The Debate: Debate Hall, Media Center almost ready to go
Published 11:16 am Sunday, October 2, 2016
- MARTIN L. CAHN | HERALD Longwood staff and volunteers continue to put the finishing touches in its transformation of Willet Hall into the Vice Presidential Debate Hall on Sunday morning.
Longwood University volunteers and staff are almost done transforming Willett Hall and the school’s Health & Fitness Center into the Vice Presidential Debate Hall and Media Center, respectively.
Sunday morning, hundreds, if not thousands, of student volunteers, staff and media personnel were still hard at work setting up the two locales. Longwood Director of Communications and Media Relations Matt McWilliams gave a few reporters a quick look inside the Debate Hall, which — during Tuesday night’s debate — will be open only to a select 700 or so people. Exactly 100 of those tickets are being reserved for Sunday night’s student lottery, set for between 7:30-7:45 p.m. on Stubbs Mall as Longwood holds a VP Jubilee kickoff. The celebration officially gets started 8 p.m. with a concert by pop duo MKTO.
MARTIN L. CAHN | HERALD
Sunday morning meant more spiffing up of the Vice Presidential Debate Media Center — aka Longwood’s transformed Health & Fitness Center as some media representatives began checking in.
Crews inside the Debate Hall were still setting up lights and other equipment Sunday morning while putting the finishing touches on the stage. Outside, crews from various television networks were already setting up equipment in areas from which their anchors will be broadcasting from just outside Willett Hall’s front entrance.
MARTIN L. CAHN | HERALD
Hundreds of desks for thousands of reporters fill what is normally a basketball court at Longwood’s Health & Fitness Center, which is serving as the Media Center for Tuesday’s Vice Presidential Debate.
Over at the Media Center, volunteers were still wiping windows and making sure everything is in place for the thousands of reporters who will sit at hundreds of tables to report on what vice presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence have to say. Dozens of free standing monitors are set up for them to watch every moment of the 90-minute debate Tuesday night.
The center also boasts a media and volunteer hospitality area and — just outside — “Spin Alley,” where the candidates or their staffs can attempt to sway the media about how well their candidate did.
Tuesday’s debate begins at 9 p.m.
