JT Provides Comprehensive Event Management and Media Relations Services for the Public Grand Opening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center

More than 12,000 people attend public event featuring
keynote address by former President Bill Clinton

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is the largest facility in the Midwest dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the Holocaust and to teaching current generations to fight hatred, indifference and genocide in today’s world. It is likely the last international institution of its kind built with the active participation of Holocaust survivors.

Specifically, JT worked with the Museum to conceptualize, plan and implement multiple events designed to provide unique opportunities for various constituencies, including a 2,600-person inaugural gala. We also provided event management, direct outreach, media relations, program and materials development, and video production services for an interfaith leadership breakfast attended by 130 members of various religious faiths; a pre-grand opening Leadership Brunch for special guests, elected officials and high-level donors; a public grand opening dedication featuring keynote speaker President Bill Clinton and Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, which was attended by more than 12,000 people; and an inaugural symposium that explored legal and media perspectives on the ethics of dealing with genocide worldwide.

Event Management

JT managed event logistics for all grand opening events, including:

• Site setup. JT managed set-up of an 8,500-person tent for use during the Museum’s 2,600 person inaugural gala, transforming the space into a beautifully decorated cocktail reception and dinner venue. Two weeks later, we worked around the clock with multiple vendors to once again transform the tent for use during the public grand opening. This included ongoing negotiations with police, fire and county officials to ensure proper permitting, as well as coordinating load-in and-out of multiple vendors providing staging, chairs, bleachers and audio-visual equipment. With record numbers of people requesting tickets for the event, JT also managed the set-up of an additional 5,000-person overflow tent designed as an extension of the larger tent to ensure all guests felt part of the main event.

Following the public grand opening, guests were invited to tour the Museum using a timed-ticket received upon entering the event site. JT provided the Museum with strategic counsel regarding crowd flow and logistics to help maximize the number of guests who could tour the Museum at one time.

JT also coordinated event logistics, including site set-up, catering and audio-visual equipment for an interfaith leadership breakfast, pre-grand opening leadership brunch and inaugural symposium. In addition, we coordinated travel and hotel accommodations for symposium participants.

• Ticketing and credentialing. JT developed a color-based ticketing strategy to assist with seating assignments; distributed invitations to more than 20,000 individuals; developed and managed phone and online RSVP systems; and staffed an advance Will Call center, as well as onsite guest services function tables during the grand opening, for individuals who did not receive, forgot or lost their tickets.

JT also processed RSVPs for the interfaith leadership breakfast and inaugural symposium.

In addition, JT worked with the Museum’s in-house security team to develop a credentialing system for use during the grand opening.

• Transportation. JT worked with neighboring businesses and schools to secure permission to use their parking lots in order to accommodate the thousands of cars expected to arrive for both the inaugural gala and public grand opening.

JT also developed a shuttle system to transport guests to and from the grand opening event site. Given the high number of senior citizens and people with disabilities expected to attend the event, this included providing ADA-accessible shuttles to accommodate individuals with special needs.

• Volunteer Coordination. Working closely with the Museum, JT coordinated nearly 200 volunteers, which included identification of and pre- and post-event communications about volunteer assignments and facilitation of three volunteer training sessions. Volunteers provided support for the inaugural gala and all grand opening events.

• Onsite Staffing. More than 50 JT staff provided event management services to support the grand opening events. Roles and responsibilities included everything from volunteer management, guest services and program/stage management to directing traffic in parking lots and helping guests find the correct shuttle to the parking lots.

Program Development

Public Grand Opening
Working closely with the Museum, JT developed a grand opening program that featured a keynote address by President Bill Clinton and remarks by Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, German Ambassador to the United States Dr. Klaus Scharioth, Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Sara J. Bloomfield, Village of Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, Holocaust survivors and Museum leadership.

JT also helped secure and coordinate special video presentations by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The grand opening event also included performances by Grammy® Award winning Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari and the Soul Children of Chicago, a video message from Academy Award® winning director Steven Spielberg, and a reading of Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” by Chicago teenager Sabrina Walker, a member of the After School Matters program.

JT served as liaison to all performers prior to and during the program. We also provided stage management services to ensure a smooth, well-timed program. Under JT’s direction, the program began five minutes early and ended on schedule.

