow. So you’ve been involved with a few big events. I’m just curious, what early experience in that path really shaped your view on events?

Early Experiences That Shaped His Approach

[05:55] Frank Supovitz:

Well, that’s a great question. You know, we’re the sum total of all of our experiences.

[06:00] Don Costante:

Oh, absolutely.

[06:01] Frank Supovitz:

I was in the Boy Scouts of America way back when, right? When I was a younger man and teenager. And when I was involved with the Scouts, I worked at a scout camp. I was the program director one year. I helped arrange camperees for up to 2,000 Scouts in Queens in New York. And, you know, that gave me an understanding of logistics and how you care for and move participants around in an event. The fact that I was an usher made me understand the value that the front-of-house staff has in adding or detracting from a great experience. You know, being on the marketing side, I started to understand how to promote those kinds of things. And then, of course, Radio City did amazing events. So, understanding how those were crafted and put together both technically and also creatively. You know, I was in an incredible number of right places at the right times to be able to just absorb all of that. So, I got lucky. That’s why I said, I’m not sure it’s a path people can necessarily follow except to say, be a sponge wherever you are. And take it all in and then contribute what you can contribute and learn along the way. And that’s how I ended up being able to do so many different things for so many different organizations.

[07:21] Don Costante:

I think what’s clear, each position you have in your career is going to prepare you for the next opportunity.

[07:26] Frank Supovitz:

Yeah, it well can.

[07:28] Don Costante:

Yeah. It’s just so helpful. When we connected ahead of time before this episode, Frank, we took some time in preparation for today’s discussion to talk through a few areas that really gets to the heart of decisions that define events. And these aren’t always the most visible parts of our job and they don’t always come up in public conversation, but they do show up every day in real event preparation and leadership. So, we’re going to take some time today, walk through some of those and explore how those decisions play out in practice. Sound good, Frank?

Eight Areas Where Decisions Define Events

[07:59] Frank Supovitz:

Fair enough.

[08:00] Don Costante:

Perfect. So, let’s start with the first topic, identifying the primary objective. So, Frank, when you begin to work on a major event, how do you go about identifying the primary objective and what is the most important metric for your success?

Topic One: Identifying the Primary Objective

[08:15] Frank Supovitz:

Well, it’s going to vary from event to event. And that’s the most important thing to remember. It’s not always about the finances. It’s not always about the money. It’s not always about the ticket sales. It could be that the primary objective of whatever you are working on is about promoting participation in your sport. And ticket sales might be something secondary. It might be about selling tickets to your regular season when you do a special event. That may be part of what your objective is. It could be about spreading awareness, getting more exposure, promoting more viewership. Whatever that is, I like to look at what’s that one thing? What’s the one thing that if you achieve it, it doesn’t matter if you achieve anything else. It’s great to achieve all those other things. And secondary objectives are hugely important. And that’s what adds power to whatever it is you’re creating and presenting. You can help to develop opportunities for sponsors to activate. You can help create better television programming or new television programming. But what’s that one thing? How many times have we been approached by our organization, for example, to say, oh, we want to do an All-Star Game. Or we want to do a skills competition. Or we want to do a fan festival. And my first question is always, okay, why?

[09:38] Frank Supovitz:

I mean, it’s great to add to the entertainment portfolio, if you will. That makes us more valuable. And that’s great. But what’s that most important thing that you want that event to achieve if you achieve nothing else? And that’s what you concentrate on when developing your event. So let me give you an example of how that might work. Back in 2012, when I was at the NFL, we had this idea. We said, gee, wouldn’t it be great if we could open up Media Day to fans? Media Day was exactly what it sounds like. And it still exists today, but it exists in a different form. That’s when all the media gather, typically at the Super Bowl venue, but it could be somewhere else, so that they can get player interviews. There’s probably about 3,000 members of the media who are down there interviewing players or a bunch of players are being interviewed all at the same time. And we said to ourselves, gee, wouldn’t this be an amazing opportunity for avid fans who really want to hear from their favorite players and the most consequential coaches? Why don’t we hear from them direct instead of having to wait for the opportunity to see it on the news the following day or in SportsCenter or whatever it is?

Super Bowl Media Day: Designing Around the Primary Objective

[10:51] Don Costante:

Right.

[10:51] Frank Supovitz:

But the primary objective of Media Day is not about the fans. The primary objective of Media Day is let the media have their interviews. They’re creating an enormous amount of content. So if you keep that in mind, when you start to design an event like that one, for example, you understand that you can’t amplify sound for the fans in the building, right? Because that would interfere with all of the interviews that are going on.

[11:17] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[11:17] Frank Supovitz:

Right?

[11:18] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[11:18] Frank Supovitz:

All the interviews are on the field. If you’re amplifying one or two of them, that’s going to interfere with everybody else. So what we did was we said, okay, we’re going to create something that’s entertaining and some entertainment content before the players come out so that the audience is, you know, getting value. But then we’re going to give them a low-powered FM receiver. And then we’re going to post the channels on the LED screens around the stadium so that the fans could tune in to hear the interviews of their choice.

[11:48] Don Costante:

Oh, so cool.

[11:49] Frank Supovitz:

Right?

