Site Control “Blurring the Lines”
Click here to read the complete article
By Joan Harrigan
Just when we’d become used to Westminster’s daytime judging at the Piers, the game plan changed again. Following last year’s show, Pier 92 was closed after a routine inspection by the New York City Economic Development Corporation revealed structural damage rendering it unsafe. That meant that only Pier 94, fortunately the larger of the two piers, could be used for the 2020 show.
Schedules were changed, some of the breed judging was moved to Sunday, and AKC Meet The Breeds changed venue and dates—it was at the Javits Center in January. Vendors were told that they could not be open on Saturday, during the agility competition, reducing their selling time and confusing visitors who were faced with curtained-off booths. For a show with as many moving parts as Westminster, set in a city that isn’t easy for visitors to navigate, change isn’t easy.
MB-F, Westminster’s superintendent, is highly visible—but it is not their role to coordinate all of the logistics of the show.
That falls to a company designed to make the show experience as smooth and easy as possible for the exhibitors—a firm many dog people have never heard of, though they’ve undoubtedly used its services.
John Miller, 31, the son of company’s founder, Harry Miller, took the time to talk about the company outside the Piers—in the rain. “People know us simply as ‘Site Control,’” he said from underneath his hoodie. “We know 90% of the exhibitors at a show like this, and any problem that comes up, it’s our job to take care of it.”
That problem might be traffic control, coordinating the shuttle buses, directing exhibitors and spectators, or literally “any little problem” that arises. If you arrived at Pier 94 and found someone waiting to give you a hand as you stepped off the bus, that was a Site Control employee. Or, it might be bathrooms—the ladies’ room lines were long at Pier 94, and helpfully, thanks to Site Control, a trailer full of bathrooms was stationed just outside. Miller says that his family’s company “blurs the line between the dog show world and the non-show world, to make the event run as smoothly as possible.”
Click here to read the complete article
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=180099
Posted by AnthonyA
on Jan 14 2021. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Comments are closed
