MILWAUKEE — With less than 14 months before the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC), we want to explore every aspect of how the event could impact our city, including how large-scale events are handled.
“Part of it is like you're making dinner for eight people, why not make dinner for 18 people? It's just, you're adding more certainly manpower and more food and more things but the principles are the same,” said John Castino, Senior Director of Restaurant and Events for Northwestern Mutual.
For 143 years, Northwestern Mutual has hosted financial representatives from all across the country for its annual meeting, and for the last seven, Castino and his team have been responsible for making sure one of the largest conventions in Milwaukee goes off without a hitch.
“By virtue that we do it every year, we are constantly planning and looking ahead, taking the feedback from the year before and applying for next year and that sort of thing. The scale of it, I think matters, certainly, but yet, the infrastructure is still there,” said Castino.
Between 13,000-14,000 financial representatives and their families will go between three locations, Fiserv Forum, The Wisconsin Center, and Northwestern Mutual’s main campus over the course of a weekend in July.
Because the timeframe is consistent every year, Castino says there is a constant dialogue flowing between their company and the city resources they use.
“We are constantly in their ear and they're in our ear as well about what's coming up and what we're working on. So, it's not just us and our agents, it really encompasses so much of the city,” said Castino.
While their event welcomes about a fifth of the 50,000 people anticipated to come into town for the RNC, Castino says the formula isn’t all that different.
“The hotels, the transportation, the restaurants, the caterers, all the event spaces are there. They don't often get used simultaneously like they will with the RNC. But, we have events all over the city during our event, just the same as with a larger convention. So, it's just going to take a little bit more space for the RNC,” said Castino.
Looking ahead, Castino says that based on how successful their annual meeting is every year, he has little doubt that the city can pull off something even greater for the convention next year.
“We always would say in the hotel business, ‘you're only as good as your history,’ and we have a lot of that history, which really helps us to plan it every year. So, that's the bigger difference, I think, between an RNC or a DNC or a one-shot deal every four years. That’s serious work, but I know Milwaukee can definitely handle it,” said Castino.
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