Thinking Outside the Cubicle: Planning Portable Toilets for Events

People like to talk about toilets!

Flashbacks from my recent conferencing weekend have inspired this addition to our event management blog, as I recall empathetic giggles and affirming nods of audience members during a presentation to industry colleagues on calculating toilet numbers at special events.

This post aims to satisfy the urgency (ha ha) for practical tips on portable toilets. From conversations with fellow events professionals, event planners seem hungry for best practice guidance on event logistics that are planned safely and within the law. (Popularity of j2’s earlier blog on planning events in strange locations proves that).

Well, toilets could very well top the event logistics interest list!  Who would have thought the humble loo such a fascinating topic?

How many toilets do I need?

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question I’d be retired from events management and flitting from event to festival as a guest (not planning them). The answer is: there is no easy answer!

In the USA, just like Australia, there’s no national standard for calculating the number of toilets required for public areas outside of buildings and particularly at events. I’m not familiar with UK or New Zealand regulations, but for US event managers you could look at the American Restroom Association’s “Outdoor Toilet Facilities Availability Guidelines”.

For my counterparts down under, a great resource is available from Local Government Toolbox, which provides a downloadable fact sheet for operators on “Toilet facilities at events”.

No matter where you are in the world, either document could be helpful. With calculation tables and ratios, these guides provide loads of important information when planning your event restrooms.

A suite of things to consider

Consult any portable toilet provider and this is what they’ll ask you:

• What type of event are you staging? 
• What’s the duration? 
• Can you describe your crowd type and their activities? 
• How many patrons do you expect? 
• Are guests consuming alcohol? 
• What kinds of food are being served? 
• Can unisex toilets be placed to alleviate long queues...usually at the women’s rest rooms? 

At the very least consider all of these questions. It’s a good idea to ask sanitation professionals what they would recommend. Every event presents a unique setting; a two-day birds-eye chilli eating festival is going to have very different needs to a five-hour gala dinner, for example.

Tailoring toilets to guest-type

Speaking of different needs, thanks to a flourishing international portable amenities industry, event managers can afford to give greater consideration to the type of toilets that suit their patron demographic.

Comfort and class! Now these two adjectives are more commonly associated with luxury cars or airlines, yet today’s event-goers are enjoying designer style and treatment during the comfort stop!

Our Brisbane event management company, j2 ideas & events recently hired in air-conditioned, prestige port-a-loos from Viking Rentals at an event for high-ranking executives from all round the world (pictured right). Fancy stuff! They were an appreciated comfort, doubling as a cool place to refresh during a high-temperature day.

If I planned events in New York, then I’d have the chance to hire from the amazing range of Callahead Corporation – a company making a creative statement in the industry of portable toilets. This observant bunch understands how event patrons use port-a-loos, taking a design shift that overcomes the objections patrons usually have about portable facilities.

“Small children will not be intimidated” is the claim Callahead makes about its delightfully festive, child-sized “Purple Potty” (pictured left). Wouldn’t you just love to bring these teensy Willy Wonka-looking cubicles to site for a family-friendly festival in Central Park?

Themed amenities: branded, branding, branding!

Stylists, your job just got bigger! Event experiences are ignited upon receiving date claimers and invitations. Look and feel then continues at event entrance, through the event site into catering, wait service, entertainment and more. Increasingly, we’re finding that virtually any of our five senses can be manipulated and event stylists are magicians at bringing brands to life.

So should styling end before the rest rooms? Apparently not! Extending styling all the way through to toilet facilities is trending right now.

UK company Classic Chambers prides itself on thinking outside the cubicle with its extraordinary range of mobile toilets. Harnessing technology and styling innovations, it’s clear that event owners are loving the idea of washrooms that not only impress, but align more closely with an event’s theme. They’ll match doors with your colour palette, display your own images on walls or on HD TV screens. Heck, you can even brand-wrap the whole trailer. Classic Chambers even has a super-hero wash closets theme on offer (pictured left).

What a fantastic way to exploit a relaxed event moment by sending home your key messages in cleverly branded bathrooms.

Sanitation is no joke

Fascinating potties aside, pulling me from my port-a-reverie is an article posted by Kevin Huhn on Saniblog.org (a blog dedicated to water, sanitation and hygiene). In all seriousness, sanitary event facilities are critical. We’ve all seen what Huhn describes as a “catastrophic” situation in portable toilets, particularly at multi-day festivals where we recoil in distaste from un-serviced amenities emitting odours and overflowing with waste. Huhn also raises the need for a more sustainable approach to sanitation at events.

Providing toilets is partially the task; remember, you have to plan the servicing of them. Resource a workforce for this job or factor into your event budget a daily cleaning schedule. Also, if portable toilets are not sewered they may require pumping depending on the duration of your event.

Peak time for a pee?

If you manage bike rides, fun runs and triathlons you’ll know all about the ‘nervous pee’ before the start. It may seem excessive when you see a bank of vacant port-a-loos standing sentinel on your event site, but at 10 minutes before the start gun when every anxious competitor needs a last pit-stop, you’ll be pleased you planned for peak-use time.

Flushed with toilet tips

The risk implication of under-planning is that toilet amenities are a comfort and safety issue, and have the propensity to affect the reputation of your event brand.

So, hopefully by shedding some light on the task of planning for toilets at events, you might unclog that brain blockage and get creative, strategic and risk adverse on your toilets planning, design and servicing.

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Jo Jordan
j2 ideas & events

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