Inaugural Symposium
In addition to the public grand opening, JT helped conceptualize the Museum’s inaugural symposium as a way to bring its educational mission to life. We helped identify the topic – “The Ethics of Dealing with Genocide: Media and Legal Perspectives on Genocide Awareness and Prevention.” JT also helped identify and secure program participants who could help examine the ethical questions and challenges faced by the media and international community when confronting issues of genocide. Participants included former United States Ambassador to the European Union Stuart E. Eizenstat who presented the luncheon keynote address.

Moderated by Bill Kurtis, the symposium’s first panel, titled “The Court of Public Opinion: The Role and Responsibility of the Media in Covering Genocide,” included the following participants: Zanku Armenian, national chair, Armenian National Committee of America; Roy Gutman, foreign editor, McClatchy Newspapers; Joe Lauria, United Nations correspondent, Wall Street Journal; Kelly McBride, ethics group leader, Poynter Institute; and Paul Salopek, foreign correspondent, Chicago Tribune. The second panel of the day, titled “In Our Own Time: Atrocity Crimes on Trial,” featured the following participants: Grant Dawson, deputy chef de cabinet, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Jerry Fowler, president, Save Darfur Coalition; Rebecca Hamilton, fellow, Open Society Institute; and Justice Hassan B. Jallow, prosecutor, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Inaugural Gala
JT also developed the program for the Museum’s inaugural gala, which included securing and coordinating logistics for keynote speaker General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.). Additionally, JT produced a three-minute video presentation showcasing the architecture of the Museum.

Media Relations

Advance Coverage
JT’s media team began working with the Museum in February 2008 to build “buzz” and generate interest about the April 2009 grand opening. Our early involvement included securing media coverage for the Museum’s fundraising events, programs and exhibits. During these early months, JT also built a comprehensive database of local, regional, national and international broadcast, print and online media outlets to engage. Beyond traditional news outlets, our targets included architecture, museum, teaching, religious, travel and hospitality trades, as well as local ethnic media outlets.

JT’s media team worked closely with the Museum to identify a key group of spokespersons, including staff, Holocaust survivors, docents and others, that could be called upon for media interviews. We also developed a collection of images, including building renderings and professional photography of Museum artifacts, to share with interested media. To support our media efforts, JT drafted media materials, including news releases and media advisories for all of the Museum’s grand opening events. Fact sheets and biographies were also created, detailing the various Museum spaces and the many people involved in its creation.

Media outreach for the public grand opening began in earnest in November 2008 with a news conference and hardhat tour announcing that the Museum would open to the public on April 19, 2009. To build momentum, this announcement was followed by outreach to long-lead publications, community media, and travel and hospitality trades. In the days before the Museum’s inaugural gala, JT also announced that President Bill Clinton and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel would be participating in the Museum’s public grand opening.

Inaugural Gala
In lieu of interviews at its inaugural gala, the Museum offered a brief media photo/b-roll opportunity with guest speaker General Colin Powell. Determined to make the most use of this limited opportunity. JT coordinated a preview of works from the Museum’s art gallery for General Powell, followed by a special candle-lighting ceremony with Holocaust survivors and Museum leadership. We also arranged for interested outlets to interview guests and take photos/b-roll during the event’s cocktail reception and for print and online reporters to attend the dinner program.

Media “Sneak Preview”
The Friday prior to the Museum’s public grand opening, JT invited media to participate in an all-access “sneak preview” of the Museum to provide everything they would need to tell the story of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center - its history, people, mission and all it has to offer. We orchestrated the day in a manner that allowed each media outlet to customize their experience by working in advance to coordinate interviews, personalized tours and any necessary logistical needs. Key Museum spokespersons were enlisted to serve as tour guides. Holocaust survivors, staff and subject matter experts were also strategically positioned around the Museum to describe artifacts and exhibitions. Concurrent with the media “sneak preview,” the Museum hosted an interfaith leadership breakfast that was also open to the media and offered an additional photo opportunity.

In the days prior to the media “sneak preview,” JT also coordinated and staffed editorial board meetings with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Daily Herald.

Public Grand Opening
JT coordinated and managed all media outreach logistics for the Museum grand opening. This included arranging for and manifesting both a main and cut press riser, as well as seating for print reporters. A filing center was also set up and special accommodations and interviews were arranged for television outlets broadcasting live from the event site the morning of the grand opening.

Inaugural Symposium
The day after the grand opening, both student journalists and professional media were again invited to the Museum to participate in its inaugural symposium.