[11:49] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[11:49] Frank Supovitz:

So I think we had six channels. We picked the six most consequential coaches and or players for each squad. And we would broadcast those into these low-power FM signal. And I remember very specifically this happened in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium when we did it for the first time. And Tom Brady was being interviewed down there. The place is silent, right? Because the fans are listening to one interview or another. And Tom Brady mentions to the members of the media, you know, Indianapolis has been incredible. They are so welcoming. I really love Indianapolis. And the place went crazy. And the place went crazy, right? The audience just erupted and applauded and cheered and whatnot. I remember Tom Brady looking up at the audience and saying, can you guys actually hear me? And then everybody said, yes! All at the same time. We designed it. We designed it that way because we never forgot what that primary objective was.

[12:48] Don Costante:

Right? Right.

The 100th Indy 500 and Reversing Declining Attendance

[12:49] Frank Supovitz:

Here’s another quick example. I was asked to create and produce the 100th Indy 500 pre-race show. And when you’re asked, well, do a pre-race show. Okay, what are we promoting? What are we trying to accomplish? What does your organization or your client, what are they hoping to achieve for this? Because it by itself is something pretty significant. Had I not asked, I wouldn’t have known this. They said, we have had shrinking attendance over the last few years. We used to get about 300,000 people on race day, which by the way, is just an enormous amount of people.

[13:23] Don Costante:

Huge.

[13:23] Frank Supovitz:

But it had shrunk down to only about 250,000.

[13:27] Don Costante:

Oh.

[13:28] Frank Supovitz:

And their primary objective for the 100th anniversary or the 100th Indy was to reverse the trend of declining attendance. They knew that many people who hadn’t been to the race in years would come back for the 100th, right? They knew that the audience was going to be bigger because it’s the 100th.

[13:47] Don Costante:

Oh, absolutely.

[13:47] Frank Supovitz:

But they wanted to make it so special that those people who came to the 100th would decide to come back for the 101st because they rediscovered the Indy 500 and how wonderful it is. So the content that we created for that event had to amplify the things that people used to love about coming to the Indy 500, but it had to be fresh, too.

[14:11] Don Costante:

Right.

[14:11] Frank Supovitz:

It couldn’t be taking out the plan from 15 years before.

[14:14] Don Costante:

Right.

[14:15] Frank Supovitz:

And that is what guided all of the storytelling and the reimagining of the pre-race show. And it worked. We had 354,000 people standing remotely, basically, for the 100th. And it’s been 320,000 or more every year since COVID.

[14:32] Don Costante:

Wow. Wow. That’s impressive. Just a great way to start because I think so many people out there that are doing events, working with organizations, get deluded with the objectives. And I think understanding, have that primary objective. And from there, your decisions are made based off of that. I just think that’s so important. Let’s move on to topic number two, and that’s separating traditions from habit. So, using the 100th running of the Indy 500, which we were just talking about, how do you evaluate which elements are true traditions and which are simply habits that may no longer serve the event?

Topic Two: Separating Traditions From Habits

[15:06] Frank Supovitz:

Or may never have.

[15:08] Don Costante:

Or may never have. That’s a great point.

[15:10] Frank Supovitz:

Right. Well, think of it this way. Traditions are the things that people love and are part of the reason they come back. Habits are the things you’ve done because you’ve always done them. Right?

[15:23] Don Costante:

Right.

[15:23] Frank Supovitz:

Think of it in that way. The Indy 500, perfect example, is steeped in tradition. It’s a Memorial Day weekend event. It’s been Memorial Day weekend since 1911. Right? You know, it’s very flag-wavy and very patriotic and very reflective as well as celebratory.

[15:41] Don Costante:

Yep.

[15:41] Frank Supovitz:

From the singing of America the Beautiful, which used to be done by Florence Henderson for years and years. And the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana before the green flag waves or before they actually start their engines. That used to be Jim Nabors, by the way.

[15:56] Don Costante:

Wow. That’s going back.

[15:57] Frank Supovitz:

Yeah, that goes way back. 21-gun salute, Taps from a lone bugler. And, you know, we looked at the pre-race show of previous years and we wondered, you know, which was tradition and which was habit. Now, clearly, you know, Memorial Day pageantry and commemoration, that’s tradition.

[16:16] Don Costante:

Sure.

[16:17] Frank Supovitz:

Right? That’s something you want to keep doing. The singing of Back Home Again in Indiana brings people to tears. But you look at the run of show of previous years and you see things like, well, there’s a march of bands around the track. And the march of bands happens at 8 o’clock in the morning. The green flag waves at 1245. Why is the march of bands there? It’s lovely to have people marching along the front stretch. And it’s great for the bands. They get to march around the entire track, which is two and a half miles long.

Identifying Habits That No Longer Serve the Event

[16:48] Don Costante:

Right.

[16:48] Frank Supovitz:

But there’s nobody in their seats at 8 o’clock in the morning. So why were we doing it? If we were doing it because it was promised to the bands, all right, let’s do it this one last time and then let’s stop. Right? Because it’s an awful lot of effort for not a lot of impact. Right? So that was clearly a habit. And we stopped doing it, but we replaced it with a new tradition. And I said, you know, if we’re going to do something at 8 o’clock in the morning, and we should because the doors, believe it or not, open at 6 in the morning. And the place has already got, you know, 100,000, 150,000 people already in the door by the time you get to 8 o’clock. They’re just not in their seats. Well, where are they? They’re in the infield.

