'Tis the Season

Columbus Commons opened this past Spring with the mission to bring more green space and a family friendly environment to the downtown landscape. They have thus far delivered on this plan quite successfully.

Before the park opened, there were many people who complained that this type of green space should not be built in a down economy. People were worried that the city and corporate investors were wasting their money.

After a full season of events and people flocking to the space for recreation, I would think that the people who were complaining before can see the merit in putting a green space like this in the heart of downtown. From food truck festivals to flag football, the Commons has hosted a wide variety of events. We are proud to have worked with the Commons on several of their events this past year. We are also happy to take part in the Holiday Fair this weekend.

We erected a 66x82 clear span structure on the Grand Lawn complete with heat, 2 double door units and lighting. Usually, this size of a structure isn't much of a challenge to our experienced installation crew but this project was not without its own challenges. Because the park rests on top of the old City Center parking garage, we cannot drive stakes into the lawn to secure the structure. Our solution was to bring in 60,000 pounds of concrete ballasts to ensure that the safety of our structure was not compromised (If you check my post a few weeks back on the Indiana State Fair tragedy, you'll understand why safety is our primary concern.)

There is something exciting about a project that challenges your professional abilities. Challenging projects test your logistical planning skills, the creativity of your installation professionals, and your ability to change your game plan on the fly. If every project we did was the exact same this industry would get boring after a while. Its because of these unique challenges that I think you have so many Tent and Event Rental professionals and families who stay in the business for generations like our family has.

The Holidays a season for gift giving and being with your family. The Columbus Commons has given the Central Ohio community a gift in this park that can be enjoyed year round.

Happy Holidays from O'Neil Tents and Party Supplies
!

Getting Ready for Winter

It's that time of year when the weather is taking a permanent turn towards the cold. In full disclosure, as I am typing this, we're having a 70 degree day in the middle of November. We call days like today "bonus days" as they are an extra chance to sneak in one more round of golf before it gets too cold. Without fail though, every year it is going to get cold and windy.

We've worked on some pretty interesting projects for customers in preparation for the cold weather to arrive. In the end, each of the projects I am going to discuss have one goal: block as much of the winter weather as possible.

One common Winter project we work on year in and year out is to help local bars and restaurants enclose patios. Enclosures can be custom fabrications or we can use tents to cover patios. This year, we fabricated 14' tall, clear wall panels for Milestone 229 on the Scioto Mile in downtown Columbus. The clear wall enable the restaurant to offer more capacity to service diners in an environment closed off from the harsh winter elements. For customers who have open patio space, like Coaches off of Bethel Road, a tent or clear span structure may be the answer.

Another industry bracing for Winter is the construction industry. We recently fabricated several 2,000 sq. ft. panels that will temporarily close the sides of buildings as work is completed. Our covers will serve as  a wind break on the higher floors of the new building, allowing for electrical, HVAC, and plumbing to be installed without the harassment of brisk winds. Outside of enclosure covers, some construction companies are going the route of putting clear span structures over their entire job site to fully protect their workers from wind, snow, and cold (as our structures can be heated).

Another use for our products is newer to us this year. The new application is temporary storage facilities. Whether its a shipping company needing more space to work out of over the Holiday season, or a large scale manufacturer protecting finished goods, our clear span structures have been employed with much more frequency this fall into the Winter.

As featured in...

We are proud to contribute to the Tent Rental Industry in any way possible. We are sometimes asked by the folks at InTents magazine to share our knowledge and expertise in certain areas. Clicking the photo's below will take you to the InTents articles we contributed to.

    

Bob Evans Farm Festival

The Bob Evans Farm Festival has been a great customer of ours for several years. As the Festival has grown, the type of tents they have used have become much larger and much more sophisticated. When Ray McKinnis, manager of Bob Evans Farms, approached us to discuss this year's festival, we thought they might want to change their order a bit; But, we were suprised when they said they wanted to re-design the site layout and almost complete change how the Farm Festival would operate.

