It was the night the Notorious RBG came to town.
On Sept. 3, 2019, over 13,000 people packed what was then Verizon Arena in North Little Rock to hear diminutive, nattily dressed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speak.
The late Ginsburg had long been on the wish list of speakers for the Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series, which is hosted by the Clinton School of Public Service and the Clinton Foundation, and she finally committed after an invitation from President Bill Clinton.
Nikolai DiPippa, director of public programs and strategic partnership at the Clinton School, was the point man for the event.
“It was almost a 2-yearlong process,” DiPippa says. “That was probably the hardest part, all of us having to keep our mouths shut until we could announce it.”
And once the announcement for the free event was made, well, all heck broke loose.
The talk was first planned for the 6,000-seat Jack Stephens Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“The most we’d ever done for an event was 4,300,” DiPippa says. “We thought we’d probably sell out Jack Stephens and have to go to a wait list.”
On July 9, 2019, just 45 minutes after Ginsburg’s appearance was announced that morning in an email, all of the allotted tickets had been claimed.
“By the end of that first day, we had over 16,000 people that had RSVP’d,” DiPippa says. “To say it was an overwhelming response is an understatement. Nothing we had ever done had gotten that quick of a response.”
DiPippa and his team began looking for another venue — War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock was briefly considered — but Verizon Arena (now Simmons Bank Arena) was available.
“They were willing to help us out and teach us a little bit about how to do a big-venue event,” DiPippa says.
Ginsburg was shoehorned in between a Sept. 1 concert by comedian-musician “Weird Al” Yankovic and a Sept. 5 show by KISS, which played at the arena on its latest farewell tour.
Just 10 days before the talk, it was announced that Ginsburg was undergoing cancer treatment.
“They sent us a note and said the justice was still committed to doing the event,” DiPippa says. “She made a commitment, and she wanted to honor it.”
DiPippa has organized more than 1,400 events and shows, and says the evening with Ginsburg, who was interviewed onstage by her friend NPR journalist Nina Totenberg and included a surprise appearance by Clinton, was comparable to a big concert.
“The energy in the arena … I’ve been to countless concerts there, Garth Brooks, Justin Timberlake … it rivaled or had more energy than some of those concerts. You could feel the excitement growing. And when she talked … you could hear a pin drop in that place.”
email: sclancy@adgnewsroom. com