2020 Milwaukee DNC: Who's On The Inside At The Wisconsin Center?

MILWAUKEE, WI — Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not traveling to Milwaukee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Almost all convention speakers are staying away as well because of the pandemic and the thousands of delegates have also been asked to stay home.

That begs the question, who are the roughly 200-300 people who are making this year's convention at the Wisconsin Center happen?

Wisconsin Patch talked with Marty Brooks, President and CEO of the Wisconsin Center District, to find out.

The Wisconsin Center has enough space to accommodate 1,000 vendors, 10,000 guests and seating for more than 3,000 diners, though the 2020 DNC only takes up a fraction of the convention space.

"There are a lot of people, but nowhere near the number we're accustomed to having," Brooks said of the convention.

A perimeter of 8-foot-high steel fencing keeps convention workers in - and members of the public out. Police officers walk, bicycle, or ride golf carts around the building on a near-constant schedule to patrol the grounds.

Access is tightly controlled - even for the workers themselves.

Brooks said the DNC is "really in charge of who's permitted in the building and when," adding that anyone who is allowed access to the inside of the Wisconsin Center needs to test negative for COVID-19 before they can enter, including himself. Testing and results reporting is coordinated between local health officials and the DNC.

"There's one place in and one place out in the Wisconsin Center," Brooks told Patch. "No one gets into the building without a COVID-19 test and negative results."

Brooks said it takes a lot of personnel to pull off something as technologically complicated as this year's convention.

Somewhat ironically, Democratic leaders will make up the smallest group of in-person attendees at this year's convention. A small room designated "202" on the center's second floor has been set up with a stage and podium for in-person speakers.

There's a full complement of Wisconsin Center management and event staff who come to work every day to make the DNC move forward. "This is week four for anyone coming into the Wisconsin Center," Brooks said.

The third floor is where the "lights, cameras and action" take place. The DNC's nerve center is a control room that looks more like a warehouse than it does a high-tech hub.

Dozens of monitors are arrayed throughout the room, and cords of all types and gauges crisscross the floor, pulling in hundreds of live feeds from across the U.S. It takes a team of IT managers, production staff and on-air anchors to pull off such an undertaking. ABC News is also working with the DNC production staff, Brooks said.

Members of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic National Convention Committee public relations and marketing teams are also in the building.

Cleaning and catering crews have also been hard at work, Brooks said. "By having the DNC in our building, it allows us to put people to work who were laid off earlier this year," he told Patch. "We've been able to put part-time staff back to work to support this convention."

Brooks said the Wisconsin Center has been working very closely with the Milwaukee Health Department to make sure everyone involved is COVID-19 free, is social distancing and is eating food that has been prepared safely.

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