Change is to be expected in the rental industry, but a change this large called for a complete re-thinking of the event. Brian Ritchey, our President, worked with Ray to re-configure the grounds and tenting to substitute clear span structures for the numerous large pole tents that the Farm had been using. From those planning meetings came the new Bob Evans Farm Festival. 14 uniquely colored structures would be set up in a horse shoe shape for vendors to operate out of. In addition to each tent being a different color, all of the gable triangles would be clear, to let more natural light in. Each of those structures would be lighted by our 400 watt high bay tent lights. There would still be some smaller frame tents used for general purposes, but the new Festival design created a significant manufacturing challenge.

As soon as the plan was finalized, our manufacturing team went to work on creating 64 new roof panels of varying color stripes, 28 new clear gable triangles, and several new lights were assembled to complete the order. All of this production was to be done while projects for other manufacturing customers were being worked on. The results: one of the most technologically advanced, beautiful set up's that we've done in recent years was created.

Please see the pictures below, and check out our facebook page for more images. You can also get more information regarding manufacturing capabilities on our website @ http://www.oneiltents.com/.

Michigan Irish Music Festival 2011

We showed up Thursday, left on Sunday afternoon and set up 4 clear span structures, 2 40' pole tents and about 20 frames in between. The 7 hour drive up to Muskegon is well worth the results achieved by our crew. The setting at Heritage Landing is absolutely beautiful and a great place to have a festival. In addition to the Irish Music Festival, the park hosts Summer Celebration each year (a gigantic festival/concert series).

The spec's of the job changed a little bit this year from last. The Festival requested that we change one of the 40' frame tents to a 15m clear span. Its interesting to me that once a customer uses structures, they tend to not want anything else. The functionality of the new structure should be great for the Festival. They now have a tented area with a taller side height than the frame, and our structure can stand up to just about anything that mother nature can throw at it. Other than the changed tent, the project was very similar to the last couple of years.

We wish the folks at the Irish Music Festival nothing but the best of luck with this year's event and we look forward to working with them in the future.

2011 World Jet Masters Photos

Photos by: Model Airplane News, Model Aviation and TJ Rohyans.
20x20 Vendor Tent Row:


20x20 Frame for Flight Judges:


Airplane Evaluation 10m Structure:

Airplane Storage/Prep Area 25m Structure:

More Airplane/Prep Area:

Foreground, 10m Evaluation Area. Middle, 25m Storage/Prep Area. Back, 80 Pole tent.

Why Google Analytics Helps our Business

After a major overhaul of our website last winter. One of my jobs as the sales and marketing manager is to make sure our customers are getting the content they need from our website. Without knowing every single one of the thousands of people who visit our site in a months time, its hard to call them and get feedback. I started doing a little research and found that Google Analytics was the right tool for the job.

Not only can I see where traffic is coming from (direct traffic, search engines, referring sites, etc...), I can see what is important to our customers as they make decisions about their equipment rental. I can see what types of content our customers value like pictures or information about our company and I can see how our customers navigate our site to get where they want to go.

Google does not give personal information like addresses or emails, but I can see where people are checking us out from at a city level. This helps me to target certain markets that have shown interest in our company. I can tell google to show me the content that matters most to the people who visit our site from Lexington, KY. I can see if they are interested in tables, chairs, structures or frame tents. I can see how much time visitors stay on each page and at what point in navigation they clicked out of our site (this is called a bounce). Action can be taken on the highest bounce rate locations by modifying the content on those pages to keep prospective customers on the site longer.

There is a ton more that Google Analytics can do for you, but the best part of all of these metrics and the information is that its completely free. If you don't use google analytics to track your webpage content, you're missing a serious opportunity to give your customers what they want.

Safety and Peace of Mind

As city state and local governments begin stepping up their enforcement of safety in event equipment like tents, staging, production rigging, festival rides, etc... It reminds of me the big leaps in safety our industry has taken in recent years to protect the attendees of our events. Long before certain standards were set in place, manufacturers created tents that were engineered for various wind loads, snow loads, and hanging loads. Our structures (which we started renting in 1982) were engineered to stand up to 90 mph winds in certain exposures and can hold a static weight of 1,000 pounds per arch safely. Before engineered tents came along, customers didn't necessarily have the peace of mind that they now find. They can now rest assured that only an "act of God" will effect their event.

