The Branding of an Event

The event was the Athlete of the Year Awards and AOO Events was brought in for the third year in a row by Pulse 220, a great destination management and production company based in Detroit, Michigan. We've developed a nice partnership that allows us to help them brand the event through design. Here's a little preview of the final results...

But before we could get to this stage, the branding began with an invitation designed by Pulse 220. They sent it to me and from there, I began to incorporate elements into the design. From the look of the invitaiton, I developed 4-by-10-foot panels for the stage backdrop. (See below)

And here is how these panels would look on the stage...

And here is how they actually looked on the stage ...

The lighting in this photo is a little too "hot" for it to read well, but in person, it was beautiful. The banners were separated by black fringe. The Gatorade logo "floated" behind the acrylic podium and the entire set was backed with a line of white velvet drape set about a foot off of the back, so we could put LED lighting in between. The lighting would read off of the drape, behind the black fringe.

Finally, here is printed program, unmistakably tied into the invitation and the stage. A perfectly branded event from start to finish ...

GUEST BLOG by Mark Sheldon

TEAM UP!

Always looking to improve the dynamics of our team, AOO Events put on our first team building exercise last week and it was such a hit!

Recognizing that communication is a process that can always stand improvement, what better way to hone that skill than with a bit of healthy competition where communication and organization on-the-fly are the keys to success?

The action for this exercise was a photo scavenger hunt of Hollywood landmarks – each with a different point value. The locations were selected and the clues written out by Tom Budas who also wrote the rules and formulated the game-plan.

We originally intended to have team leader selections, but decided to randomly group the team participants and let them decide how to best achieve their goal. This proved to be the best decision because each team took a slightly different approach, which, in the end, was a great learning experience for all of us.

Three teams were formed in a drawing. They were each given one set of clues, a camera and instructions. The rest was up to them -- no rules to govern how the goal should be achieved except that each team could only use one car and had to be back in the office by 4:00 pm or be disqualified. The winning team would be determined by which came back with the photos of the landmarks totaling of the most value points.

The next morning we had a breakfast to award the team with the highest points and discuss the approaches taken by each and how everyone felt through the process. We ended up awarding for two categories: For (points and time) and (creativity). All the guys had fun and learned a little bit about how to approach solutions – together.





SOME OF THE ITEMS WE HAD TO SCAVENGE...

A white elephant...found at Hollywood Highland


Non-human footprints ... found at The Chinese Theater..

Records in the sky... found at Capitol Records
The winning team. Faustino, Jahon, Joe and Chepe...

The winning team, creativity. Frederico, Eric, Al and Justin...

Ben, Zaid, Mark and Rubin...

Welcome to Vail!

What a welcome! Not that nature needs any embellishment, although wouldn't this be a lovely sight along any trail?

I thought as long as I was revisiting Colorado experiences this week that we'd travel over to Beaver Creek Resort in Vail where AOO Events produced an event at the resort's Spruce Saddle Lodge on the mountain.

While the property itself is stunning, the journey to it is even more so. To get to it, guests took the chairlift up the mountain -- a "peak" scenic experience in any season.

Upon arrival, they were greeted by servers with trays of drinks. Then, into dinner...

Dinner was on the first floor of the lodge.

The tables were dramatic. Ivory China Mums were paired with driftwood and set on a bed of moss and natural river rock. The entire piece rested on an edgy cloth by Wildflower Linen -- a black snake skin specialty overlay which took us a long time to convince the client to use. The glass amber charger from Unique Tabletop was the perfect focal point for the placesetting. We decided to go with the lodge chair and put a black Chivari cushion on it to make it comfortable. The client flipped over the look, but we also receieved compliments from the local DMC and caterer who ran the facility. They both said this was the best event design they had seen at that property.

After dinner...

The after party was held upstairs. It was such a cool place to work; all I did here was simply add to what was already there.

LOCATIONS WE LOVE -- A ROCKIES RITZ

The Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Colorado is probably the most beautiful Ritz I have ever seen. And that is saying something because I have been to Ritz Carlton’s all over the world doing events. But there is something about this particular one… I think it’s because the lobby and rooms are so different than any other Ritz. They are just as elegant, yet in a rustic-head-of-the-ranch way that perfectly matches the surroundings.

As I've said before, I always take photos during the events we produce. They are great to have for documentation but also it's such a nice touch to be able to give a client a CD of his or her event right at the end of the program. But, when I'm done shooting the events, I often take time to shoot some of my own photos just for fun. This is one of those.

I was walking through the lobby of this beautiful mountain hotel and what caught my eye were all the ‘floating’ pools of light that you could see in this picture. You could see all the lanterns outside through the window and the remaining pools of light came from inside the lobby living room. I actually had packed the camera away but put it all back together just to get this shot. I then packed the camera away again and then plopped my self right down on one of those comfortable leather couches and didn’t move again!

Rocky Mountain High

This event at Bachelor Gulch Ritz Carlton in Colorado provided AOO Events with a refreshing change of pace from the many events we do in tropical climates. It was fun to design something for a rustic yet elegant mountain environment.

I envisioned a simple design starting with the hotel’s mahogany stained picnic tables and accented with only one color of flower. Originally, we talked about doing all sunflowers but after researching the cost of transporting sunflowers, we realized we were crazy. Half their weight is in the stems, which you need to keep them alive! But that meant the shipping cost was double the cost of the flowers themselves.

