InTents October/November 2020 - 22

"Ofﬁcials are asking us not to gather as groups, and this industry is all
about people gathering," says Peter Grazzini, managing member of the
Washington, D.C.-based event company Perfect Settings. The company is
ﬁnding new ways to stage events with social distancing. Photo courtesy of
Perfect Settings.

ofϐicials are asking us not to gather
as groups-and this industry is
all about people gathering."
Christian Party Rental in Nashua, N.H.,
needs a lot of people gathering to keep
up its business-it has 30,000 chairs
in its inventory, says Michael Gould,
the company's CEO. Its core business
is commencements for colleges, high
schools and prep schools, events that
were nonexistent this spring. "It's been
a really strange time," says Gould, who
estimated his company lost $1.2 million
in business in May and June.
Christian has survived by renting
tents for medical purposes, and by late
summer it was starting to see renewed
business from educational institutions,
who, needing to meet social distancing
rules, were planning to use tents for
outdoor dining and classroom spaces.
At Dover, Garrison and her team were
also looking at ways to add value to their
services, she says.

SAFETY: AN ONGOING CONCERN

E

ven when the pandemic has waned, Peter Grazzini,
managing member of the Washington, D.C.-based

event company Perfect Settings, is betting that the issue
of safety will remain a priority in staging events for some
time to come-if not always.
"It's going to be important to look at ways to make
events safer," says Grazzini. "When parties do come
back, people are going to want to see changes. The
rental industry has to be thinking about products that
help encourage people to come back to events."
Toward that end, Grazzini says Perfect Settings has
been adding sanitation equipment and services to its
menu for socially distanced gatherings and celebrations,
with equipment available for rent to restaurants, hotels,
resident common areas and more.
That includes touchless hand sanitizer and
handwashing stations, providing guests with convenient

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areas for cleaning up before, during and after meals.
Plexiglass® sneeze and cough guards are also available.
But what Grazzini thinks will make the biggest
difference is the decontamination wand services he
is adding. "These handheld UVC light devices are
chemical-free, designed for decontaminating surfaces
such as countertops, seats, bars, buffets and tables."
Using UVC light that kills viruses and surface
microorganisms, the sanitation service can take
place before, during and after an event, he explains,
with rental equipment sanitized, plastic wrapped
and marked as sanitized at the warehouse prior to
all events.
"This is about safety, and thinking outside the
box," says Grazzini. "The pandemic deﬁnitely has
us thinking about things we would not normally be
thinking about."

oct-nov 2020

9/17/20 8:37 AM
InTents October/November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of InTents October/November 2020