Unfortunately, that is what we saw at the Indiana State Fair this past weekend when a freak wind gust blew through the fair grounds, killing 5, injuring almost 50 more, and mangling production rigging. This tragedy serves as a reminder that when the general public, or any one for that matter, attends an event, the highest level of precaution must be taken to ensure their safety. To be clear, I have no idea if the set up the equipment was safe or not, or if it was installed properly or not. Sometimes these things are beyord our control, but they need to be considered when planning an event.

Initially, our customers balked at the increase in price to add higher levels of safety to their events. Slowly over time though, they have seen the benefit of covering their assets and guests with structures that will do a much better job of protection from the elements. We recently wrote about a large pole tent going down at an event. I was personally on site to monitor the tents in case of emergency. I was able to see the instability take shape and we shut the tent down so there wasn't a chance anyone could enter a potentially unsafe position (also with the help of the National Guard, vendors were prohibited from entering the tent).

It is now my position as an event professional to make sure this situation doesn't happen again. It is my job to plan a safer alternative for my customer. After all, I'm the one with the expertise as to what can make the situation safer for him, his guests, and his vendors. Once I make the proposal though, its up to the festival and organizers if they will act upon my suggestions. Hopefully they see the merit in using safer structures in a position that is potentially dangerous based on the weather.

To sum up, some companies are complaining that the cost of safer materials are too expensive and prohibitive. Some customers are worried that they will not be able to afford the additional costs. All city, state and local governments do not care about those concerns. Their only concern is the safety of the event attendees -- and rightfully so.

* A note to the tent companies on the fence about purchasing structures or engineered tents: While the newer tents do cost more, they are extremely durable (we still use some of our original frame work that is almost 30 years old), the tents are easy to install (our crews can set up a 20,000 square foot structure in less than 8 hours), and your insurance company will love you for cutting your liability.

Ichthus Festival Follow Up

Lessons Learned:

1. Pole Tents don't do well in 40 mph winds.

2. Stakes don't have the same holding power in Rock as they do in normal soil conditions.

3. The guys at Goff Southeast Tents are real pros.

Over all, the event went very well. There were some minor complications during the week due to weather (i.e. guy ropes loosening, stakes pulling, etc...) but the event was still able to go on. There were a couple of instances that we erred on the side of safety that we closed a couple of the tents until they could be re-secured.

Then the morning of tear down arrived. The grounds of the Ichthus festival (as described in our previous post) were a little challenging. Between the situation of staking into rock and the largest tents being on the top of a hill, we faced an overall losing battle. The weather on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service, boasted 30 mph winds for about 6 hours with gusts up to 40mph as well as steady rain. This combination of factors caused the pole tents we had on the top of the hill to be knocked down. Fortunately the tops weren't severely damaged and they will be repaired. One of our center poles wasn't as fortunate and was folded in half. This pole must be scrapped. If you've never seen a piece of steel 6" in diameter bent like play dough, please see below (now you might appreciate the precaution in shutting down the tents while they were re-secured).

We got a call from the folks at the festival, as well as our tear down crew, to let us know about the issue. Fortunately, like vendors at every other festival we work with, all of the vendors were packed up and out of town the night the festival was over. Also, no one was allowed on the grounds as the festival had closed. No one was injured other than our poor tops and center pole.

Finally, my comment about the guys at Goff Southeast Tents. When we had issues with stakes pulling from the rock bed and ultimately a tent coming halfway down in a storm, I called them to see if I could use their hammer drill and jackhammer to resecure the stakes and help put the tent back in the air. Without hesitation, they sent a crew of guys to help me out. Ian Goff, their manager, made sure I had all of the resources I needed to make sure the job was done and done right. Thanks to them, the Ichthus Festival could go on as planned. I hope one day to be able to return them the favor they gave me. Its nice to know that in the competetive industry that we are in, there are guys out there who will lend a hand, no questions asked. Those guys are real pros and we are certainly in their debt.

Moving forward, we have a few more crazy weeks of installs ahead before we get to catch a break after July 4th. After that break we head into the Ohio State Fair and the Dublin Irish Festival installs. With what we've learned at the Ichthus Festival, we'll plan to be as safe as possible for the foreseeable future.

