HOW A SIMPLE STAFFING REQUEST TURNED INTO ONE OF THE LARGEST BOXING EVENT PROJECTS WE HAD EVER MANAGED

The entire project was built around a boxing match at the SoHi Arena in Los Angeles back in 2024. This project was never supposed to be this big. At least that’s what we thought.

We had already been working with one of the vendors, supporting a major boxing event in Los Angeles. For 5 consecutive days, between 20 to 30 brand ambassadors were helping create buzz around the fight across Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. The staffing plan was finalized, the schedules were built, and everything was moving exactly the way large event activations are supposed to move.

The client had booked well in advance, which meant we had time to recruit properly, build strong teams, and prepare for the final fight weekend. By Saturday alone, when the main event was happening, we were scheduled to provide around 40 brand ambassadors supporting promotional activity around the SoFi arena in Los Angeles.

And then... Another vendor of the same client called, just a week before the big date.

What we didn’t know was that this phone call would eventually turn into one of the largest staffing operations we had managed for a single event.

At first, the request sounded manageable.

They needed 15 hosts inside the stadium to check credentials and direct guests into the correct areas. Different ticket levels gave access to different sections, and the hosts would help make sure guests ended up where they were supposed to be.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. We were already heavily committed to the promotional side of the fight, most of our strongest people had been booked, and finding fifteen additional hosts for a Saturday event in Los Angeles wasn’t exactly easy. Fortunately, I had spent years building relationships throughout Los Angeles, so I immediately started reaching out to people I trusted.

One of those contacts happened to run a bartending school in Los Angeles. Many of his graduates were actively looking for event work, so I called him and asked a simple question: could his bartenders work as hosts?

His answer was immediate: “How many do you need?”

At that point, I thought we were solving a fifteen-person staffing request, but I had no idea that the real challenge hadn’t even arrived yet.

A few days later, the vendor called again. This time it wasn’t about staffing numbers. It was about a meeting.

The end client behind the event wanted to review logistics in person, but because of cultural and religious considerations, he preferred meeting with a male representative. The second vendor asked whether our captain could attend instead.

Luckily, we already had the right person - the event manager who had been booked as a captain to oversee the project from the beginning. He was experienced, used to working with high-end clientele like Hermes, and the type of captain clients immediately trust once they meet him. So I sent him to the meeting in the 5-star hotel in the heart of Hollywood, expecting him to come back with notes about schedules, guest flow, and access points.

Instead, he came back with an entirely different problem and a much bigger opportunity.

The meeting had gone extremely well. The captain was excited. I was excited. Everyone was excited! And the client was happy that we promised him we would make his request happen. But somewhere during the conversation, the staffing request changed drastically.

15 hosts turned into 45. The client now needed an additional 30 VIP hosts and hostesses.

Not next month. Not next week. For this event. The same event that was now only 3 days away.

I still remember how I paused on the phone with the captain, asking him, “Where exactly are we supposed to find 30 more model-looking hosts in Los Angeles with almost no notice?” As these couldn’t be just any hosts.

The VIP section would be occupied by members of the Saudi delegation, high-profile guests, executives, and celebrities attending the fight. Jason Statham was expected to attend. Other well-known public figures were expected to attend. The staffing expectations were completely different from a standard credential-checking assignment. Some of the hosts would be positioned directly around the delegation itself.

At one point, we even needed Arabic-speaking male hosts who could comfortably communicate with members of the Saudi team while maintaining the level of professionalism expected in a VIP environment.

Suddenly, this wasn’t a fifteen-person staffing request anymore, it was an entirely separate staffing operation being built on top of another one that was already happening. The only difference there was absolutely no time for a mistake.

For the next three days, the captain and I practically lived on our phones.

While I was running activations for the first client in Las Vegas, the captain was recruiting event hosts throughout Los Angeles. I would finish my events late at night, get home around midnight, and immediately jump back onto calls with him. We reviewed candidates, adjusted schedules, filled gaps, solved new problems, and repeated the process again the next day.

The funny part is that the captain remained completely relaxed through all of it, because he was used to events like this! Every time I started worrying about how we were going to pull this off, he would simply say, “Don’t worry. I have people.”

And somehow, he found them.

Between the captain's recruiting efforts, our industry contacts, and the staffing support coming from the bartending school network, we managed to assemble the entire team. By the time fight day arrived, we had 40 promotional staff supporting activity around the arena and another 45 hosts working inside the venue across access control points, VIP sections, and guest services areas.

From the outside, it probably looked effortless.

From the inside, it had been three straight days of controlled panic.

The event itself went exactly the way you hoped large events would go. Which is to say that almost nobody noticed the staffing.

Guests moved where they were supposed to move. VIP areas operated smoothly. Credentials were checked. Questions were answered. Problems were solved before they became visible. That’s usually the best outcome in event staffing. If everyone notices the staff, something has probably gone wrong. And we had only 4 no-shows out of 85 booked staff on both projects. This is something every staffing agency dreams of achieving in its booking operation.

The next morning, the captain finally called me. He sounded exhausted, but he also sounded proud.

According to him, it was one of the best events he had ever worked. The client was happy. The delegation was happy. Both vendors were happy. Everyone involved felt like the project had exceeded expectations.

From a business standpoint, the project turned out better than we could have expected. Even though part of the staffing solution came through trusted recruiting partners and outside networks, the event remained highly profitable and delivered healthy margins.

But looking back, the most valuable outcome wasn’t the revenue - it was the relationship. The trust built during those few days continued long after the fight ended. We stayed in touch with the original vendor, continued working together on future projects, and eventually became one of the staffing partners considered for another record-setting boxing event planned for San Francisco.

That event, unfortunately, never happened because of logistical issues unrelated to staffing. But the invitation itself told us everything we needed to know.