5 Essential Elements for a Flawless Graduation Ceremony

For students across the country, it’s one of the most important days of their young lives: graduation.

They’ve worked hard to get there; now the institution has to work hard to make sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch. To do that, you’ve got to consider everything from power generation and lighting to temperature control and flooring.

Here, we break down the top five things to consider when planning your school’s graduation ceremony (or any other major event).

Power

Nothing happens at a graduation ceremony without power.

You need lights to illuminate the procession of students, microphones and speakers to project inspirational words and fight songs, and fans to keep friends and relatives cool in crowded spaces.

While your space may be equipped with the standard power sources, you’ll need more than usual to accommodate a big-ticket event, as well as a plan to distribute that power everywhere it needs to go.

At Sunbelt Rentals, we carry a variety of generators to support events of all sizes. We also offer the necessary accessories to distribute that power throughout your space.

Lighting

If power is your top priority, lighting comes in a close second.

Often times, graduations take place in sports facilities or outdoor spaces that are temporarily transformed for the purpose of the event. That requires extra lighting to illuminate stages and walkways, seating areas, and the procession itself.

Our team can provide you with a variety of temporary, portable lighting solutions to suit any space, with different wattages, heights, and styles. Then, when the event wraps, you can return your space to its original state, quickly and easily.

Ground protection

With thousands of people on site for the average graduation ceremony, you need to consider how they will move around your space — and how you can minimize the impact to your flooring.

That’s where good ground protection comes in. You need specially designed mats to protect your flooring and to create walkways and seating spaces for all your expected guests.

Sunbelt Rentals offers the largest inventory of rental matting in the U.S, and in 2018, we installed more than 90,000 ground protection mats at colleges and universities in just two short months.

We have the experience necessary to determine the right solution for each event, starting with the right materials and then working through site design and removal. Our goal is always to leave each space just as we found it.  

Temperature control

Depending on where you are across the U.S., your graduation ceremony could be unseasonably cool or unbearably hot. Neither is ideal, and that means you need options.

The good news is, there are a variety of temporary solutions to either problem, with portable heaters, air conditioners, and fans that can infuse comfort into any space. We stock a wide selection of all of the above and can typically provide them within a matter of days.

Heavy lifting

Regardless of how big your team, you’re going to need help getting everything involved in a graduation ceremony into its the designated space.

Fortunately, there is equipment designed to do the heavy lifting for you. We offer a variety of forklifts and other vehicles to help with hauling and lifting cumbersome materials such as chairs, speakers, podiums, and platforms.

No matter what your specific needs, Sunbelt Rentals is here to help. We have more than 550,000 pieces of equipment and tools spread across 1000+ locations across the U.S., and our team of experts is ready and waiting to help bring your graduation to life.   

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