All about the logistics

I’m going to start this blog with three quotes.

Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese General and Philosopher is quoted as saying, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…”. Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics” and finally, more bluntly and more recently, Tom Peters wrote, “Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.”

The first two were spoken by military men and the final one by an American writer specialising in Business Management. Although these men were talking about military logistics, these words also hold true in the event world. I’m sure that no one in the event business has not, at one point, felt like they were up to their neck in mud and bullets, desperate to get to the end of their project still in one piece, both in body and mind.

“The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics”

Although nowhere near being in the same league as some of our greatest logistical military manoeuvres, Ground:zero have just had the biggest challenge of the year so far.

Last week Ground:zero executed a great example of the perfectly spinning plates trick. Sometimes this can look like madness, with people desperately running from one wobbly plate to the next but at Ground:zero all plates span beautifully with no broken china.

Over a 3 day period last week, 3 Project managers ran 7 events, spread over 18 locations all over the UK. This involved 40 technicians with 14 vans and trucks and a lot of equipment.

On the Tuesday two crews left to rig for shows on the Wednesday while the other guys back in the warehouse were prepping for shows over the next two days. Wednesday was the big logistics day. While the other two events were taking place, another was being rigged for Thursday at the same venue. At the same time 23 technicians travelled to 12 different locations across the UK to rig in the afternoon for an evening multi-site event. On the third day, two technicians were up early to rig and run an all-day event in London and finally one technician ran an all-day event local to our offices and another helped support a charitable event visited by Royalty!

7 events, spread over 18 locations all over the UK, involving 40 technicians with 14 vans and trucks and a lot of equipment.

I should have tattooed on my forehead, “The right people going to the right place on the right day in the right vehicle with the right equipment”. I can read this in the mirror every morning and be assured that if we can tick all these criteria for every event, we are good to go.

All event organisers will appreciate that good logistics create a faultless event and a faultless event means that the client has chosen the right team to manage their event. Communication helps create great logistics and at Ground:zero we currently have the best Project Managers we have had for a long time. The communication between them, the technicians and the support staff is second to none. We are also continuing to invest in more equipment and staff so that we can handle moments like this more regularly. Have a wander around our website or give us a call (01634 841663) if you have an event that you think will be a logistical nightmare and we will show you how our input will allow you to sleep easily at night.