Ichthus Festival - Wilmore, KY

I'm told that this event is called the Woodstock of Christian Music. I know it as the event with the hardest surface to drive stakes that we've ever set up. The folks at the Ichthus Music Festival in Wilmore, KY (just southwest of Lexington) do a tremendous job putting together all of the elements that make a great festival.

Starting with the setting, farm land tucked away in horse country, the 360 degree views from the event space are only of nature and are quite awe-inspiring. The festival space has nothing but plenty of room to enjoy about 100 different bands on 4 stages. Across the acreage of the farm we set up several large, traditional pole style tents from 60 to 100 feet wide. These tents should give ample coverage from the sun for the tens of thousands that are anticipated to arrive later this week.

I was personally impressed that, even though this farm is seemingly in the middle of no where, the facilities on site are just as impeccable as the land they sit on. They have huge restroom and shower facilities for the concert goers, running water in dozens of locations around the grounds, and very well laid out electrical service at all parts of the farm.

In terms of the installation, we arrived last Tuesday afternoon and began to work immediately. Before the end of the day, we had both 100'x200' tents in the air. We then started working on the rest of the tents on Wednesday, first laying them out, then circling back around to actually put them up. Rather than devote all of our guys to one tent at a time, we worked in an assembly line fashion where a handful of guys were responsible for lacing and laying out stakes. The next group of guys would come in and put in side poles and center poles. The final group of guys would come through and tighten everything down. The teams would move on in shifts from tent to tent until the entire install of the large tents was done. I found this method to be extremely efficient.

One note on tent installation in Kentucky: ALWAYS BRING A HAMMER DRILL TO PRE DRILL ALL STAKE HOLES. A regular jackhammer will not drive re-bar or steel stakes through the Kentucky rock. This is a lesson we learned very quickly and I am happy to pass it on to any other tent company installing tents in that area.

All in all, we finished our installation in 3 and a half days. That was what we scheduled for the job so I'm pleased in that regard. I think we could've moved a bit quicker if we were better prepared for the staking surface. Our part of the event is now complete and the folks at Ichthus are setting up the rest of their staging, lighting, sound equipment, etc... I wish them nothing but luck with set up and the event.

Its been a while since we've posted anything as we're in the middle of our busiest time of the year. To show the craziness we go through to complete graduation parties, please check out this article from the Columbus Dispatch this past weekend. On top of the 160 graduation parties we set up last weekend, we also provided tenting for events around the Memorial Tournament, a fundraising event for St. Jude's at the Columbus Zoo, the Columbus Arts festival, and the OHSAA State Championship Track meet at OSU. Our guys have been working serious overtime for the last 3 weeks. This week upcoming looks to be just as busy as the last couple but we should be returning back to normal and our crews will be happy to finally get some rest! Photos of those events listed above to come.

Decorator's Show House

O'Neil Tents had the pleasure to set up tenting for the Decorators Show House, an event benefitting the Columbus Museum of Art. This job features a 30x45, a 20x20, an 8x8, and a 15x15 frame tent lashed together on an odd shaped drive way to create the maxium amount of usable event space. This special event also features a pretty special 33x33 clear span structure. The structure was built on biljax stage to level out the sloping yard between landscaping beds and carpeted to help aid in the finished feel of the structure. Please see our facebook page for the images of the event.

March, St. Patty's Day and More.

Well, as today is the first of April, a couple of things have happened recently. First, We're starting to get past some of the cold weather that we've come to know and love in Columbus. Second, our installation crews are starting to see more time on the road working on projects (which, believe me, they prefer to inventory maintenance). Third, we've had another St. Patrick's Day weekend. Everyone knows that the biggest St. Patrick's Day party in the state is at Flannagan's in Dublin. We've worked with them to cover their sand volleyball courts with 25mx50m clear span structure. Using structure, we're able to almost make the volley ball court area an extension of the building itself because of the proximity to the building that we can achieve. This is an awesome event that the local morning zoo broadcasts from and thousands of people attend throughout the day. This year we added another new comer to the St. Patrick's day mix. The Tilted Kilt in Polaris is a pretty interesting bar/restaurant to say the least. Its basically the child of an Irish Pub and Hooters. The concept apparently works due to the success of their inaugural St. Patrick's Day Party. The Tilted Kilt took over the parking lot in front of its restaurant and we set up a 15mx30m clear span structure complete with event deck flooring, staging, lighting, tables and chairs. In addition to these services, we took care of heating the event space, generator and crowd control fencing. This job was not without challenges, but it shows how awesome planning and execution can make an event feel seemless. After the initial site visit and quote acceptance, O'Neil achieved the temporary building permits, hired contractors, and delivered positive results for our new customer. We took care of the details so all they had to worry about was traffic into the event. Some of the pictures below are credited to the Tilted Kilt Columbus' Facebook account. Check out their page for more images of events at the pub.

