Swimming Pool Covers – An Event Planners Guide

Create an amazing look and maximize event space!

A stunning clear acrylic pool cover at a private event

In the production world, swimming pool covers are used as temporary flooring for a live event. There are a lot of options available to the event planner when it comes to the rental and installation of swimming pool covers. But first, let’s talk about some scenarios where a swimming pool cover might be used:

A marketing firm or DMC may rent the pool deck at a hotel for an evening, open-air cocktail hour. The client doesn’t want a ‘swim party’ atmosphere; rather, a semi-formal sophisticated gathering is the goal. By covering the swimming pool with flooring, additional space is made available for cocktail rounds and seating.
At home wedding receptions can benefit from pool covers as well. Many times, the bride’s family will have a pool cover installed when the reception is to take place in the home. Not only does a rental pool cover allow additional space for guests, it also keeps younger guests from exploring (and possibly, falling in to) the edges of the pool.
Corporate clients as well as family clients can both benefit from using swimming pool covers as dance floors. Imagine an effect where your guests appear to be dancing on the surface of the pool and you’ll see why a see-through acrylic pool cover provides your guests with a truly unique experience.

The three types of flooring available for rental swimming pool covers.

Swimming pool covers can be customized by changing the actual surface of the flooring. Below you’ll find the surface options available for swimming pool covers.

Wood Surface – most wood topped swimming pool covers have a black surface, although vendors can provide a white wood surface or other color to client specifications. This is the most cost effective option for rental swimming pool covers.

Frosted Acrylic Surface – this surface consists of a semi-opaque acrylic. It allows light to project up from the pool to the floor itself. This surface is best suited for cocktail and casual atmospheres.

Clear Acrylic Surface – this flooring type is used in black tie and elegant events. The surface is completely clear, allowing guests to be able to see through the floor into the pool.

Clear Plexi Pool Cover at Hotel Grand Opening

This clear acrylic swimming pool cover was used at the grand opening of a hotel.

NEW – Flush Mount pool cover rentals – With the previous three types of surfaces, pool covers had to built up over the surface of the swimming pool which creates a “step up” onto the floor. No more! In Depth Events can now provide a flush mount swimming pool cover. This means that the swimming pool cover is inset in the pool and custom made to be at the same height of the pool surround. Take a look at this blog post for Flush Mount Pool Covers to see how a custom pool cover might benefit your event!

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At In Depth Events, we are swimming pool cover experts with experience doing LOTS of them all over the United States! In addition to providing wood or acrylic swimming pool covers, we can also provide the decor lighting, audio needs and other production elements your clients demand. Make sure and Ask Us a Question about how a swimming pool cover can add to your next event. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Image of Event Production Plans and Rolls

How Engineer Certified Drawings for Events Can Make (or Break) Your Activation – An Event Planners Guide

Custom structures at your indoor or outdoor activation

If you are an event marketing professional, then you have probably used a production company to build a custom structure for your client at an activation or trade show. Custom structures built from truss or staging can be used as elevated seating for attendees or VIP’s, gateway arches or signage towers. These structures can be huge show elements, massive custom stages or as small as a single piece of trussing. However, they all have one thing in common – they are subject to inspection by a city official and will need engineer certified drawings for events of this kind.

In an indoor activation, the person from the city is typically the Fire Marshall or a member of his or her staff. In an outdoor activation, it will typically be a city building inspector. However, this is not an absolute – either one can show up at either event type. Both have the power to write very expensive compliance tickets to your end client, hold the doors closed until you comply with city regulations, or in extreme cases, close your event and escort all attendees out of the event space.

So what is an engineer certified drawing?

With any custom structure, the city can require an engineer certified drawings for events. This is a CAD drawing of the structure to be built with detailed instructions on how it is to be flown (in indoor environments), ground supported (for both indoor and outdoor shows) and ballasted (for outdoor events).

These engineer certified drawings for events may incorporate elements of the venue for flown rigs and will definitely incorporate tolerances for wind speed, ballast weight and banner types for outdoor structures. These drawings are created by a engineer who is certified to do business in the State you are working in. When the drawing is complete, the engineer will apply a stamp to the drawing which signifies the structure is safe to be built.

It’s vitally important that the engineer and production company work together in the creation of the original drawings, as well as the execution of the structure build. If the structure is not built to the specifications the engineer has outlined, the city inspector can fail you (also called a ‘red tag’) and require changes to be made before a second inspection is carried out. If the build is correct, you get a green tag and a sign off by the city to have your event.

