Q&A: Adventist on adrenaline

Sheri Clemmer plans a meeting for 70,000

In a role she has been preparing for since 2002, Sheri Clemmer took the lead planning the 59th Session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which drew more than 70,000 attendees to Atlanta June 23 to July 3.

“This job is not something that you just say, ‘OK, two weeks and you have the job,’” Clemmer says. “They actually brought me on board three years prior to the 2005 meeting so that I could shadow Linda deLeon [the current planner] and get a good handle on it several years in advance because it is such a complicated event.”

Delegates from more than 200 countries gather every five years to participate in the conference’s business sessions, elections and devotionals, but the most common description heard among attendees is that the widely anticipated event is a reunion.

After recovering from the 19-day adventure (including preparation and tear down for the 10-day event), and with fewer than 1,800 days to go until she does it all over again, Clemmer took a break to share how history, encouragement and a lot of adrenaline helped make the 2010 General Conference Session a success.

How would you sum up the experience at GC Session?

Adventist NewsLine, a nightly newscast, aired live each evening. Click on the picture for the story.

Lots of people speaking lots of different languages; lots of meetings; lots of music; lots of details. It is a business session of our church, which is a quinquennial event. Once every five years, we elect officers and administration leaders who will serve for that next five-year period, make changes to our church manual … and then there are many other business events that go on.

Who is represented at the meeting?

The World Church. We actually have 16.3 million members around the world. We have representation from more than 200 countries at this event; it’s a very international meeting. We had 2,800 delegates, who are part of the business session and the election process, and special guests from the varying countries. Many of them are church leaders, local pastors or a layperson. We had young people represented this time. It’s a huge mix. The decisions are made by a widespread part of the membership.

In addition to business meetings, what kind of programming is there?

We had an exhibit hall that had approximately 200,000 square feet of exhibits (more than 200 exhibitors). That was a very, very busy place. We had a Super Day Camp for children. We had women’s meetings that went on from Sunday through Friday, and included both morning and afternoon activities for those days. Our business session, devotionals, leadership training for pastors and division reports went on [in the auditorium] every day.

When do you start planning?

We actually begin nine years prior to the event. [We’ll] start planning now for 2020. It’s such a large event, and the venues are far and few between … there aren’t that many houses that can accommodate us.

How do you select a city?

The basic minimal package that we use for an RFP is a covered dome that seats 70,000. We also need a convention center with 200,000 square feet for exhibits and approximately the same for food service, about 60 breakout rooms of varying sizes and hotels within walking distance. We usually have blocked 6,000 rooms. We try to avoid shuttling if at all possible, so we try to make sure everything is within walking distance. Everything has to be pretty neat and tidy and close by each other, and that is just not available in a number of cities. They have the convention center space that we need and they have the dome, but they’re 30 minutes apart. Shuttling takes so much time out of the day and we pack our days so full. We start at 8 a.m. and don’t finish until 9 p.m. with programming.

What cities do work for your event?

In the U.S., Phoenix could do it. We’re going to be in San Antonio in 2015. New Orleans probably could do it … Atlanta … Toronto could do it, which is North America. Internationally, Melbourne, Australia, could do it, but that’s really about it. We were in Toronto in 2000 and we would have loved to look at Toronto for another year, but the Blue Jays don’t want to give up their playing field for the length of time required. And Melbourne, Australia, has a similar issue with their cricket field.

How big is your planning staff?

Our session planning committee has 23 sub-committees and I’ve never counted the sub-subs, but there are multiple. There are things like the music committee, the program committee, the communications committee, and each one has their terms of reference and their area of responsibility. Session management, the job that I play, is like an umbrella that knows what each of the groups are up to and how they interact. We sit on each one of these committees, so we attend a lot of meetings and that helps us to know that this one isn’t jumping over and doing the work of another one. We have 400 technical staff that worked this past session. The majority are paid personnel; many of those are workers in this building, some are volunteers, some are retirees, and some are contracted workers, especially in the audiovisual area — cameramen, technicians to work the audiovisual or the sound.

Do you rely on history while you are planning?