Deadly Game of Follow the Leader

Today, a friend of mine brought an interesting video/concept to my attention. Ants are blind and when they travel to collect food, they follow a leader based on scent. This gets a little dicey as the leader isn't a designated ant, its just the one who happens to be walking in the front of the pack. So, a major problem can arise when an ant from the middle of the pack veers off course and suddenly moves to front of the group. The effect is that the pack doubles back on itself and the result is thousands of ants marching in a spiral until they die of starvation. The article is from NPR and can be found here. There is a pretty neat video on there too.

In terms of a small business, this idea of playing a deadly game of follow the leader is a little scary. Not having a clear reference point to your goals and not having the right person leading the way can be catastrophic. If your vision for your company isn't clear and you are easily taken off track, much like the ants, productivity will cease until your company eventually starves to death.

Home and Garden Show

If you're looking for something to do this weekend to escape the winter blah's of Columbus, check out the home and garden show at the State Fair Grounds. You can get some really great ideas for improving your landscape from some of the top professionals in the area. The event will take place in two different buildings on the Fair Grounds. You may ask if you'll need to brave the winter weather when walking from building to building and the answer is NO!

O'Neil Tents set up a 50' wide clear span structure between the buildings that covers the walkway and will hopefully make your day a little more enjoyable.

For the show schedule and a list of presenters that includes an HGTV host, please check out their website at http://dispatchevents.com/events.html.

Giving Back

O'Neil tents is a firm believer in supporting our local community. We recently donated a custom equipment cover to the Canal Winchester marching band and they were kind enough to senda thank you email to all of their boosters. Check out the letter on our web page at: http://www.oneiltents.com/pages/testimonials.aspx

Video of Tents in the Storm at the Expo

Courtesy of the IFAI Tent Rental Division website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO065J1PYuE

IFAI Convention: Days 3 & 4

(Just getting around to posting after the conference, but I was writing drafts the whole time)

Day 3

The morning was spent at industry meetings. Unfortunately the ballasting presentation was pushed back a day. I am really anticipating this presentation to see what industry peers think the right and wrong ways are to ballast tents. Hopefully the presentation doesn't get cancelled all together.

The tent vendors are busy setting up their structures in the parking lot outside of the hotel. There isn't too much new in terms of physical structure but the accessories look like they could be pretty cool. The Celina folks have started incorporating walling tracks on their uprights. There is a massive storm brewing off the coast set to hit in the afternoon, it should be interesting to see who is confident enough in their products to leave them out in the wind. After the calamity of tents going down in last year's storm in Phoenix, I wouldn't be suprised if some people halted their set up.

Aside from the tent set up, there were some presentations about thinking outside of the box, using social media and technology to your benefit and being a part of the winning team. The social media presenter was in Phoenix, but brought some really good, new ideas to the table (more on those later).

Between presentations and the welcome reception, I'm sitting in my room waiting on this storm. Should be a doozy.

Day 4

The storm came and went and miraculously, no tents had issues. VERY impressive. Even Aztek's pole tents that seemed pretty lightweight stayed up. WOW! I did not see that coming.

The ballasting presentation was moved to this morning and it was interesting to see what some people consider to be enough weight. After seeing what some people are up to, I feel confident that we are on the leading edge of the industry in terms of weighting down tents (that or we over-load our tent legs to be safe).

It was good to get out and see the tents, like I mentioned yesterday, there wasn't too much new in terms of revolutionary products. Either way, its good to be out and seeing what the rest of the industry is up to.