Creating a New Tradition: March to the Bricks

[17:35] Don Costante:

Oh, OK.

[17:36] Frank Supovitz:

What can we do in the infield? Do we march the bands around the infield?

[17:39] Don Costante:

OK.

[17:40] Frank Supovitz:

Why would we do that? Well, there’s a trophy. It’s called the Borg-Warner Trophy. It’s their version of the Stanley Cup, their version of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. And it’s remarkable. It’s got the faces of every winner of the Indy 500, now 109 of them. And people don’t get to see it up close. So why don’t we parade that around the infield when people can take pictures of it or get their pictures taken of it? And so we created March to the Bricks. The Bricks, by the way, the Yard of Bricks is the start and finish line of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So it lives in the museum on property in the infield. And then it finds its way to the Yard of Bricks and just kind of sits at the side of the track until we introduce the drivers at about 1145. Well, why don’t we get it in front of people? And so we did that. We created this new opportunity. There are marching bands involved. The Purdue All-American Marching Band leads it down the front stretch when it gets there. The Speedway High School Marching Band picks it up at the Pagoda. It kind of grows as it goes through the infield. The size of this procession grows and grows. So we created something new and had people not responded to it, we would have done it once and forgotten about it. But now people come for the March to the Bricks, too.

[19:09] Frank Supovitz:

We’ve actually created something that we introduced for the 100th running. We’re about to do the 110th this year. And we’re still doing it because people love it. And sometimes tradition and habit have nothing to do with the content itself, but with how you’re telling your story. Let me give you an example for that, too. At Indy, everything was staged on Victory Podium against the backdrop. And the backdrop had, you know, the logo for that year’s Indy 500. All of that Memorial Day tradition, the Lone Bugler, the Color Guard, the 21-gun rifle salute, and from etc., all happened on Victory Podium. And when you look at Victory Podium and this backdrop, you say to yourself, what does this say about Indianapolis Motor Speedway and what are we missing? We’ve always done it there. But what if we moved it off the podium and down onto the track where when you photograph it, when it’s televised, which it is, you get the full impact of just how big Indianapolis Motor Speedway is. You can’t get that against the backdrop. You can get it, though, if you put it on the track and you see five-eighths of a mile’s worth of people in grandstands on both sides. And you start to understand the enormity of the event, of the venue, and the impact that this particular event has, even on the American cultural experience.

Tradition, Habit, and How an Event Is Staged

[20:36] Frank Supovitz:

So how we staged it changed. We even put the Lone Bugler, instead of Victory Podium, against the backdrop. We put him up in the flag stand where they wave the green and checkered flags. And so he’s elevated above the track now.

[20:51] Don Costante:

So cool.

[20:52] Frank Supovitz:

And you see fans as far as the horizon. Habit or tradition is not just about content.

[20:58] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[20:59] Frank Supovitz:

It can also be the way you stage things.

Why Organizations Struggle to Change

[21:01] Don Costante:

And why do you think so many organizations out there struggle to remove habits and replace with modernized traditions? Do you think they’re worried of upsetting some of the loyal audience that maybe see some of those habits as traditions?

[21:14] Frank Supovitz:

Yes, you could. The first answer is, why do we struggle with it? We struggle with it because it’s easy to do the same thing again.

[21:21] Don Costante:

Right.

[21:21] Frank Supovitz:

It’s easier than trying something new. Now, it can also disappoint people a little bit. And I get that. If you did something on the front stretch, for example, at Victory Podium, the fans that have tickets in that area are experiencing it right in front of them.

[21:37] Don Costante:

Right.

[21:37] Frank Supovitz:

If you move it to turn one, which we did. We have a second stage that we put at turn one so that you can see the full front stretch. We don’t put everything there. But we have moved things around so that more people get a piece of the show live. Because remember, it’s two and a half miles around. You can’t do everything for everybody.

[21:59] Don Costante:

Right.

[21:59] Frank Supovitz:

Lots of things like historic cars making laps and things like that.

[22:04] Don Costante:

That’s cool.

[22:04] Frank Supovitz:

And everybody gets a piece of the show. So when you move it or you change it, yeah, the people who are used to being around it will be somewhat disappointed. But in general, as a whole, experimenting with how you stage something so that you can bring more excitement overall to more people, I think it’s worth the experiment.

[22:26] Don Costante:

That’s brilliant. I love that. That’s a huge point right there. Experiment is worth risking sometimes. You know, you can’t be afraid of failing. Let’s move on to topic number three. This topic is integrating commercial partners into content. So, Frank, how do you go about integrating commercial partners into event content in a way that really feels engaging and additive rather than intrusive?

Topic Three: Integrating Commercial Partners Into Content

[22:51] Frank Supovitz:

Yeah, it’s really easy to become commercial, right?

[22:54] Don Costante:

So easy.

[22:55] Frank Supovitz:

The answer to a lot of questions frequently is, well, I’m a sponsor. I’m providing you with a lot of money. And we are dependent on that sponsorship. It’s really important. We have to deliver activations and engagement that generate a return on investment for them, right? So they can justify the money they’re spending. But the easy answer is, well, let’s run a commercial on the Jumbotron. That’s simple because it’s in the can. They’ve got it. It doesn’t take very much to do it. Or just doing PA announcements and things like that. That doesn’t add anything. Everybody knows what a commercial is.

