Kelly Peoples
Q: What are some of the events that you and your staff manage?
A: We oversee Celebrate Hoover Day, Regions Tradition, SEC Baseball Tournament, the fireworks show, pretty much any city event that comes to Hoover.
Q: What are some of the elements of event planning that you and your team handle?
A: There’s always weather if you’re dealing with an outside event. You always have to worry about contingency plans, things that could happen — always think about worst-case scenarios and best practices on how to make those be the best they can be. We always have to make sure we have police, fire medics on the scene, public works assistance, building services assistance. … As far as Celebrate Hoover Day and things like that that we have at Veterans Park where there are food trucks, it’s really just making sure there is enough food.
Q: Do you work in conjunction with outside groups?
A: All the time — yes. We have 33 parks and open spaces in the city of Hoover, but Veterans Park is the one that is most used by primarily nonprofit organizations who try to do 5Ks for a fundraiser. But we work with nonprofit groups all the time — Moss Rock Festival, Bluff Park Art Show, just to name a couple.
Q: What’s the largest event you’ve been a part of planning?
A: SEC Baseball by far [180,000 people]. After that’s going to be Regions Tradition. We have about 80,000 out there that week for Regions.
Q: What event has been the most fun for you to be a part of?
A: It’s going to be SEC Baseball 100%. That is the one that is most challenging, but it’s the most rewarding. … You watch 16,000 people come in one day and have the best time of their lives, and you hear the fans cheer all day. To see it all come to fruition and to have so many people there enjoying themselves, it’s very rewarding.
Q: You have to rely on a lot of volunteers, correct?
A: Yes, we had about 300 volunteers for SEC Baseball just for one week and probably could have used more. … We put it out first to our employees. Our employees work their regular 40-hour-a-week jobs, and they come out and work extra shifts. But then we put it out to service clubs like the Hoover Service Club, Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, different groups who need service hours. … They make it so successful.