The big presentation that everyone was waiting on in terms of commissioning a ballasting study was discussed at length this afternoon. There was very spirited debate over whether or not to hire a firm to look into what the appropriate amount of weight is to hold down different styles of tents. Some companies seemed to think that putting an industry standard out there could hurt their business because they would have to radically change the way they operate. My personal feeling is that there is no price on safety at an event. If we can come up with a way to make sure our customers are more safe, I'm all for it (I also voted to commission the survey).

As part of the closing day, an awards dinner was held and after that, Losberger threw an awesome party on the beach. I got some great ideas for tent lighting from the party that would dramatically go to improve an area that we are a little behind in. More to come on that as well!

IFAI Convention

Day 2:

The golf outting was a lot of fun. Our team (me, my dad, Mike from Snyder, Linc from Versaidag) finished 3 under par. We had a blast and most importantly, we were able to get out and golf for the first time in about 3 months.

Following the golf outting, members got together for a meet and greet. It was a great opportunity to introduce ourselves to new members and to catch up with old friends. The event was held at the Tiki bar on the premises of the Tradewinds Hotel and Resort. Pretty intimate location and a great spot for the networking event.  At the meet and greet they handed out the awards for the golf tournament. I was disappointed that we didn't win (the winning team was 11 under par), but I was thrilled that we weren't awarded the last place consolation prize either.

The day was capped off by a nice dinner and conversation with friends, both new and old.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow where the exhibition tents will be set up in the parking lot in front of the resort. A pretty heavy storm is supposed to blow through the area. It will be interesting to see which companies feel confidently enough about their products to leave them up in the high winds.

IFAI Tent Convention

Day 1:

Every year the IFAI puts on a conference for its members to convene for discussions about industry trends, recent successes as well as opportunities for the member companies to respond to market challenges. There is also a very important day of golf. 

Any business convention of sorts is anticipated to include a handful of scheduled items. For example, informational sessions in which experts dictate the proper way to analyze business. There are always awards portions of these events where people are recognized for outstanding achievements and projects in the past year. After the daily sessions are over, the hotel bar is usually the final meeting room of the day where each company representative tells tall tales about his year and the jobs he’s worked on.

Taking most of these stories with a grain of salt is important but its important to not tune them out all together. Filtering out the more fantastic and unrealistic of the details can shed light onto the underlying base of work your competitors and peers are working on. Most companies generally tell the truth about who they are working with and what products are installed at events (as these details are generally easy to prove). The matter in which these products are set up and are used is where stories start to get a little out of hand. 

The ability to sift between the bravado and the basics is where the real learning happens. You can easily benchmark yourself against other companies of similar size. Figure out what types of business you need to do to compete with companies twice your size. You can learn what investments must be made in product offerings and employee training.

After I arrive in Tampa and depart my plane, pick up my golf clubs from the baggage check, hit up the rental car counter and make my way to the Tradewinds, you’ll see me cozied up to the bar doing some market research.

Sliante!

Mark

Cultural Celebrations

As long as cultures have had reasons to celebrate, they have used tents in those celebrations. Tents have been used a way to protect from inclement weather, or to celebrate religious customs, or even to create a unique event space.

For example, in the Jewish culture, the wedding ceremony is held under a chuppah as a symbol of the new home the couple will build together. All sides of the chuppah are left open just as Abraham and Sarah left their tent open to show unconditional hospitality to their guests.

Seen in a great amount of Indian weddings are tents called shamianas. Shamianas are decorated lavishly in grand colors like Red and Gold to show the great esteem in which the bride and groom are held. Along with amazing colors, tents are generally decorated with patterned fabrics and lighted with lanterns and candles. Usually incense is burned as well. All of your senses are stimulated to help create a memory that will last a lifetime.

O'Neil has had the fortune of working with communities like the Indian community, as well as several others, in central Ohio for several years. We try our best to learn the intricate customs that make each culture special in their celebration. It is this reason that we are proud to take part in Ohio's first ever South Asian Bridal show on February 20th of this year.

We are planning a display tent that will show off varying colors and patterns. We hope to show that O'Neil is ready, willing and able to work with the many diverse cultures in the central Ohio area.

For more information on the bridal show, please visit http://www.osabridal.com/index.html