Many of you who are my Facebook friends have heard me talk about the Public Affairs event at Missouri State University's JQH Arena last Friday. The keynote speaker was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is a lobbyist/lawyer/activist/a Time Magazine Hero for the Planet/falconer/son of Bobby. His speech was titled "Our Environmental Destiny" and he basically talked for an hour about the dangers and stupidity of coal and the need for an infrastructure to use other forms of energy.
Most importantly, since the Springfield-Greene County Parks Department had a big hand in bringing him here and I work as a designer for Parks and Springfield City Public Information, I got to create all kinds of graphics for the event. I designed access badges, parking passes, large signs, an e-vite, and an 8 ft x 17.5 ft stage banner.
Most of my work was done before the event even started, but I was there with my "All Access" badge watching everything go down and just admiring my banner. There were around 3,000 people there at the event to watch my beautiful banner that morning.
There was a little snaffoo with the printing of the banner earlier that week in which a letter "R" mysteriously was left off! Let me tell you my stomach hit the floor! Luckily the printer had a quick fix and my good friend Matt Stufflebeam printed out a new adhesive letter and got it placed on the banner. Thanks Stuffles! The TV crew in my office were taking bets as to when the letter would melt in the lights and float off the banner onto RFK's head or something. Luckily that did NOT happen.
The banner design is a modified version of the Park's logo which I did not create, but the logo has a ton of text and is strictly horizontal (landscape). My job was to make it work on a (very) vertical space.
As soon as he got on stage, RFK, Jr. moved the podium out of the way and then a security guy moved it to the back of the stage. The top photo looks like he is speaking backwards.
Security would not let me take a photo with RFK, Jr., but I was able to get my pal Chris to snap one of me with the GI-normous banner. I hope to see the banner again someday; we are friends for life.
After all the trouble I went to to make "ask Mr. Kennedy a question" signs, he went way over his allotted time and Dr. Nietzel (MSU President) only got to ask him 3 questions on the stage.
Since RFK Jr. is a falconer, we had a very dramatic moment in front of my banner in which a bald eagle and some kind of falcon and their handlers from the zoo walked up on stage and stayed during a great video introduction. Nice job CityView!
After the event I got the glamorous job of moving plants to the loading dock and cleaning up Mr. Kennedy's green room. I can tell you that he drank a diet Pepsi and opened a peanut granola bar, but I don't think he took a bite. I snagged a (different) granola bar and a Coke and a too ripe peach. It's OK- I had an All Access pass- to the refrigerator!
I can honestly say I love working for the City in Parks and Public Info because it is always a new experience every day! Keeps me hopping.
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