Milwaukee RNC aims to be 'bigger, better than ever' CEO says
MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin woman leading the 2024 Republican National Convention sits down for her first TV interview since taking the reins of the convention and shares updates on convention planning and reveals the convention's logo.
Elise Dickens, 2024 RNC CEO, compared her job to planning a Super Bowl over four nights instead of one.
"We want this to be bigger and better than ever," said Dickens. "We haven’t gathered in eight years, so I think we have a lot of opportunity, whether it’s with production or technology or social media, to make sure that we’re reaching out to the youth vote, for example. There’s a lot of things that we can elevate that do tie into the politics of this state and turning this state red and delivering this convention for the next president of the United States."
FOX6 News got a first look at the logo that will be featured on convention pins, documents and in history books. It's just one part of the planning.
"You’ll notice that Milwaukee is the key, central focus of the logo, but the outline of the logo itself is the outline of the state of Wisconsin, my home state, and the purpose of that really is because we expect $200 million of economic impact is going to impact the city of Milwaukee, but also, the communities surrounding, throughout the Badger State," explained Dickens.
Milwaukee Republican National Convention
One of her tasks is hiring staff to help her plan and execute the convention. As of Monday, the Republican Convention team included five employees. They will be staffing up to 70 people in addition to the convention team the eventual nominee brings in.
Milwaukee will host the Republican National Convention July 15-18, 2024, and organizers say those crowds could flood the regional economy with some $200 million.
"Getting 50,000 people into a city is going to take the support of everybody, and we want to make sure we leave this city better than we found it," said Dickens.
One way people can help is by signing up to provide services. The separate non-political 2024 Milwaukee Host Committee launched a vendor connection site, which will allow businesses and service providers to be in consideration for possible convention-related business. Dickens said 700 people had signed up.
Convention organizers plan to put out requests for proposals for some large convention jobs this week, including ticketing, transportation and general contractor.
Elise Dickens
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Other business connections between Republicans and local Milwaukee-area businesses could start in August 2023, when the Republican National Committee hosts their summer meeting in Milwaukee and the city hosts the first Republican presidential primary debate.
"We want as many vendors as possible to sign that because how we envision using that portal is we will pull down that list and share that with our friends and share that with visiting groups, so they can have a resource and an active list to go to of ‘Oh, I’m looking for a florist,’ or, ‘I’m looking for a caterer,' and even down to a dentist," said Dickens. "We have a dentist signed up on the vendor portal, which we have used before in prior conventions."
For those thinking of getting out of town in July 2024, Dickens had a message.
"We actually invite residents and invite people from out of the city to come and experience the convention. Most of it is open, actually. I mean, you can’t go into the secured perimeter. You can’t go into the Fiserv if you don’t have a credential, but you could experience different things that are going on," Dickens said.
As far as unwelcome guests, Dickens said they always plan for protesters at every event.
SKYFOX Milwaukee skyline
"That’s always part of the event planning to make sure you’re always prepared," said Dickens.
Wisconsin will welcome the Grand Old Party in a city that planned to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which went mostly virtual during the coronavirus pandemic.
In mid-July 2024, there will be new structures up in the Deer District to make room for all the media coming to the RNC. Dickens said the Secret Service will be figuring out the security perimeter, which is where a person can't go without a special credential. The Secret Service had experience creating that perimeter in 2020, but agents could be making tweaks due to changes and additional structures.