Placemaking firm vs event producer vs property manager: who should run the calendar?
By Tully Zeitlin · Published
Placemaking firm vs event producer vs property manager is a choice between three different jobs, and none of the three is built to run a property's year-round calendar. A placemaking firm shapes the place and the plan for it. An event producer delivers an event. A property manager keeps the property running. The calendar, the thing that makes a place a place after the ribbon is cut, usually belongs to nobody, which is why a fourth category exists: a placemaking and event programming company that plans, books and runs the calendar with the owner's team, and staffs it when the owner asks. The decision behind this one, whether to build that team or hire it, is in outsourced event programming vs an in-house team.
What a placemaking firm does
Placemaking, in the definition the Project for Public Spaces uses, is a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. A placemaking firm does that shaping: the vision, the master plan, the design of the lawn and the plaza, sometimes a programming strategy to go with them. The Project for Public Spaces lists what placemaking is, community-driven, function before form, focused on creating destinations, and what it is not, design-driven, a quick fix, project-focused. The firm's work is done when the plan is delivered and the place is built. The renderings are full of people. Whether the people arrive every Saturday after that depends on who runs the calendar, and the plan does not say.
What an event producer does
An event producer arranges all aspects of an event. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' description of the job, the planner meets the client to understand the purpose of the event, plans its scope, time, location and cost, solicits bids from venues and service providers, coordinates rooms, transportation and food, monitors the event, and reviews the bills. Producers are priced per event, and the good ones are very good at the big night. The weekly rhythm, the tenant follow-through and the sponsor relationships that need a year are a different job, bid out again every time. We produce events too, thousands of them, so this is not an argument against producers. It describes what the per-event shape leaves out.
What a property manager does
A property manager oversees many aspects of residential, commercial, or industrial properties and makes sure the property is well maintained, has a nice appearance, operates smoothly, and preserves its resale value, in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' words. The duties are leases, fees, inspections, repairs, bills, contractors, complaints, records and budgets. Programming is not on the list. Property teams run the property. Leasing leases. There is no department for Saturday night, and asking a property manager to run one seven days a week on top of the building is how a stage goes unused for a year.
Who should run a property's calendar
The owner should own it. Someone whose only job is the calendar should run it. That is the whole answer, and it holds for a placemaking firm, an event producer or a property manager alike: each is excellent at its own job, and each is asked, too often, to do this one on the side. A placemaking and event programming company does one thing: central planning, one calendar, daily call sheets, local execution, one point of contact. An operating team behind yours. You keep the brand, the voice and the final say on every line of the calendar. We carry the work that makes the calendar real: planning, booking, vendor and talent management, the daily run of show, and the tenant follow-through.
What it produces. Placemaking firm: the vision, the plan and the design of the place. Event producer: an event, delivered. Property manager: a property that is maintained, leased and in budget. Placemaking and event programming company: a year-round calendar, planned, booked and run, and staffed when you want us to staff it.
How it is paid. Placemaking firm: by the project or the study. Event producer: by the event. Property manager: by the management fee. Placemaking and event programming company: by an engagement scoped to the property, opening with the Discovery and Setup Month.
When its work is done. Placemaking firm: when the plan is delivered. Event producer: when the event ends. Property manager: never, and the calendar is extra. Placemaking and event programming company: not while the calendar runs.
Who owns the calendar. Placemaking firm: nobody yet. Event producer: the producer, for one night. Property manager: the property team, on the side. Placemaking and event programming company: the owner, with the final say on every line.
How a placemaking firm, an event producer and a property manager work together
The categories are not rivals. A placemaking firm designs the lawn, and we fill it. A producer we trust can produce a marquee night inside our calendar, and we produce inside other people's festivals ourselves. The property manager stays on the property, and the calendar stops landing on their desk. One partner, one point of contact, one calendar per property.
How to tell which one you are talking to
Do they show you a 52-week calendar, or a plan for one?
Do they bring the vendor network, or bid it out each time?
Is there a call sheet for every event day?
Is there one point of contact?
Are they measured on the numbers you already run the property on: attendance, food and beverage, tenant sales, and the growth of your own list?
What the calendar looks like when we run it is on event programming, and the phases are on how event programming works.
Frequently asked questions
What is a placemaking firm?
A planning, design or consulting practice that shapes a place: the vision, the master plan, the public realm, sometimes a programming strategy. Its work ends when the plan is delivered. It does not usually run the calendar that follows.
Is an event producer the same as an event programming company?
No. An event producer delivers an event and is paid per event. An event programming company plans, books and runs a year-round calendar, and staffs it when the owner asks, with the owner keeping the final say on every line. We produce events inside that calendar and inside other people's festivals, so the two overlap on the night itself and differ on everything around it.
Can a property manager run the calendar?
A property manager can host an event, and many do. Running a calendar seven days a week on top of leases, maintenance, vendors and budgets is a second full-time job, and in our experience it is the job that gets dropped first when the building gets busy.
What does a placemaking and event programming company do?
It plans and runs year-round programming at your property: quarterly calendar planning and booking, vendor and talent sourcing, scheduling and coordination, the weekly look-ahead and daily call sheets, event production, tenant collaboration, and one point of contact. You keep the brand, the voice and the final say.
Which should a developer hire first?
The placemaking firm, while the place is still in design. The programming company can start then too: for a property still in design, the Discovery and Setup Month can run now, while the plans can still change.
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