[23:32] Don Costante:

Yeah, yeah.

[23:32] Frank Supovitz:

You know, it’s the time to go out and get a hot dog.

[23:36] Don Costante:

Exactly.

[23:36] Frank Supovitz:

But if you can activate sponsorships in ways that, on one hand, utilize and exploit the attributes of their brand to tell our story, that’s the winning combination to me, right? Where you can create opportunities to amplify and enhance the fan experience while still providing linkage to the attributes of that brand. I think that’s a winner. Let me give you some examples of that. For the Hall of Fame game in Canton, which is the first preseason game of the NFL, there are a ton of sponsors as there are at any NFL game. But the Hall of Fame is the home team, if you will. It’s at the stadium right outside their doors. So you don’t have the same influence of venue sponsors and things like that that can kind of get in your way. But let’s look at Haggar. Haggar is the official menswear company of the Hall of Fame. They make the gold jackets that the Hall of Famers get when they’re inducted.

Sponsor Activations That Add to the Fan Experience

[24:31] Don Costante:

Right.

[24:32] Frank Supovitz:

And their tagline one year was, own your style. So during the game, during a quarter break, we staged a fan contest on the field where four fans were given footballs to run into the end zone for touchdowns. And they competed for the most stylish touchdown celebration. They owned their style. That’s what that was about. It ended up being a great opportunity for Haggar to have their name and their theme on this program. And then it was really entertaining for the crowd, too. In fact, I remember it was so engaging and entertaining. One fans that the fans in the audience watched do their celebration didn’t think he tried hard enough, and they booed him out of the stadium. But we had a winner, right? And they got a Haggar gift card for buying clothes.

How Partners Fit Into the Creative Process

[25:20] Don Costante:

Frank, let me ask you a question about that. With Haggar, how involved did Haggar get with that creative discussion about what their activation was going to be? Or do you just come up with the idea and then present it?

[25:30] Frank Supovitz:

He came up with the idea and presented it.

[25:32] Don Costante:

Got it.

[25:32] Frank Supovitz:

And the partners at the Hall, and I’ve been involved with the Hall for 20 years off and on between my time at the NFL and today, they’re looking for that meaningful engagement opportunity, that meaningful activation opportunity. Extreme Networks is the Hall’s networking sponsor. So we created Extreme Stats for the Jumbotron that celebrated players that hold longstanding NFL records that are kind of extreme, right?

[26:00] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[26:00] Frank Supovitz:

The fastest, you know, the most past completions, things like that. And we ran those screen treatments twice each quarter through the game. It was always a new extreme stat that we could share. Kay Jewelers makes the Hall of Fame rings, but they also make fan jewelry that have team logos on them. So we ran a trivia contest where, and this is during commercial breaks, where we brought fans down to the sideline and they could win a piece of that jewelry for their favorite team by answering three questions correctly. And the audience played along. That kind of promotion brought attention to the fact that Kay made fan jewelry, that you could buy those pieces in the stadium, and it also created an opportunity for people to play a game. So gamifying the opportunity is a great way of also engaging.

[26:53] Don Costante:

Sure, yeah.

[26:53] Frank Supovitz:

But in each of those cases, we gauged our success or failure on whether this was purely a commercial play or an added to the fan experience. And if we had to run a commercial, we ran one, you know, because sometimes you just have to close your eyes and do it.

[27:10] Don Costante:

Sure.

[27:11] Frank Supovitz:

But more often than not, if you can come back to a partner and say, here’s what we’d like to do, and here’s how we’d like to feature your brand attributes, your campaign, whatever it is, and integrate it into your own message. Because what I just described to you is all about football. Then you’ve got a winner.

[27:30] Don Costante:

So commercial partners, so important. Another critical relationship that shapes the experience is broadcast partners. That leads us to topic number four, collaborating with broadcasters. So Frank, drawing on events like the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement, how do you collaborate with broadcasters so the live audience and the broadcast audience are both well-served?

Topic Four: Collaborating With Broadcasters

[27:51] Frank Supovitz:

Well, I’ve been very lucky to be able to work on events that do get televised, many events, every year. And you develop a relationship with the producers and directors and a sense of trust between you, right? They trust me, I trust them. And you have to build that, right? That isn’t something that you get the first time you meet somebody.

[28:12] Don Costante:

No, absolutely.

Serving Both the Live and Television Audiences

[28:13] Frank Supovitz:

But the age-old argument is this, because I used to hear it all the time. Are we producing this for the 16,000 people in the arena or for the millions who are watching on television? And the answer is decidedly both. Almost always, we have to design the live production to work around the things that broadcasters want to do when they want to do it, right? Frequently, we have to work around their run of show a little bit or readjust our run of show so that it matches theirs. Back in the day when laser shows were big, they’re not very big right now. But back in the day when they were, we did them in hockey arenas, which were great because ice sheets are white. They pick up the light really well.

[28:58] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[28:59] Frank Supovitz:

But they’re deadly on television, right? They were really hard to follow. It was mostly dark. There were no ways to cut to audiences, you know, to get those kind of reaction shots. So whenever we did player introductions, what we would do is we would light one area in the audience so that the television director had a place to go when they wanted to capture fan reaction to whatever it was you were presenting. Otherwise, it would have been dark and they wouldn’t have that. So I know that they want those things. They want to be able to not only show what’s happening, but show how fans appreciate and experience those things. COVID proved that an energized fan experience, an energized audience is always going to make better television. Always. When fans couldn’t get to the stadium during COVID, and you would think that that would cause more people to watch games on television, the opposite happened. When nobody was watching in the venue, the games and the events were simply just not as exciting.

