2013 The Special Event Chicago, IL
BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS, TRADE SHOW
Do you remember that feeling when you were a kid and your parents let you walk through the toy section of a store? The pure joy and excitment of the latest and greatest thing? That is exactly how it felt to walk through The Special Event in Chicago a few weeks ago.
The Special Event is one of the largest trade shows and conferences for event professionals. Vendors bring their A-Game to show the industry what they are capable of. Thousands from around the country and world come together to see the best of the best in our industry.
The trade show floor had a little bit of everything. Different types of lighting to cater to any event, linens of every fabric, software for anything from layouts to registration, and much more in between.
We found quite a few potential vendors within the trade show and look forward to working with them in the future. Here are a few pictures from the tradeshow floor.
The conference portion was both interesting and informative. We learned a lot about the trends and issues in the event industry and are excited to bring the knowledge back to our clients.
We were also able to attend one of the extra events during the show. The ballroom was setup by some of the best vendors in the industry to resemble an upscale reception. Some of the best aspects included the ice DJ Booth by Nadeau s Ice Sculptures, the live music from the Becca Kaufman Orchestra, and modern furniture from Cort Event Furnishings and AFR Event Furnishings.
The Special Event was a great experience that every event professional should have at some point in their career. We learned a ton and met a lot of great people. Cannot wait until 2014 when the conference will be held in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center.
National Book Festival Power and Rigging Day
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS
Today we started both signage rigging and power for the 2011 National Book Festival. The day started with rain that moved through, but luckily didn t slow the crews down too much.
As you can see from the photos, this is where we start to see the signage and branding come to life. We will continue the power and AC basics as well as the signage throughout the week.
Glass Packaging Institute 2012 Annual Meeting
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
In November we travelled to Naples, not just for the perfect weather, but for the 2012 Glass Packaging Institute s Annual Meeting. This was our first year planning this event for GPI and it was a successful event as well as a successful meeting for the members.
According to the Glass Packaging Institute, it is
The trade association representing the North American glass container industry. Through GPI, glass container manufacturers speak with one voice to advocate industry standards, promote sound environmental policies and educate packaging professionals. GPI member companies manufacture glass containers for food, beverage, cosmetic and many other products. GPI also has associate members that represent a broad range of suppliers and closure manufacturers.
Members went on a golf outing at the beautiful Naples Grande Golf Course and their accommodations were provided by the Waldorf- Astoria Naples. Members attended meetings regarding the upcoming trends and topics within the glass industry, cocktail receptions by the pools, and dinners all hosted by the outstanding banquet staff at the resort.
We produced the event from start to finish. We developed, maintained and monitored custom online registrations for the members. Decibel also designed graphics and gifts given to attendees, including custom USB drives for the members. We coordinated all of the banquet needs for the meeting, and facilitated all guest accommodations.
Next November we will be travelling to Sonoma, California for the 2013 GPI Annual Meeting.
National Book Festival Load In
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TIPS & TRICKS
Load in for the 2011 National Book Festival began today. Thankfully the weather held out and we were able to get a great start on the week. Some photos of the build are below
As mentioned above, here are some photos of our Monday progress. Got a number of tents up and began the decor install. Great work by Select Events, Legacy Scenic and Productions and EventEQ, and a big thanks to Fleishman-Hillard and the Library of Congress for the event. We are hoping to post more photos throughout the week as the event shapes up. Check back to check out our progress.
Nomadic Display Instand Pop Up
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, TIPS & TRICKS, TRADE SHOW
We just heard some great news from Nomadic Display and wanted to pass it along. They are reducing the price of some of their most popular Instand Pop up display units for Q1.If you are in the market for a new Instand, Pop up, or table top display, this is a great time to pick one up.
It looks like the prices will hold until April 30, 2013. We love the 8 Fabrimurals, and many of our clients use them for small events, press conferences and fund raisers. There are actually three of these fabric ones included- the 8 , 5 and a table top version. Take a look at the models and pricing below and drop us a line if you are interested.
Custom Trade Show Booth Install
Custom Trade Show Booth Install
Just wrapped up a custom trade show booth install at Hilton Worldwide for the DoubleTree by Hilton brand team. Check out the photos below and in dB gallery for some behind the scenes looks at the build!
Thanks to the team at Gensler for the design and concepts, as well as DoubleTree for the creative space. We loved working on this project. Hope everyone enjoys the cookies!
That s a Wrap: Decibel s 2012 Campaign Trail
COMPANY NEWS, LIVE EVENTS
With the 2012 presidential election season over, we ve finally returned from another great year of campaign events. While on the road, we worked with some great agencies, toured the country and delivered some really amazing experiences for our clients.
Republican or Democrat, these political events present their own set of unique challenges and requirements. For corporate and planned stage venues, we need time to plan, draft, make revisions, and use a variety of rendering and mapping software, from Meeting Matrix to Vectorworks, to help ensure everyone on the team is executing from the same drawing. Many campaigns simply don t allow that luxury, and often we re forced to retreat back to pen and paper, whiteboards, or as shown in the photograph, even chalk on concrete walls.
Fishersville, VA
A perfect example of this was our campaign stop in Fishersville, Virginia on October 5th. We helped to organize and coordinate a venue for more than 15,000 supporters, together with a lineup of speakers, fireworks and musicians that included legendary country star Trace Adkins.
Finishing a separate event in Iowa, we had less than 24 hours from when we received the outlined sketch until we were supposed to be onsite in Fisherville. The staff lead from the campaign had a very specific idea for how he wanted the show to look. The idea was revised, edited, and set into motion.
We had an entire site to build out, as there was absolutely no infrastructure at the venue. We designed and printed side scrims, ordered the related services including power and tenting, additional av, fencing, bike racks, etc. and within 72 hours we were ready for the show.