We do. Space assignment is a great example of why history is so valuable. We need about 60 breakout rooms. I have to have office space for some groups. We do a church magazine called the Adventist Review and during GC Session it comes out every day — a 40-plus page, full-color magazine with photos and proceedings that have gone on during session are all recorded there. So obviously they have to have a nice, big office to work. The procurement department has to know how many copiers and printers we need, and the computer department gets in on that.

What was new this year?

The Super Day Camp was new for the young people. We don’t have children’s events normally except for Sabbath School, but this time the Potomac Conference volunteered to do a day camp. They picked the kids up and took them off site where they had rented space, and I think a lot of parents and kids appreciated it a lot.

Did the day camp attract more families?

A lot of families come. They spend a lot of time in the exhibit halls and they go to city attractions, enjoy the hotel pool or whatever. [The day camp] was just something nice they could take advantage of, but attendance didn’t increase because of it.

You tried a new meal ticketing system. How did it work out?

In the past, we had a booklet of meal tickets that you would purchase or delegates received complimentary, but this time we had electronic tickets. It was kind of cool. The system itself went really well, but we did run into some challenges because paper tickets were easy to give away to people — like we give the interpreters meal tickets for each session that they worked. So that was a little more difficult, but nobody was able to duplicate these tickets, which was a problem in the past.

How do you attract and engage such a wide variety of ages, demographics and even ethnicities?

Parade of Nations

We don’t do a lot of marketing. We have a website, but it’s amazing how many people want to come and be a part of this event. It’s like a huge reunion, a huge camp meeting and a business session all rolled into one. We have what we call “pop-up meetings” and I usually assign [a variety of room styles and sizes] to the business center [for groups to use]. There could be a group of individuals who served at a particular part of the mission field at the same time and they decide that they want to have a little gathering. I think they love being there. I know I do. My first Session was 1995. I was an exhibitor up at Toronto with the department I was working for at that time. I love to sing — and when we’re all singing the theme song or a favorite hymn together and the rafters just ring … I mean, 70,000 voices singing together — it’s just an awesome experience. For me, it’s one of my favorite times … just being part of the crowd, the throng of people moving around in the city.

How do you keep from becoming overwhelmed?

I think that it’s really important that you spread this out across as many people’s shoulders as possible. I didn’t have to worry that the newsletter was coming out or the sound was going to work properly or the music people were going to be on stage. I didn’t have to worry about any of those details because these sub-committees were in place doing their jobs. As session management, when they had a problem, they would call me and I would get it fixed for them. On site that is my role.

Working nine years out to plan each meeting, how do you keep your team inspired and engaged?

Well, it does take some really good encouragement in those first few years. Like right now, people are in a really big slump; they’re tired. During a session, [we work] 19-hour days for 11 or 12 days straight. You run on adrenaline and when the meeting’s over you’re just plumb worn out.

Security is a big issue for your event. What advice do you have?

In every big city, you have to tell people to be careful and to go in groups. We actually lost a person for the first time [this year]. The city of Atlanta responded so efficiently; they were most helpful and we did reunite the family, but that was a very frightening experience. Build a relationship; go ahead and meet with the police chief and tell him, “We want to tell you about our group that’s coming in. We want to know how can we partner with you to be sure that we have a good, secure meeting.” And the selection of your security company is extremely critical. One thing that was new to this event was bag checking. We have never done that before, and it was done extremely efficiently by this group. They made it a very welcoming thing.

One of my jobs was to find out — especially with the evening meetings — how we were doing on time … [and] by radio we kept close contact with the security company… Keeping your meeting on time is so critical. Not just when it’s going to be televised or you’re buying airtime for satellite uplink, but just out of a courtesy. I mean you’ve set this program, you’ve worked on it, and these speakers that just ramble on and on and mess up your program, get a shepherd’s crook and pull them off stage.

What additional advice do you have for fellow meeting planners?

Rely on your CVB as much as possible. They have a wealth of information to share and services they can provide. For an event like this, you actually become really good friends because you’ve worked together for so many years. They really can put the world at your fingertips, and anything that you need in that city they can help you find.

Related story: Adventist NewsLine, a live, nightly newscast, was produced at the conference.