“Throughout twenty-one grand openings with various themes, EVENTions hit a home run every time using creativity, amazing resources, and flawless execution. They couldn’t have been better.”

Holly Montalbano, Dir. Of Public Affairs
H-E-B Grocery

A primary characteristic companies want in an event producer is “creativity” or “cleverness”. When you weigh in expense and appropriateness, we think the true aim is for innovativeness – a company that uses experience, resources, and attitude to find unique answers to challenges. These are some examples of our innovativeness.

We faced two challenges in different spaces for the elegant Technip OTC Party. The first was in the ballroom – the client wanted an intimate, networking setting but there was no break in the expanse of the room, and the ceiling was basically flat.  Rather than add chandeliers, we devised these fabric columns with internal lights, to come up out of “poofs”, or circular couches.  Inexpensive, eye-catching, and great intimi-zer.

The other challenge was to encourage people to use the pool patio at night.  We spec-ed color-changing LED lights to go not only in this truss structure, but in the pool itself.  Striking, interesting, and added illumination to a dark space.

Technip Party
(photo - David Schmoll)

The Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau needed a low-cost treatment for a party it was hosting for the Intl. Tour Operators Association on the floor of the Astrodome. They wanted to give some intimacy to the space yet maintain the awe factor of the enormous building. We conceived this rollercoaster made out of construction scaffolds and colored tubing, and supplemented by striped tent canopies and sound effects, we gave the event a real carnival feel at a CVB price.

Intl. Tour Operators Association Event at Astrodome

For Sigma Pi Epsilon’s convention event, we had the traditional problem of two musical acts - how to present each for full impact and minimize the reset time. We thought of putting the opening act behind the main stage wing, angled in the corner with a draw curtain. The main stage was centered to the audience, set with instruments and all the glam – the opening act was revealed as a surprise, then covered back up for the main show with no changeover time. (Red curtain, silver slit drape)

Strapped with a first year’s budget, we needed a strong display for a focal spot in the park, visible from across the habitat lake for Holiday Lights. We had recently met a vendor with new forced-air inflatables, including clear globes and fabric cones, meant for corporate events or retail. We incorporated them with features of the park, complimented by spotlights and internal lights to make them into a display that fit with the stark, naturalistic scheme of the event.

"Snow" Globe and Fabric Cones

For Hanson Pipe’s corporate hospitality event, we wanted to give elegance to this huge tent structure and lend the reception portion a different environment from the dinner section. We also needed flooring in case of wet weather. We found a rental vendor with a new style of dance floor (in two different styles) that had channels on the underside for moisture, and designed a temporary dike in case of heavy rain. We also added an internal gable to the tent and commercial hinged doors to separate the two areas. (below)

Reception

The Health & Fitness Expo grew to a sea of display booths and runners registration in a spare exhibit hall setting. To give the event some spice, we created a Demonstration Stage, and booked live demonstrations of fitness regiments - Tae Bo, Pilates, kickboxing, yoga, Krav Miga, etc. and added live announcements and background music, matched to the entire two-day event, which energized attendees and made the show more enjoyable to visit.

Health & Fitness Demonstration Stage

The promoters of the Shaolin Temple Kung Fu artists were running out of money and faced with the need to produce an appropriate stage set. With no time to fabricate even a simple backdrop, we fashioned a stage flat of the monks monastery exterior. The brick walls were created from a digital photograph, replicated repeatedly and output on a sign makers’ inkjet printer. The same was done with details taken by photographing the structure in a postcard. We mounted all of the printed material onto makeshift flats, and created the rest of the mystical scene through colored gobo projections on a giant, “Sky drop”.

Goodwill Industries had a very limited budget for their closing reception. To make the most of their entertainment dollars, we worked with a giant puppeteer who does strolling entertainment, to do intermittent mini stage performances in character. We also created a wide-ranging oundtrack of various Texas music to play throughout – no deejay, no extra performance fees.

A corporate group meeting at the Space Center Houston wanted a spoofy space-themed entertainment segment for their reception period. We adapted an idea of presenting Space Queens to the largely male audience, and created a twenty-minute show. We cast models and assembled costumes from a local theatrical costume maker. Then we selected dramatic songs for each model, and choreographed them to come out of the space shuttle display under fog and moving Cyberlights, dance amongst the audience before taking a pose on a pedestal. For comic relief, we added a giant foam character to make a similar appearance that looked like a lobster.

GTE Directories Conference Reception

Comerica Bank needed to change its image from a strictly business-focused bank to a onsumer-friendly bank. We created a series of small-town styled festivals, with complimenting décor, games, small carnival rides, and hot dog lunches. For the fall festival series, much of the décor was ordered from farmers’ market supplier, who delivered corn stalks, straw bales, and pumpkins, which doubled as giveaways. The events attracted family groups and held the adults interest, so that bank representatives could suggest bank products. For entertainment, we hired local school groups and dance schools to show community involvement. From eleven fall festivals, Comerica tracked over $3M in new deposits.

Small-town festival

For this private event, our client wanted an open-air, backyard event with Italian decor. We onvinced her to let us tent her pool area, which turned her gardens into décor, and built a platform over the pool to reclaim floor space. Bridging the pool gave the event a magical quality and converted it to an interesting, scenic element.

Tented Pool Area

Through our H-E-B openings and Holiday Lights projects, we found hundreds of community performing groups (and got to rate their abilities). We now offer this list of performers as a benefit to projects that want get more community buy-in to their events.

Holiday Lights Audience

A new client wanted to energize their quarterly associate appreciation parties, and for this occasion, really get the 400 attendees to meet as many of each other as possible.  Our answer was to create a knock-off of Monopoly whereby attendees traded properties (named for clients’ projects) for chances at prizes.  The action was fun and furious, and not a single person left before the game was done 75 minutes. later.