In the end, we chose the Blue Delphinium. I love it because it’s a wild flower that literally pops with brilliant blue coloring. The flowers were placed in naturally texture mini floral troughs we custom made in our woodworking shop and set between battery-operated pillar candles on a custom ivory runner from BBJ Linen. We carried the look through by only using Blue Delphinium on the buffets and in a couple accent areas like the pedestal in the above photo.
In all, it was a naturally beautiful design for a naturally beautiful environment!

GUEST BLOG By Janet Elkins

WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM DAVID MERRELL
The purpose of these guest blogs is to introduce you to other industry “design dawgs.” Now, no one in their right mind would call the beautiful Janet Elkins a “dawg” but she is definitely in the pack with whom I’ve been running for years. By sharing ideas and inspiration, we continue to raise the bar on professionalism in the industry and perfection at our events.
In this Guest Blog, she shares one of her specialties with us and with you – the VIP entrance at business meetings.
David
Lead Design Dawg


The Art of the VIP Entrance
By Janet Elkins

Our clients have long valued our technical and managerial expertise, so it was no surprise when our clients began asking us to assist with production, stage design, and technical support for business meetings.

At EventWorks, we approach business meetings and general sessions the way we approach special events: bottom line, the finished product has to be exciting and interesting to those attending while at the same time providing service and value to the client.

One of our biggest clients holds large-scale General Session meetings on a regular basis, and to make the program fresh and exciting they are always looking for unique, interactive entertainment. More importantly, however, this client wants to get its corporate executives involved in the stage production. In the past we have created some memorable VIP entrances for this client, including “flying” the VIP’s to the stage or having performers carry a female VIP on a throne to the music of ABBA’s Dancing Queen.

For this client’s recent meeting in San Francisco, we produced a segment where VIP’s were literally “rolled” to the stage in an inflatable sphere called a “Zorb.”

At another conference, we utilized the acrobatic stunts of “Velocity Stiltwalkers” provide a dramatic, surprise reveal of the program VIP’s. The VIP’s came onto the stage dressed as the Velocity Stiltwalkers, so to the audience it appeared as if they were the ones leaping and jumping all over the place. It was a total surprise to the audience when they realized who it was up on stage, and everyone broke out into immediate, thunderous applause.

This exhilarating, cutting-edge performance was created to get our client’s sales staff excited about “The Next Level in Sales.” This multi-media driven presentation fused together live performance, animated videos, vivid imagery, pulse-quickening music, and a spectacular reveal of the company’s VIP speakers.

Janet Elkins, President of EventWorks, has 25 years of event experience creating award-winning, memorable events. She has been a key figure in the development of the corporate special events industry for the past two decades. She currently serves on the advisory board for The Special Event and has chaired The Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) Crystal Award Banquet. Her distinctions include SITE’s prestigious Crystal Award, numerous Gala Awards and nominations from Special Events Magazine and MPI Supplier of the Year. Janet has addressed audiences across the nation and overseas, including the Philippines, sharing her 20-plus years of industry knowledge. She has also served as an instructor for various seminars and classes held at MPI locations and universities in the greater Los Angeles area.

Location, Location, Location

After traveling for so many years producing and designing events at some of the most amazing locations in the world, I sometimes forget to take a moment to appreciate these settings for the natural wonders they are. When I do, I feel extremely lucky that I can share them with clients who also appreciate them. In these types of locations, an event can't help but be magical.

Take for instance this site on Maui. I love this location for offering the best Hawaii has to offer -- a grassy bluff with a stunning westward view of the ocean. It's the perfect place for many types of events. In this case, we produced an outdoor concert bowl for a Fortune 500 VIP event.

In this photo, guests are just beginning to arrive for a private concert by Seal following a gourmet picnic packed in beautiful individual baskets. They took these home along with their memories of a once-in-a-lifetime night in Maui.

Hooray for Hollywood -- the Sequel

From the silver screen to behind-the-scene -- everyone loves to be close to the action and you can't get much closer than a backlot.

Now this is what it's all about. An event on the streets of "New York" at Paramount Studios with the very famous water tower in the background. A clear tent top enabled guests to remember exactly where they were and be able to take it all in.

This screen, also at Paramount, is used when filmmakers need soemthing like a shot of an ocean against an endless sky. The area where the cars are parked becomes the beach and the wall with a painting or projection becomes the background. For us, this wall was the perfect backdrop on which to project the client's corporate logo, branding the event from the very moment guests arrived at the lot.

This entrance may not be the most glamorous, but there is nothing like walking back through sound stages to get a true Hollywood backlot feeling.

Hooray for Hollywood!

As you can imagine, when you live and work in Hollywood, California, you are asked to do a lot of “Hollywood” themed parties. We've done so many of these events that we always find some element that keeps it fresh for us as designers, but we also keep in mind what the attendees who are mostly from out of town, love about these events -- the red carpet, paparrazzi and of course, celebrities! Some of the best celebrity impersonators in the world are right here in Hollywood. Here are a few of our favs at AOO Events.

Here's looking at you. Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart.

We LOVE her! Lucy Ricardo

Yea baby! Austin Powers

Go ahead, make his day. Clint Eastwood