[30:03] Don Costante:

Yeah, so true.

[30:03] Frank Supovitz:

And television viewership actually declined. People were watching Netflix. They weren’t watching the live sporting events that were being held in audience-less locations with the same level of avidity. They just weren’t doing that. So we always try to create opportunities where demonstrating that the audience there is having such a good time that, gee, I wish I was there. I love watching on television, but gee, I wish I was there because this has been incredible. Right? So how you stage those things for television in ways that also serve your live audience is enormous. And then there are going to be things that television never wants. Those things get tucked into either the pre-event period before it goes to television, or it gets tucked into a commercial break. The Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined that we get 100 Hall of Famers returning to Canton, Ohio to welcome the new class every year. And we introduce them to the stadium audience before television comes on to air because, let’s face it, it takes about 20 minutes to introduce 100 people. That’s not necessarily good television. In fact, it’s not very good television. But what I noticed last year in particular, or the year before, was television has 100 of these Hall of Famers, and then they kind of cut to them for reaction shots to speeches and things.

Using Hall of Famers to Create Better Television

[31:30] Don Costante:

Right.

[31:30] Frank Supovitz:

But they never actually talk about or tell stories about the guys who are there, other than the ones that are being enshrined, which makes sense, right? The new class is being enshrined. That’s where they’re spending most of their time. But every year, we would commemorate the anniversaries of various classes, the 10th anniversary of the class of 2016. We would do that in the commercial breaks. And then I spoke to ESPN and said, I have a question. Why are we not doing this in the television window? I mean, isn’t it amazing that all these people are here? Don’t you want to see them? And they were like, yeah, when we go to commercial, we’re not paying attention to what you’re doing. But now that you’re telling us that this is something, yeah, let’s try it. So we did last year. And we put the anniversary class into the television window, and it made all the difference. Now you understand that these amazing people have returned. It’s not just a sea of 100 Hall of Famers on the stage watching the new class get enshrined, but they’re also there for their own reunion. And that’s a bit of storytelling that we could do because we worked closely with the broadcaster to say, here’s an opportunity for you.

[32:43] Don Costante:

That is so cool. I was just thinking, you laid out a great blueprint there for collaborating with broadcasters. Early on, you talked about trust. For those listening, what would you recommend? How do you establish trust early in the process with broadcasters?

Building Trust With Broadcast Partners

[32:58] Frank Supovitz:

I think it’s important to be able to demonstrate that you understand what they need and what they want. They want great pictures and they want great storytelling. And if you talk in that language, they understand those things. We, as live producers, may have to do a lot more with live ceremonial protocol and things like that. Just not that exciting to them.

[33:23] Don Costante:

Yeah, yeah.

[33:24] Frank Supovitz:

When we create our run of show for the Indy 500, for example, as well as for the Hall of Fame enshrinement, Hall of Fame game, we track along with their run of show. I ask them for their run of show. I give them my run of show so that they can understand what is worth having a look at for the television audience. So I think you need to share your run of show with them and they need to share their run of show with you. They need to be very upfront with when they need commercial breaks, how many commercial breaks they need, how long those commercial breaks are. You, you know, can tuck the things that they don’t want to televise into commercial breaks or in areas where they’re doing interviews, a pregame, you know, interview with a coach, whatever, that doesn’t really work for the live audience. I think you come armed with opportunities and say, here’s what we’re doing. Here’s why we’re doing it. Here’s who we’re doing it with and offer them the opportunity to cover more of what you’re doing or find ways to hide the things that they don’t want you to be doing in the television window.

[34:31] Don Costante:

Yeah. So certainly the partnership or the collaboration with broadcasters helps shape a successful event, but also where and when they take place can shape the event as well. The experience. That leads us to topic number five, capturing time and place. So Frank events like the MLB draft are much about context as content. How do you intentionally capture the sense of time and place in an events design?

Topic Five: Capturing Time and Place

[35:02] Frank Supovitz:

When you do an event that travels around like the Super Bowl, like the MLB draft, which now lives with the All-Star Game for a major league baseball, you have the opportunity. You have the opportunity to integrate music set design, video content that celebrates the time and place you’re in. Now, this year, a lot of us are going to be doing things with America 250. We have a unique opportunity here to celebrate America and all the great things about America. We have the opportunity to look back, if you will. We’re going to do some things at the Indy 500 that is going to be a little bit different this year because of that theme. We’re celebrating the time a little bit differently. The place is always the same. It’s always Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

[35:53] Don Costante:

Right. Right.