Needless to say, it was a huge win.
It was the first political event of this scale for the campaign, and it set the bar for those to come. This event saw some iconic images captured, with over capacity attendance, an above the fold article and photographs on the local front page, and mentions in CNN, C-Span and several other national media sources.
Ames, IA
Another great event we produced was the rally at Kinzler Construction in Ames, Iowa on October 26th, though it too had a unique set of challenges. Because of busy schedules at the venue location, we weren t able to get started with onsite construction until 4pm. With the event beginning at noon the following day, we knew we d have to hustle to get everything in place.
This set the stage for an overnight build in freezing temperatures. We were ready for this, but wanted to have a working plan to maximize our efficiency, get done that evening, and get out of the cold.
Gathering around our whiteboard in the one building with heat (a natural gathering point), we came up with what we thought was a great plan that is, until we got a last-minute call from HQ changing our event from an informal rally to a more stately speech. Starting from scratch, we built a brand new event on the same site (using white boards one and two).
By the next day, the sun came out, it warmed up for the several hundred people in attendance, and the event was billed as a pivotal moment for our campaign.
Fredericksburg, VA
The next event production was one of the most challenging for our team.
In Fredericksburg, we began setting up the first site at 6am. Seven hours later when we broke for lunch, everything seemed to be in great shape. That s when a weather call was made and the event moved indoors, a half mile down the street.
While part of our crew began packing up the event site we had just set up, we took our initial walkthrough of the new site. Luckily, it had a fantastic load-in potential, including loading docks, flat concrete (something that we REALLY take for granted sometimes), and blank canvas with rig points. The audio was tough, but we made it work. What we really wanted to nail down was the setup. Our gear was at the other site, so we used what was available to sketch out the plan. It was from this rough sketch on concrete that we built the entire show.
We used a number of decor assets to make this work, including one of our larger US flags as a backdrop for the campaign bus. It takes two to rig something this size, but only one to pose for photos. It made for a long night, but the event was a success.
Despite these challenges, we had a great time out on the road. To respond to the dynamic and unique set of requirements we faced, we were forced to be resourceful, responsive and diligent. In the end it paid off. We met new friends, worked with some great agencies, and most importantly, produced and delivered some great events for our clients.
National Mall Restoration Update
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY
I wanted to share a great piece on the restoration of the National Mall that appeared in todays USA Today. Click Here for the full article. This will absolutely impact events and work moving forward.
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol,
Murray Cook kicks the concrete-hard dirt
on the National Mall and shakes his head.
who has traveled the world building baseball
fields. If you can t grow grass here, it s sad.
He looks at the hundreds of chairs set up for
a college graduation and predicts that when
it rains, as forecast, the area would become
be a muddy mess. We can make this better,
and we will.
The upcoming makeover, including new
grass and monument repairs, is no minor
feat. The National Mall the site of
presidential inaugurations, Martin Luther
King Jr. s I Have a Dream speech and political
rallies is the country s most visited park.
Each year, it receives 30 million visitors,
more than Yellowstone, Yosemite and the
Grand Canyon combined, and holds at least
3,000 permitted events.
says Caroline Cunningham, president of the
Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit
group raising money for its restoration. She
says the soil is now so compacted, after
thousands of events and pickup softball
National Park Service can t just lay down sod
and hope it lasts.
Also, because the park service has lacked
funds, she says the front of the Jefferson
Memorial plaza built on pylons has
sunk 8 inches in the past two years, the Tidal
Basin s sidewalks are cracking, and the
Lincoln Memorial s Reflecting Pool leaks 50
million gallons of water annually. She says
the foul, non-circulating waterways caused
the deaths of about a dozen ducks last
summer at the foot of the U.S. Capitol.
The 684-acre National Mall, largely designed
by Pierre L Enfant in 1791, has begun a
multiyear restoration that includes new
walkways, trees and visitors centers. The
trust aims to raise half of the estimated $700
million cost, of which $400 million is
considered deferred maintenance.
Starting anew
Cook is the project s grass guy. Since working
as a teenage groundskeeper in
1974, he has had a passion for ballfields and
has spent decades developing them,
including for the 2000, 2004 and 2008
Olympics.
Still, the National Mall is a challenge. There s
nothing like this in the world, says Cook,
president of Maryland-based Brickman
Sports Turf, citing the Mall s phenomenal
use. He says the foot traffic far exceeds that
of Disney World, where he has also worked.
It s one of the hardest areas in the country
to grow grass, he says, noting Washington
is too hot in the summer and too cold in the
winter for many grasses.
It s a lot more complex than it appears on
the surface There s a science behind
growing grass, adds Suzette Goldstein,
project manager for HOK, an architectural
firm that has designed the new lawn.
Cook and Goldstein consulted scientists
before deciding on a deep underground
layer of soil and sand, as well as a mixture of
tall fescue (Wolfpack, Firenze and Turbo) and
Kentucky bluegrass seed. For irrigation, the
site will have pop-up sprinklers fed by four
massive underground cisterns that will hold
a total of 1 million gallons of water.
So far, the project only has money to do
three of the National Mall s eight center
grass panels and two of its cisterns. This
first phase is set to start late summer.
Behind the Scenes Look at the Romney NASCAR Event
COMPANY NEWS, LIVE EVENTS
Just a few photos and a quick video of setup for the NASCAR Technical Institute event. It was awesome to get the opportunity to have the vehicles up on stage!
NASCAR from Decibel Management on Vimeo.
NSBW 2011
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
We are back in full swing at the 2011 National Small Business Week events in D.C. Just finished the second day and getting ready for Friday. A few quick photos below.
As promised, below are a couple of images from the event.
