Hosting a Wild Event

The Lotus Pavilion towers over Sanctuary Asia at the Oklahoma City Zoo.  It's one of the most readily recognizable structures on campus.  I was hurrying towards it with no little sense of expectation - what would I find inside?  Aquariums?  Reptiles and amphibians?  An aviary?  A small mammal house?  A... food court?  Yep, it was the food court.  And event space.  Lots of event space.  Not even a gecko in a tank to hold my interest before I sadly sulked out.

I can't fault OKC.  Zoos are expensive to run, and to run them successfully takes income - ideally income that you can generate yourself, and isn't in the hands of fickle private donors, or equally fickle government entities.  Many zoos and aquariums now generate an increasing amount of their revenue from private events.  Whether weddings or corporate events or whatever, folks are willing to pay to have their private events at zoos.  Sometimes it's during the day and they visit the zoo as other guests do, perhaps with a catered meal somewhere and some special experiences arranged.  Sometimes it's after hours, maybe even late into the night.

This is changing how many zoos structure themselves.  Many now have entire departments geared towards special events and private parties, which would have been very difficult to imagine when I started off years ago.  It requires considerable collaboration with animal staff.  Will animals be kept out longer than usual to be viewable by evening events?  What species will be most likely to be disturbed or bothered by the noise, light, and other factors caused by these events?  How can events best be planned so that they don't have a negative impact on animal welfare?

These events also play a major role in shaping the future landscape of the zoo.  There is a lot of competition for event venues.  A zoo can't put out some folding chairs and tables and hope for the best, or assume that the cute animals will carry the event on their shoulders and make customers overlook an otherwise unsatisfactory event.  Many zoos are planning special buildings or private viewing areas - such as scenic overlooks of outdoor exhibits - for the primary purpose of being event space.  This can irk both staff (being those who aren't involved in the budget process) and members of the public (being those who aren't booking events), who might rather those spaces go to animal exhibits or other areas that are more central to the zoo's mission and the visitor's experience.

As one co-worker of mine groused upon looking at a copy of a masterplan for our facility, "We're turning into an event venue with a few animals on the side!"

Smart zoos (and, do be clear, I do count Oklahoma City in their ranks) can find a way to strike a balance between meeting the demands of the public for quality event space, which in turn helps to finance the zoo's operations and missions, and the primary goal of the zoo - the conservation of animals and the introduction and education of the public regarding those animals.  Zoos are primarily for animals.  After that, they're for people - those who plan to book a private evening event, as well as those who don't.