[35:54] Frank Supovitz:

We create themes that are specific to a particular year or a particular location. Major League Baseball, when they do the draft, it’s now in the same city as the All-Star Game, as I have mentioned, just a few days before. The game’s on Tuesday. The draft is on Sunday. When we created the set for that, it’s been an outdoor event, or it was an outdoor event, two of the three years that I was involved, one in Los Angeles, one in Seattle. We really wanted to celebrate the fact that we were in those cities. So we created music and set design. The set design was such that we had palm trees, real palm trees, that were part of the set, even though we were at LA Live, which is an entertainment district right in downtown Los Angeles. When we did the All-Star Red Carpet show in Seattle, we actually did it at the Pike Place Market in Seattle and worked with them, with that venue, which is a marketplace, to create a red carpet event that all of the all-stars would be a red carpet event. They’d be able to walk down with their families and be introduced to the public. And it was broadcast on MLB Network. The pictures from Seattle are unforgettable because it’s such a famous location. It’s got that big public market sign in the background. We think in terms of, or at least I do, I think in terms of photos and footage.

Using Location to Shape Event Design

Thinking in Photos and Footage

[37:24] Don Costante:

Oh, yeah.

[37:24] Frank Supovitz:

What are the photos that the media are going to take that go around the world? What is the footage and in the background of the host location where the broadcasters are going to be seated? What’s going to be seen over their shoulder and what’s going to be seen right in front of them? Those are really important considerations, too. And speak a little bit to what we just talked about, which is working with broadcasters, right?

[37:49] Don Costante:

Yep.

[37:50] Frank Supovitz:

You want to think in their terms. And it’s easy nowadays for live sports event producers to think that way because we should be thinking that way for the jumbotrons.

[38:00] Don Costante:

That’s right.

[38:00] Frank Supovitz:

Right? What’s in the background? What are you seeing? What makes it unique? What makes it different from any other All-Star Red Carpet show? And when you look at it, does it say where you are? I think those are hugely important considerations.

[38:15] Don Costante:

Wow. For those that are listening, photos and footage, if you just think that through a little bit and really look at that, it makes you think differently about what you’re doing. So I love that. So regardless of great planning, live events has its way of always throwing surprises your way, which kind of leads us to the next topic, which is preparing for and responding to the unexpected. Frank, you wrote the book on this. And for those listening, his book is What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong? A Five-Step Guide for Planning for and Surviving the Inevitable and Coming Out Ahead. Definitely should be required reading for anybody out there that is in the industry. Now, Frank, I know you’ve experienced some major disruptions, including the Super Bowl XLVII power failure. Talk about preparing for the unexpected and how to respond when things go wrong.

Preparing for and Responding to the Unexpected

What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong?

The Super Bowl XLVII Power Failure

[39:07] Frank Supovitz:

We are responsible for not only delivering an incredible experience, but a safe one, too. And we work with our partners on the security side of things, on the venue operations side of things. You know, safety is a non-negotiable.

[39:23] Don Costante:

Absolutely.

[39:24] Frank Supovitz:

And every decision that you make, I hate to say this, but entertainment is not the first one. It’s not the first thing you think about. When something goes wrong, do we have a safe environment? And what do we do if we don’t have a safe environment? You mentioned the blackout at Super Bowl XLVII. You know, a lot of people ask, what did you do? Like, what was the first thing that went through your mind? And the first thing that went through my mind was not, how do we get the lights back on? The first thing that went through my mind was, what do we ask people to do now? We don’t want them streaming for the exits. We don’t want them evacuating the building. If we have a safe environment, if we have an unsafe environment, we’ve got to get them out of the building. Is the building more safe than it is outside? Is outside less safe than inside? You have to think about all of those things, and you don’t have a lot of time to do that.

[40:17] Don Costante:

Split second, yeah.

[40:18] Frank Supovitz:

Right? I mean, you have to make those decisions really quickly. Now, when it comes to the Super Bowl, the last thing you want to do is evacuate a building that you don’t have to evacuate. Right? Because getting started again in front of 115 million people watching on television, you know, that’s a pretty weighty decision. We knew within 90 seconds that we did not have a terror incident. We didn’t have a cyber terror incident. We had a simple physical failure of the electrical system that basically extinguished the power in one half of the building. And the first thing we said was, well, what do we tell people to do? What do we want them to do? We weren’t thinking about how to entertain them at this point. We were thinking about, all right, what do we tell them? Now, happily, in most of our buildings, probably all of them, the public address system has a backup power supply so that we can take care of light safety issues like this one. Same thing happened at the Superdome. We were able to tell people to hang out and wait. We’re getting the power restored or we will get the power restored. That was really important. Now, how did we know that that was important to us? Now, the Super Bowl is a little bit different from most events in terms of budget and preparation and the amount of time that you have to figure it out three, four years ahead of time.

Tabletop Game-Day Simulations

[41:41] Frank Supovitz:

Every year, we conducted a tabletop game day simulation. So anybody who was in our command center on game day participated in this. And we hired a facilitator who became familiar with our operating plan. And he would throw about a week ahead of time. He would throw four or five disasters at us that were, you know, when I say disaster, I mean that very broadly.

[42:09] Don Costante:

Right. Okay.

[42:10] Frank Supovitz:

This happened. How do you respond? What do you guys do? And all of us, you know, started to problem solve in real time. And remember, that’s really important when you’re moving an event from place to place because you do have a core staff, but you’re also reliant on local law enforcement, local fire department, local, you know, the host venue that is different every year. And so when you start tackling these things, number one, you start to tease out weaknesses in your system, things you should have planned for that you didn’t. And we never actually rehearsed the power failure ever, but that’s okay. Because what it did was it taught us how to respond and what the most important things were. And almost always the most important thing was, what do we tell people? So when the lights went out for real, we went right back into problem solving mode, like we did the week before at what was basically an operational rehearsal. You wouldn’t do a show without a rehearsal. Why would you operate without one? And that’s how we were prepared to be able to handle that. The other thing that it prepared us for was to think about what problems might come downstream from the initial issue. And what we determined was, well, when lights went out, it cut the power to every information system we had too.

