Former President Ronald Reagan’s Inauguration “Redo”
In 1985, the January inauguration was historically cold. In fact, DC had to cancel several of the participating groups (50 high school bands and other sponsored events, etc.), which was a big disappointment for many organizations (many of whom were operating partners and/or customers of Disney), including President Reagan, who commented on national TV that he wished the tradition was to do it “someplace warmer…like Florida!”
The following month, some Disney folks were interacting with some of the disappointed vendors and mentioned that they thought Disney World would gladly host an event. One of the vendors contacted the White House and floated the idea. About 2 weeks later, they contacted my office to inquire about the viability. We did some figuring and decided that we would, indeed, be able/willing to host a special event for the President.
About 2 weeks later (end of March), I get another call from the White House. President Reagan thinks Memorial Day would be the best option (less than 2 months away!) if we can pull it off. I gathered my executive team and told them what we were seriously considering and they all got very excited. Then I told them it would have to be done less than 2 months away – which caused them to nearly mutiny! After things got settled down (thank God for pizza and adult beverages), we pulled together literally dozens of different operational departments to create:
a) the inauguration celebration that should have been,
b) “plus it up” to make it even better, complete with pleasant surprises for everyone involved, and
c) add some Disney “pixie dust” flair worthy of this historical moment.
Make no mistake, there were many sleepless nights and tense moments, but we successfully hosted an event that was attended by dozens of heads of state/celebrities and seen all over the world.
President and Mrs. Reagan flew in on Marine One in the afternoon (they attended a morning ceremony at Arlington cemetery), landing just behind the American Adventure pavilion. As the Reagan’s entered the theme park, Mickey and Minnie approached them to provide a ceremonial escort to the main stage. Mickey offered his arm to Mrs. Reagan and she said “Why, chivalry is NOT dead! You are so sweet, I could just kiss you!” To which, President Reagan replied “Don’t mind me. I’m fine with that as long as Minnie doesn’t get jealous!” Both protocol and kind gesture cemented for all time.
I spent the next week visiting all the teams who supported this intense and successful event and recognizing them for their contributions (followed by about 2 straight days of sleeping – Ha!) This was my “biggest/most complicated” event to date and it all happened – concept to implementation – in less than 60 days. It was a testimony to the fact that, if you engage your team and focus on all aspects of your customer’s experience then creatively add value, you can accomplish amazing things. It was later determined that my investment of “only” $2 million (hotels for the 21 bands that were able to attend, plus other various expenses) paid off with approximately $100 million worth of publicity. Of course, the improved morale and camaraderie and experience value for my extended team eclipsed that, in my admittedly biased opinion.
So that is the behind-the-scenes protocol story about this President's Inaugural Bands Parade event…and how I doubled the number of my curse word vocabulary.
Mark David Jones
President | Small World Alliance, Inc.