I’d like to start by telling a story about Chester McNulty. Chester was a long-time employee at Western Kentucky University (WKU), and he spent the last spell of his campus career running our event parking operations. He was a bit of a salty dog, proud of his Puerto Rican heritage and occasionally showing up to work with a day-old beard. Despite my best efforts, he always wound up in the trenches with a signature Hilltopper red towel stuffed in his back pocket, and if it was a special occasion, wearing his red corduroy jacket.

Chester understood as much as anyone how important his operations were to the success of an event. He was direct with his staff at times because he had high expectations—he wanted thing done right and on his timeline. He had little patience for lollygagging. If an event went well, he had a grin on his face from ear to ear. Of course, if things went badly, he heard it firsthand from patrons, and then his staff heard about it.

Chester retired at the end of August 2022 after our first home football game. Love surrounded him during the retirement reception, as people thanked him for his years of work and for being the “go to guy” people could depend on. Even the former president stopped by to congratulate him! That’s just one example of the impact he had on campus.

It’s not hard to see that he is sorely missed. As we struggle to backfill his position, we’re stretching our resources to continue to cover his responsibilities. Following a recent men’s basketball game, I received an e-mail from a fellow employee, “Something has definitely changed this year…it’s not been a good change….”

Ouch.

In our industry, we know full well that events begin and end in the parking lot. As such, event parking operations can either support or sabotage an event. When done well, event operations whisk patrons to their ultimate destination with little effort or delay and the experience entices them to return again and again. When done poorly, attending an event can be tedious and frustrating and even if the event itself was enjoyable, the parking experience or ensuing traffic jams can taint the experience to the point that patrons are loathe to return. Parking matters, especially when it comes to event operations.

Every opportunity I have, I preach to my campus, “Every campus event is a recruiting opportunity.” This is usually when I’m pleading for departments to include us in the planning process for their events. We all know nothing sets the tone for a campus visit quite like a nice yellow envelope enclosing a parking fine because someone didn’t think about making parking accommodations for their guests!

Our front-line employees contribute to the event experience, so the message is the same for our staff. “You are an ambassador to campus. Your interaction with our guests will establish how they feel about WKU.” Their appearance, campus knowledge, event knowledge, attitude, and ability to help all contribute to the guest experience.

Event operations are complex logistical challenges usually involving limited parking and transportation resources with an equally tight budget. Planners are juggling the needs of event operations staff, catering, concessions, security, venue staff, VIP’s and donors, talent and their entourage, participants and spectators, among others. Successful events are characterized by quality advanced planning, stakeholder involvement, appropriate use of technology, staff training and extensive, accurate and timely internal and external communications.

In the following pages, you’ll dive into many aspects of event operations. You’ll be able to explore:

• Evolution of Event Parking.
• Campus Resident Move-In.
• Stadium Event Parking.
• Digitizing Event Parking on College Campuses.

Hopefully, you’ll see something new that you’ll be able to bring to your operation. As for me, I’m going to keep asking, “what would Chester do?”