Preparing for Downstream Problems

[43:28] Don Costante:

Oh, wow.

[43:29] Frank Supovitz:

Right?

[43:29] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[43:30] Frank Supovitz:

So, okay, the lights are back on, but don’t we also have to check whether the scoreboard is working? We have to check. That’s pretty obvious though. Is the score clock functional? Is the coach to quarterback system functional? Is the instant replay system functional?

[43:47] Don Costante:

Okay.

[43:47] Frank Supovitz:

Well, if we started again, because let’s face it, more than a hundred million people were waiting for us to start again. And we succumbed to that temptation without checking those things. And there was a score or there was a controversial play and the official went under the hood and there was no instant replay. Now what’s the story?

[44:07] Don Costante:

Yeah, no, it’s bad.

[44:08] Frank Supovitz:

Right?

[44:09] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[44:09] Frank Supovitz:

The story is, how could you start the game again without having that? So we thought about those things and everybody at the command center who was responsible for one system or another, whether it was operational surveillance or whether it was the coach to quarterback system or anything else. They checked everything before we got started again. That was essential. And in point of fact, one coach to quarterback system didn’t work. We repaired it and got it back online before we got started again.

Maintaining Decision Clarity in a Crisis

[44:41] Don Costante:

It’s so interesting. One of the questions I was going to ask you and you answered it was how do you maintain decision clarity in a crisis? And it’s quite simple. It’s all about being prepared. The more prepared that you are, the more confident you are, the more confident you are, the more rational you are in crisis situations. Then you’re able to draw from your knowledge and experience and not be held back by fear or panic.

[45:07] Frank Supovitz:

Yeah. Goes back to my Boy Scout days. Be prepared.

[45:09] Don Costante:

Yeah. Right? No, absolutely.

[45:12] Frank Supovitz:

What we did with those tabletop simulations was we stress tested our ability to solve problems.

[45:19] Don Costante:

Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Let’s move on to the next topic. This topic is the air traffic controller role. You’ve described the role of an event leader as being similar to an air traffic controller. Can you explain that analogy and how it shapes how you manage overlapping projects?

The Air Traffic Controller Role

[45:38] Frank Supovitz:

Absolutely. We are. And, you know, sometimes we’re as stressed out as air traffic controllers for the same reason. Event production is not linear. We don’t start a project, execute it, finish it, and then start the next one.

[45:53] Don Costante:

Right.

[45:54] Frank Supovitz:

We’ve got a lot of planes in the air all at once. Our job is to land them one at a time and in the proper order. And then we’ve got everything done as much as we can for the thing that’s right on top of us. But we have to keep working on everything else.

[46:11] Don Costante:

Right.

[46:11] Frank Supovitz:

Those planes are still flying. Those events are still being planned. When you are working on the Super Bowl, you’re still thinking about the draft and the combine and, you know, everything else that’s coming up. You know, you’re going to have a lot of projects, a lot of balls in the air. And you have to prioritize what has to be done when for every single one of them. We all have production schedules.

[46:36] Don Costante:

Yep.

[46:37] Frank Supovitz:

Right. We all have, well, we should all have production schedules.

[46:40] Don Costante:

Yep.

[46:41] Frank Supovitz:

But you have to look at them side by side and make sure that you can keep things going. Whatever the next decision point is, whatever the next crucial milestone is, they’ve got to fit in between everything else you’re about to do for the event that you’re landing.

[47:00] Don Costante:

You know, that’s tremendous advice. Once a plane does land, once your event finishes, you’re not done yet. And that moves us into the next topic, what you call after-action evaluation. So using Super Bowl XLV post-event evaluation as an example, what does an effective after-action review look like?

After-Action Evaluation

Lessons From Super Bowl XLV

[47:20] Frank Supovitz:

You know, it’s so important to know what you did wrong and to know what you did right. But while you’re doing that, it’s really hard to get people to talk to you sometimes and to share information. Super Bowl XLV was very, very challenging. It was a lousy fan experience, partially because we didn’t deliver the event well. We didn’t deliver the event well because of a lot of different things, not the least of which was bad weather, freezing icy weather in Dallas at the time of Arlington. And it was very well known that there were a number of seats, a large number of seats that didn’t pass building inspection and couldn’t be used. And as a consequence, there was a whole cascading series of effects. Everything from delays at the gates in the icy cold weather to people not being able to be accommodated in the seats that they had bought. Lots and lots of really awful after effects of all of that. Now, how did we get there? Well, having experienced a lot of the steps that went into that, we had a pretty good understanding of how we got there. We talked amongst ourselves on the NFL staff and all of our contractors about how we could do things better. But what I always noticed was when we gathered everybody and talked about the things you did well and the things you didn’t do well, it was very hard to get to people who had just small little details that could have gone better.

[48:51] Frank Supovitz:

Because you’re in a room full of people. Nobody wants to embarrass anybody. At least in my world, they didn’t want to embarrass anybody. Maybe in other worlds, that’s all they want to do. But I wasn’t getting information the way I felt that it could be usable and actionable. So we ended up meeting in smaller groups.