Here’s a list on how most permitting is done in US cities:

The client or show designer has the initial idea.
A production company is contacted and they take the idea and turn it into a rendering or quote for client review.
On review, the production company contacts an engineer licensed in the State. The engineer reviews the drawings or specifications from the production company, then creates his own set of drawings showing ballasts, accepted tolerances and detailed installation instructions.
Once drawings are complete, a permit request is filed with the city with the drawings attached. Some cities will require an event permit to be filed first. Occasionally, a permit will not be required, but a review of the drawings will be required.
The structure is built on site and the city makes an appointment to review. Hopefully, the structure is passed, or green tagged. If it fails the review, you will have to request a second time slot for a re-review. Typically, a city official can only fail a structure if it is not built to the specifications that are in the drawings.
The event happens and exceeds your clients wildest dreams. You are so impressed with the production team that you take all members of the production company on a week long, all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii.

It’s always a good idea to have an engineer certified with the State to be on site when the city inspector or fire marshal is scheduled – even if the engineer was not the one who created the original drawings. Any certified engineer licensed to practice in the State you are working in can provide a stamped ‘letter of compliance’. This is basically a letter stating the production company has built the structure to the drawings supplied in the permitting process.

Wow – this is some great information. And you are an incredibly talented writer. Any other advice?

Well, since you asked – certainly!

Dealing with city officials can be incredibly frustrating. It’s important to remember that their job is ultimately to make sure your attendees are safe. Fire Marshals can be downright obstinate about exits being blocked, but there is a good historical reason for concern. A city inspector can (and will) hold the doors closed to your event until your production company reads the plans correctly and installs the right amount of ballast to a gateway. The majority of them are not trying to make your life difficult – they simply have a job to do. And frankly, it’s a job you really want them to do to the best of their abilities.

With that in mind, treat city employees with respect and they will do the same. Be positive, polite and factual. (This works well for police officers, DMV employees and social security employees as well.) If you don’t know the answer to a question, find the production company. If they don’t know, call the engineer who put the drawings together. Answering a city inspector with “I don’t know” will not work well. Select one knowledgeable person to meet with the inspector, not a group of people who don’t know anything about the build. Your clients are the absolute wrong person to meet with a city inspector. If you step back and allow the production company and engineers to interact with city inspectors and fire marshals, you’ll be much happier (and stress-free).

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article. When you are ready, take a moment and Ask Us a Question of the professionals at In Depth Events. We have nationwide experience with building structures with engineer certified drawings for events and we’ve love the opportunity to show you our skills. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Image of Concert Production for Univision Radio Event

Turnkey Concert Production for Univision Radio

Univision Radio is one of the major players in the Dallas Fort Worth hispanic market. Their radio promotions department do a large concert event every May that pulls in a very targeted demographic of people and a large chunk of sponsorship dollars. With an estimated 20,000 people in attendance, sponsors get impressions to their potential customers via banners, logo rotation on jumbotrons and a VIP riser directly to the right of the stage. The attendees get a day long, non-ticketed event with multiple national acts, food vendors and on stage giveaways.

Without even contacting us, Univision Radio began checking our references. As a certified building contractor in Dallas, a preferred vendor at Fair Park, Univision checked with some of our satisfied clients and on our solid reputation within the City of Dallas. Univision finally contacted us to request a bid. When our bid was accepted, Univision let us know that we were the only bidder – after checking our references, they knew that we were the vendor for their show.

Univision – Festival De Mayo – Fair Park Dallas, Tx

It’s always a pleasure to know that your work is recognized by your peers. When your reputation speaks for itself, then clients like Univision Radio (and our other clients) stand up and take notice. We lived up to their name and reputation by handling full production for this event. We provided a 40 foot x 40 foot load bearing rooftop structure, lighting, audio system, power distribution, scaffolding and barricade for this concert. Our stage ran on time all day and set changes between the acts were smooth and trouble free. At the end of the show, the Univision Radio contact told our owner that it was the best, smoothest show that he had ever been involved with.

Now, that’s what we like to hear! If you are ready to show your clients and sponsors how a festival stage should look and sound, then Ask Us a Question about your upcoming event. We are ready to promote your brands anywhere in the nation. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Pop 2 Life – Conan O’Brien Dallas, Tx 2014

Smart Marketing…

Most live event marketing campaigns are based around other, larger events. From concert lounges at SXSW, to sports apparel promotions surrounding the NBA All Star Jam, smart marketing teams combine their brands with the targets expected at national level events.

Conan O’Brien and a national level event…

The geniuses promoting the Conan O’Brien show targeted the hoopla surrounding NCAA March Madness in Dallas. A weeklong mini-tour using a branded Conan O’Brien Airstream trailer was dispatched, and guests were treated to live music, memorabilia, and Conan giveaways. Each tour drop was centered in an area guaranteed to have lots of walk-through, targeted traffic.

Production Needs…

Production Experience was contracted to handle the power needs, staging, audio, and lighting for each tour drop – as well as providing an ADA lift for disabled guests. Even with tight turnarounds, the crew of Production Experience performed flawlessly, and the end result was a very successful promotion for the show. Find out how our event experts can provide production for your live event marketing needs – contact us today!