I work for CBS radio and had to work a promotion’s event out at the Monroe Crossing Mall. It was pretty far from Charlotte and I had to sit in a lot of traffic on Independence blvd. Once I arrived, I wasn’t too impressed. The mall is just another local mall with nothing unique. They were doing some renovations on the larger department stores, but nothing inside the mall had been touched. We entered through a back entrance and took all the equipment in. We were setting up for a small concert. I wasn’t sure where we were setting up in the mall so people can hear and see it. When we walked in, we decided to set up next to Belk department store.
The location of the stage was outside the main entrance into the mall from Belk. The walking path in the mall was at it’s widest and have us a lot of room to work with. The first thing we did was set up our tent. I selected a corner that is at the entrance to Belk. I wanted to be able to capture everyone’s attention in the mall and in Belk. The location allowed for 2 sides of our tent to be useable space to interact with people. It was also visible from further down the mall. If we set it up in the middle, then the stage would have blocked the visibility of the tent.
As for the stage, it was in the middle of the walkway. We decided to have the performers face Belk and not the mall itself. The ceiling lowered in the opposite direction and the width of the walkways got smaller. Facing Belk allowed for the music to enter the store through their huge entrance. The music was loud enough for people to hear it from all directions. The stage was about 30ft away from the entrance. It have viewers standing room and other vendors space to set up on the edges of the room. This allowed viewers to walk around either side of the stage and interact with vendors. This space was usually used as a sitting area, but we turned it into a small concert area by just moving some furniture and setting up some equipment.
The mall is located at 2115-290 West Roosevelt Blvd., Monroe, NC 28110.
Communication in My LIfe 