Why Smaller After-Action Meetings Work Better

[49:10] Don Costante:

Oh, okay.

[49:11] Frank Supovitz:

All the operations people met together and we talked about the issues that they faced. All the logistics people, you know, hotel transportation, etc. That was a separate meeting. It was a separate meeting for presentation and broadcast. It was separate for marketing and public relations. And when we did that, we discovered that there were tons of things we did every year poorly. That we didn’t know we were doing poorly because our after-action report was too broad. We didn’t drill down to the details that each of these associated groups encountered every single year. And the number of improvements that we were able to make between that Super Bowl and the next one was really guided by the fact that we said, look, don’t just talk about the stuff that we know went wrong. What are the things that we’re always doing poorly? What could we manage to do better? And we ended up creating a lot of new procedures, policies, operational protocols, content, new events to deal with all of the things that we discovered because of this really awful experience. We discovered we were doing lots of things not as well as we could because we cut up the audience in smaller bits.

[50:29] Don Costante:

So true. I was going to ask you, why do you think post-event reviews fail? Is it one, because they’re not drilling down into the details or is it because they’re trying to have too many people involved with the process, do you think?

Why Post-Event Reviews Fail

[50:40] Frank Supovitz:

The more people you have in the process at once, the more general the responses are going to be. We were hearing things like, well, did you know that my mother waited an hour and a half to get through the gate and had no information and didn’t know where she could go to where the lines were shorter? Well, in a room full of people, nobody’s going to talk about the problem their mother had.

[51:04] Don Costante:

No, that’s true.

[51:04] Frank Supovitz:

It sounds too minuscule, but it’s not minuscule because standing behind your mother is 5,000 other people having the same issue. I always like to divide up the territory, if you will, and I find having smaller meetings is a better way to do it. Multiple smaller meetings.

Final Advice for Event Leaders

[51:22] Don Costante:

All right, Frank, so we have officially come to the final question of the day. And the final question I want to ask you, Frank, is if you could give one behind the scenes piece of advice to leaders responsible for creating memorable experiences, what would it be?

[51:38] Frank Supovitz:

It may not be what you think.

[51:40] Don Costante:

Okay.

Every Person Shapes the Fan Experience

[51:41] Frank Supovitz:

It may not because we’re so good at telling stories and creating content that people enjoy and are engaged by. But every single person who comes in touch with a fan has a role to play in that experience.

[51:58] Don Costante:

It’s powerful.

[52:00] Frank Supovitz:

That’s where we fail the most. When I worked at Radio City and I was an usher, people paid money to come and see the show. That was a passive experience. The presentation of the show was somewhat of a passive experience because the orchestra, the Rockettes, whoever it was that they were coming to see, they never meet those people. They don’t meet the head of marketing who decided that this is the way the experience is going to be messaged. They don’t talk to the branding people. They meet the ushers. And if the usher does a lousy job of serving the public, that taints the experience. For all the millions of dollars that we spend on content, having a trained front-of-house staff that’s delivering customer service in a way that, you know, who’s really good at that and really understood it from the very, very get-go was Disney.

[52:51] Don Costante:

Oh, absolutely.

[52:52] Frank Supovitz:

Right?

[52:53] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[52:53] Frank Supovitz:

They call them cast members. And they call the people who are managing the rides, for example, cast members, because they are part of the cast. They’re part of delivering the message, the experience, the brand essence of Disney. And customer service is key because why else would you wait an hour and a half in that long, snaky line to get on Space Mountain, right? You know, we need to think that way too. Delivering that experience person to person, whether it’s somebody you’re talking to on the telephone or buying a ticket from or being admitted to the parking lot or whatever it happens to be. We really need to put the fans first in our thinking. And I think that’s where the most improvement across the industry can continue to happen.

[53:41] Don Costante:

I love that. Every single person who comes in contact with a fan has a role to play in shaping their experience. That’s awesome.

[53:48] Frank Supovitz:

Yeah.

[53:48] Don Costante:

Who do we meet?

[53:49] Frank Supovitz:

We meet the lowest paid person in the staff, right?

[53:52] Don Costante:

Yeah.

[53:53] Frank Supovitz:

We meet the lowest paid people, the least appreciating, sometimes the least trained, and we need to train them.

[53:58] Don Costante:

Oh, absolutely.

Training Front-of-House Staff

[53:59] Frank Supovitz:

In my book, I talk about a service rally in the beginning and bringing all those people that touch the experience or have the ability to be face-to-face with a fan and hold a rally for them, make them part of the process, make them feel part of the process.

[54:13] Don Costante:

Yeah. So, Frank, this has just been an incredible conversation. And I want to thank you for sharing not just your experiences, but your process and perspective. I truly appreciate you joining me today on The Rundown.

Don Costante’s Closing Thoughts

[54:25] Frank Supovitz:

It was my pleasure. Keep doing great things, Don.

Podcast Closing

[54:27] Don Costante:

That’s a wrap on this episode of The Rundown. Have a question or want to share your thoughts? We’d love to hear from you. Just email TheRundown@CostanteGroup.comEmail The Rundown. Also, be sure to subscribe, share the podcast, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. On behalf of Don Costante, thanks for listening. Until the next time, this is The Rundown Podcast.