Behind the scenes: Peach Pit in the Braden Auditorium

NORMAL, Ill. – While most people believe last Tuesday’s Peach Pit concert started when the performers hit the stage, for Event Management, Dining and Hospitality (EMDH) the work started a while ago.

“There is a lot that goes into setting up a concert from start to finish,” said Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications for EMDH Samantha Schultz. “Our Hospitality Coordinator, Kacy Rader has to do so much work in preparation just to make an offer to an artist including market research, surveys to the ISU student population, checking on availability of the space and equipment, and more.”

EMDH starts planning by gathering student feedback. Surveys are sent through the Redbird Life Instagram page and gather between 800-1,000 responses of interest for various artists that would be possible to reach. Once EMDH has a fair idea of who they want to perform, they contact a middle agent through How To Concerts, a company that works with colleges and artist’s agencies to connect them to each other. The agent produces a list of artists who fit the description of the survey results that are available for dates that Illinois State University has open.

“Once the artist is secured, it is all about marketing the event through social media, websites, news stories and more,” Schultz said.

Another key part of the concert planning process is making sure you have the staff to execute it. Schultz gave credit to a number of people who make events like these possible.

“Kacy Rader, Hospitality Coordinator for EMDH is in charge of all of our concerts hosted by EMDH and is the lead on everything. Eric Ballard, Assistant Director of Building Operations and Production with Jon Bowling, Technical Director work closely with her to coordinate everything needed for the production and operational needs for the concert,” Schultz said. “ My team works with her to execute the marketing for the event. The night of the show, we have a robust team of full time and student employees who make it possible. It is a group effort, but Kacy is our leader in it all.”

The EMDH team also enlists the help of police, EMTs and security to ensure that the event is executed safely, and that it meets the guidelines of the University Event Review Committee.

“Every bag is checked in addition to tickets being scanned every time someone enters the Auditorium. Our operation and production team are great at making sure this process runs as smoothly as possible,” Schultz said. “There may be some lines at the entrance, but they are necessary when ensuring everyone is properly going through the security line.”

Once the planning, marketing and safety components are tied together, the show can go on.