Imagine you're throwing a party for 35,000 guests. You need places for them to stay. Activities to keep them busy. Phones so they can call home. Gifts so they'll remember how much fun they had. And you need to organize 7,000 volunteers just to help you get through the affair. You need to decorate. You need to assure smooth relations with an expected 15,000 members of the media. And, oh yes, you need to raise money — about $20 million or so — to help pay for the extravaganza.

That's the charge of Chicago '96. The nonprofit group will serve as the city's official host for the Democratic National Convention, set to run August 26 through 29 at the United Center on Chicago's West Side. The group's mission is to help the national Democratic Party with planning convention details, but it also has the larger role of showcasing Chicago and Illinois to the world.

Chicago hasn't hosted a national political convention since the Democrats gathered there in 1968 and nominated Hubert H. Humphrey in his unsuccessful bid for the presidency.

What everyone remembers about those August days, though, are scenes of violent clashes between city police and anti-war protesters in Grant Park and Lincoln Park, scenes that were relayed to the world through television broadcasts and news reports. At one point, police reportedly removed their badges before making their way through a Lincoln Park rally, shooting off canisters of tear gas and chanting "kill, kill, kill." Reporters also were targets of beatings and violence by police, and at least 20 required hospitalization.

The scene inside Chicago's International Amphitheater, where the convention was held, was not calm either. Security agents were accused of harassing anti-war delegates, barring one New Yorker from entry until he gave up his New York Times. Police arrested another delegate and dragged him from the convention floor.

The amphitheater became a veritable fortress against the protesters in the streets outside. A seven-foot-high barbed-wire fence went up. Fifteen hundred police officers were stationed on the grounds. Helicopters kept watch from above and rifle-toting police waited atop adjacent buildings.

The chaos associated with the '68 convention — both on and off the amphitheater floor — marred the city's reputation as a host for such events for the next quarter-century.

So the small, young staff of Chicago '96 — most staffers are in their 20s and 30s — have a big job ahead. They can't avoid the deluge of news stories that will recall Chicago's troubles in 1968, but this year's convention planners must try to present a picture of the city as it is today — a picture they believe should overshadow that past.

In fact, Chicago has history on its side. The city has held more national political conventions than any other U.S. city, according to Leslie Fox, executive director of Chicago '96. Between 1860 and 1968, Chicago hosted 24 of the 58 conventions held by Republicans and Democrats, never going more than 12 years without hosting one party or the other.

The first such gathering was held in 1860, when Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln to head their ticket. But it's unlikely those who planned that long-ago meeting could have foreseen the enormous economic boon that accompanies modern-day political conventions.

A study by the Federal Reserve Bank and the University of Illinois estimates the assembly this August will pump $122 million into the metropolitan Chicago economy. The figure is based partly on a study of profits reaped during the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City, adjusted for inflation and price differences between the two cities. To arrive at that projection, analysts figure 15,075 delegates will stay in Chicago four days; 7,425 will stay in the city seven days; and an additional 15,000 media representatives will encamp for the full week. Projected daily spending by attendees is $370. That breaks down to:

• $15 for transportation costs;
• $75 for retail purchases;
• $150 for hotel expenses;
• $100 for restaurant meals;
• $30 for miscellaneous expenses.

But there's a lot to be done before the first of those tourism dollars start flowing the city's way. Julie Thompson who handles media requests for Chicago '96, says she's already fielding dozens of phone calls each day —

6 * January 1996 Illinois Issues

'It's the media value that makes this so huge. We're talking about billions of dollars of free publicity.'

from reporters, from people who want to volunteer, from potential corporate sponsors. "We're in charge of all the community planning that will go into the event — from making sure the streets around the convention center will be clear and the garbage has been picked up to planning welcoming events for 56 separate delegate parties," she says. "We've got to put on a separate media party for 25,000 people on the Saturday before the convention. We'll be exhausted before it ever starts."

Indeed, many of the 12 full-time Chicago '96 staff on board now are exhausted already. Their efforts began months ago, and each has become part copy editor, part fund-raiser, part graphic designer, part choreographer and part ego massager.

"You wouldn't believe all the details you have to figure out that go into this," Thompson says. She got a quick lesson in some of the minutiae back in September, when she helped organize a kick-off breakfast at the Field Museum of Natural History. Chicago '96 staff had to figure out how to hide 300 volunteers who would help unfurl a huge banner displaying the newly selected convention logo. "We were running off to the lumber yard the night before, trying to figure out how to present this right," she says. "We wanted this breakfast to kick off the big convention countdown, but in a lot of ways we didn't know how we were going to do it."

That's not surprising, considering that Chicago '96 staffers have no practice preparing for a national political convention. Many of them worked on World Cup-related events when it was held in Chicago two years ago, but they don't necessarily have political experience — or even a keen interest in politics.

Thompson, for instance, has a background in marketing. She handled accounts for companies like Quaker Oats and Harley-Davidson, and says she had no previous interest in politics. She billed herself as a person who could successfully package and market the city of Chicago, and was hired on those qualifications, she says.

Similarly, volunteer coordinator Adrian Garibay came to Chicago '96 with a background in designing database and information systems. His work with World Cup, though — first as a volunteer, then as a paid staff member — earned him the chance to help plan for another complicated Chicago-based event.

"I think the thing that we all have in common is that we have great pride in the city," says Garibay, whose father moved the family there from Mexico City nearly 20 years ago. "People feel strongly enough that they're willing to put in many hours a week of volunteer time to help get it together."

Before everything can be put into place, though, the group must raise lots of dollars for convention-related events. Thompson says the staff is about one-third of the way to its $20 million goal, so the group is constantly on the lookout for potential sponsors. Those who donate $100,000 will be named honorary "vice chairs" of the convention.

In the meantime, she says, the group has to figure out how to get just about everything else donated — from office space to banners that will hang on city light poles to snacks for volunteers — so it can spend the cash on taking care of the delegates and the media. That means nosing around for free computers, phones, copiers, Internet accounts — even doughnuts.

"I have to beg people I know to tape things on TV and clip things from newspapers and magazines if they're about the conventions," Thompson says. "We all have our hands out."

At the same time, Thompson and company are trying to stay in touch with and steer business toward the many vendors and individuals who want to get involved. Real estate firms are calling to see if networks are going to want to rent office space around the United Center. Printers want to know where delegates are getting their signs printed. More than 50 publishers, guidebook editors and mapmakers want to get their materials into the 22,000 gift bags that Chicago '96 is putting together. The group is even publishing a directory of firms owned by women, minorities and disabled people, in case delegates and other convention visitors need services while they're in town.

"We want to bring all kinds of Chicagoans into the event however we can," says Fox, who worked in the city's office of special events before being tapped to head World Cup activities in Chicago two years ago. "We're trying to make the city look good from every angle — businesswise, culturally and as a great place to visit."

With so many reporters expected to head to town a week before the convention begins, that's important if you're trying to promote a city. "The World Cup felt like a big media event, and there were 1,500 media representatives there," Thompson says. "This is 10 times that many. If you put this in the context of convention size, it's only the 12th or 13th in size behind the trade shows held at McCormick Place. But it's the media value that makes this so huge. We're talking about billions of dollars of free publicity for the city." *

Highlights from Chicago political convention history 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) 1932 Herbert Hoover (Rep.) 1952 Adlai E. Stevenson (Dem.) 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep.) 1960 Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) Source: The Information Please Almanac, 1994; Political Parties and Elections in the United States: Encyclopedia, 1991; Chicago '96.

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