Planning Helps Facilities Handle Protests

Protests are to be expected in a country where freedom of speech is a constitutionally protected right.

Hold an event for meatpackers, furriers or research scientists and animal-rights activists are likely to show up. Likewise, forest products expos or construction industry confabs might attract environmentalists, defense industry gatherings lure peace activists and agriculture events entice anti-globalization forces. And for every event deemed political — from a meeting of elected officials to party conferences and caucuses — it's standard operating procedure for those from opposing camps to make an appearance.

But just because masses of placard-carrying, drum-pounding chanters show up outside the convention center, it doesn't mean that they will ruin the event. As those who have had experience with large crowds of demonstrators can attest, peaceful coexistence often isn't that difficult to achieve.

Facility managers say the key is knowing beforehand that the event will attract those with alternate viewpoints. Talking to protest groups about their objectives and incorporating them into the planning process can go a long way toward ensuring that the goals of everyone involved are met.

"They want a place where they can be seen and heard. If you don't treat them like criminals and you treat them like people who want to say something, it will be fine," said Scott Megna, general manager of the Riverside Convention Center, which recently dealt with 500 protesters outside a meeting between President George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, California governor-elect.

If the group is large, convention centers can designate specific gathering areas to ensure that demonstrators don't interfere with event traffic and operations. Facility managers can also secure advance no-trespass waivers, giving police the ability to immediately arrest someone for trespassing, should the need arise.

Sometimes, a show manager will catch wind of a planned action. In other cases, it's the venue or police department. Since today's activist groups operate Web sites and rely on the Internet for organizing, frequently all it takes is an online search to ferret out groups' planned activities.

If a demonstration is expected, the facility usually contacts law enforcement. Groups planning large protests involving marches must normally contact law enforcement to secure a parade permit.

In San Francisco, a city with a long tradition of public protest, Moscone Center officials make a strong effort to include event managers in the process. "They have a huge stake in all of this," said Julie Burford, assistant general manager, who characterizes the facility's role as one of helping event managers "accommodate the process of dissent."

After talking to the show manager, the facility will develop an approach to handling the demonstration. The center's loss prevention officer usually serves as a liaison to law enforcement, be it the local police department or FBI. Sometimes, an organizer will opt to invite dissenters to the meeting or set aside an area inside the convention center for them to express their views.

"We do handle a lot of it," said Burford. "San Francisco is very much a free speech, First Amendment kind of place."

Seattle had that reputation too, until Nov. 29, 1999, when a World Trade Organization meeting was disrupted by up to 80,000 anti-globalization protesters. During the so-called "Battle of Seattle," downtown windows were broken, trash bins set afire and hordes of people pushed back by police wielding tear gas and batons. The mayor declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. The governor called in the National Guard.

Protesters chaining themselves together outside the Washington State Convention & Trade Center managed to block delegates, causing opening ceremonies to be canceled. A security breach at the facility entailed a five-hour search.

The WTO meeting, intended to showcase the city as a destination, ended up costing Seattle $9.3 million — about $3 million more than expected — and resulted in the replacement of its police chief and mayor, who were criticized for mishandling the situation.

"Frankly, I think Seattle learned some very hard lessons from the WTO meeting," said John Christison, president and general manager of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. "We had been a place where peaceful protests had been a way of life. We were caught unawares."

The Seattle WTO protests serve as an example of what can happen, and how today's demonstrations differ from those of years past. It has added a new level of seriousness to facility management. For example, Christison said, he recently had to prematurely leave an industrywide event out of state to get back home to monitor protests outside an American Assn. for Laboratory Animal Science meeting. As it turned out, the demonstrations were orderly, but in today's environment, there's always an added level of uncertainty. "Protests are different today than they used to be. The levels of cooperation you used to be able to strike with protestors just don't seem to work anymore," he said.

Michael Ross, general manager of the Sacramento Convention Center, had a taste of anti-globalization protesters when the U.S.-sponsored Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology was held at his facility last June. The event drew nearly 2,000 demonstrators in addition to delegates from 180 countries.

Situated next to the California State Capitol, where demonstrations are held almost daily, the convention center frequently fields overflow protesters. The local police department, in Ross's view, has an effective permitting process. And the convention center routinely meets with protest groups to ascertain their needs. "Certainly everybody has the right to free speech and we honor that at all times," Ross said.

The city's protest-friendly environment wasn't the reason the international meeting was scheduled there. Rather it was for the city's proximity to one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, and its well-regarded research university.

But because of the prominence of delegates attending the ministerial conference, and the potential controversy associated with agricultural technology, the event involved nine months of planning. "The police really did a good job of meeting with the groups and helping them put together a route," Ross recalled. "We ended up with just over 2,000 folks and there were no incidents."

Securing the event cost Sacramento $700,000. But its contributions to the local economy were much larger.

When a federal official is involved — as in Bush's visit to Riverside — the Secret Service handles much of the security. "Anytime you're dealing with the president, a lot of your protester nightmares are taken care of. The Secret Service isn't going to let anybody remotely close to the building," said Megna.

At the Riverside Convention Center, the president's security detail worked with the local police department to designate an area for protesters. That, said Megna, is the simplest strategy. "The easiest thing to do is just designate an area and take some control over the situation. If you leave it to chance it will get out of hand," he said.

In the case of the Bush-Schwarzenegger meeting, the crowd was monitored by 40 motorcycle officers and about a dozen police in riot gear. Protesters chanted, quite audibly, during the meeting. And after the officials left, the demonstrators carried out their march.

Christison said his experience with the WTO meeting gave him and his staff a much more comprehensive appreciation of their building, which is built over 12 lanes of freeway, has entrances at five different levels and is next door to a park. The experience, he said, brought home the fact that today's glass-enclosed convention centers pose higher security risks than their concrete box counterparts of yesteryear.

That makes managing protests all the more important. "It's an interesting balancing act we have," Christison said.