Light The Night (LTN) is the Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) signature annual event. The LLS Northern Ohio Chapter plans similar events in three different cities (Akron, Cleveland and Toledo), involving thousands of participants, all taking place over the course of one month. When we were first introduced to LLC in 2018, their talented staff had successfully grown the Cleveland walk to the point that it had become overwhelming for them to plan on top of everything else they were doing. At the recommendation of their audio/video production company, we were brought in for a free consultation.
We were recommended by our colleague because of our previous success producing run/walk events in Downtown Cleveland and the walk component of this event (which happens at night) had some problems the year before. While much of LTN took place primarily in University Circle, the walk route went into the surrounding neighborhood, and some participants had gotten lost. This was unacceptable to the LLS team so addressing this challenge was a top priority.
We addressed the walk safety issues by bringing in a trusted security firm to support our vision for the route and made improvements in course markers and lighting. We created custom telescoping route pole signs, including a light on the directional arrow, that were easy for volunteers to employ as they helped guide the participants. These indicated to guests when it was time to turn and when they should keep moving forward.
Festivals and run/walk events like these involve thousands of logistical details, especially those large in scale. This particular event takes three days to set up and another to take down. We started streamlining LLS’s planning process by simply removing many of the logistics from their “to do” list.
Once we started work on the project, we were able to have in-depth conversations with vendors and listen to our client express other small concerns – all of which were addressed during our pre-production planning phase. Was registration located in the best place for guest flow? Could we improve on the vendor arrival process? What about training route volunteers? We had it all covered.
We also took over the special event permitting process and worked with the City of Cleveland to develop walk routes and turn-by-turn instructions required by the police department. What started with a free event consultation is now a collaborative partnership… because our mission is to help good people plan great events.