Direct Outreach

To help raise awareness of and interest in the Museum’s interfaith leadership breakfast and inaugural symposium, JT developed a comprehensive invitation list and conducted personal telephone outreach to hundreds of targeted individuals and organizations to confirm their attendance for both events.

Materials Development

JT’s graphic and multimedia design team created a variety of collateral to support the grand opening events, including:

• Invitations for the inaugural gala, interfaith leadership breakfast, public grand opening, pre-grand opening leadership brunch and inaugural symposium
• Tickets and parking information inserts for the public grand opening and pre-grand opening leadership brunch
• Permanent architectural banners on the Museum’s exterior
• Credentials for the inaugural gala, public grand opening and media “sneak
preview”
• Directional signage
• Event programs
• Stage backdrop and banners
• Postcards, fliers and print ads

Event Results

The Museum’s public grand opening events were hugely successful. More than 2,600 people attended the inaugural gala, which raised more than $1.8 million for the Museum.

More than 24,000 tickets were requested for the public grand opening celebration. Despite cold and rainy weather, more than 12,000 people attended the event.

The interfaith leadership breakfast was attended by more than 100 clergy from 18 different faiths. Each participant was asked to share the message of fighting intolerance with their congregations.

More than 250 educators, thought leaders, and professional and student journalists attended the Museum’s inaugural symposium, “The Ethics of Dealing with Genocide: Media and Legal Perspectives on Genocide Awareness and Prevention.”

Media Results

JT’s early media efforts resulted in announcements recognizing the generous contributions of donors and an in-studio NBC interview with Mariane Pearl in connection with the Museum’s 2008 Annual Humanitarian Awards dinner. Other highlights included a Chicago Tribune feature showcasing the Museum’s exhibit about Jews who escaped to China during the Holocaust, as well as coverage in various Pioneer Press editions and other community newspapers highlighting student finalists in the Museum’s annual Gershanov Family Memorial Holocaust Essay Contest. The Chicago Tribune also featured the Museum’s Generation-to-Generation program, which pairs Holocaust survivors with young leaders who take on the responsibility of their legacy and serve as members of the Museum’s speakers’ bureau. In these early months, Chicago Public Radio also began following a Generation-to-Generation pair for a later feature tied to the Museum grand opening.

The November 11 opening date announcement resulted in considerable coverage throughout the Chicagoland area, including in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, as well as on WBBM-AM, WBBM-TV, WLS-TV, CLTV and WGN-TV. Early outreach to long-lead community and tourism publications resulted in cover stories in Sheridan Road Magazine and North Shore Magazine, as well as early coverage in community papers across the state, particularly in Pioneer Press publications and blogs. The Museum also received several mentions in print and online travel and hospitality outlets, including AAA Living and Concierge Preferred.

Photos and footage from the inaugural gala candle-lighting ceremony with General Powell and Holocaust survivors also appeared in print, broadcast and online outlets throughout the Chicagoland area, including the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and Pioneer Press, as well as WBBM-TV, WLS-TV, BuzzFlash.com and MakeItBetter.org.

Coverage earned in conjunction with the media “sneak preview” and public grand opening included an Associated Press article that ran in more than 150 online and print outlets, as well as The Jerusalem Post, United Press International and UK Press Association stories and a Jewish Telegraphic Agency article that continues to run in Jewish outlets around the globe. Print coverage also included a prominent page two article in The Wall Street Journal, as well as articles in the New York Times, USA Today’s weekend edition, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, the Forward and countless community newspapers. The Pioneer Press alone ran more than 16 unique stories in their North Shore publications and several more in the Chicagoland region. WLS-TV covered the Museum heavily in the days leading up to the grand opening, including an advance preview, an in-studio interview and a live broadcast from the Museum. WGN-TV did a “look live” broadcast from the Museum on media day, filming interviews and quickly sending them back to the station for broadcast during their morning show. WBBM-TV, CLTV, WFLD-TV and WTTW also aired Museum coverage, including a special feature on “Chicago Tonight”.

On opening day, WLS-TV and WMAQ-TV both broadcast live from the event site during their morning news programs. Coverage by college and university media included stories by Medill Reports, the Daily Northwestern, The DePaulia and the Columbia Chronicle, just to name a few. Editorial board meetings in advance of the opening also resulted in endorsements from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Daily Herald.