Transformations and Dramatic Statements 
Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary with a Holiday Party in Our New Production Facility!
January 05, 2012
2011 was an awesome year for us here at Eventions! We couldn’t be more grateful for the incredible relationships we have in the event industry as well as in the Philadelphia community. On December 15th we welcomed 200 of our friends, clients, and colleagues to our new production facility to celebrate our 20th anniversary with a Winter Soiree! We decked out our new executive offices with plenty of shimmer and shine, but it was our new warehouse that brought the house down with some sexy holiday cheer!
As it's not uncommon for the Eventions Team to approach a party design with the question “wouldn’t it be cool if…?”, we decided to let our creative flags fly with our own holiday party! As guests walked through they saw a funky Christmas tree decorated with hundreds of “ornaments” made with gobos we’d used on parties throughout the year. We also built an entire wall of retro-fitted light bulbs wired under large plexiglass panels. We’re constantly looking for that “wow factor” that takes just a little bit of creativity! Which means, as lighting designers, audio/visual technicians and staging experts, we just had to build a floating DJ booth too! (You can see lots of photos of the DJ Booth in our last post here)
But let’s not forget about the basics for every successful party: the food and drink! Tray after tray of festive cocktails, seasonal hors d’oeuvres and tasty sweets were provided by the awesome Starr Events. They hit it out of the ballpark and we couldn’t thank them enough for their gracious staff and delicious food.
But despite how fab the food and drink was (and it was, truly), the real show-stopping highlight of the party was the live ice carving performance from Fear No Ice! Think Blue Man Group with blocks of ice, chainsaws and techno tunes. Creeping into the warehouse in their white snow suits and blue goggles, the Fear No Ice artists put their micro chainsaws to work on the double-quick and carved a drum set, martini glasses and the Eventions logo!
Brian and Jen Toner, the owners of Eventions, enjoy some tasty beverages from their new GIANT martini glasses!
And, of course, a big thanks to our friends DJ Jon Gill for spinning the tunes all night and Cliff Mautner for photographing the celebration! {Cliff is seen here with the always dapper Phil Kramer.}
Eventions from CinemaCake Filmmakers on Vimeo.
CATEGORY: Business Partners, Corporate, For Fun, Innovations
peter h slavin: (01.09.12 - 2:08 pm) we had a blast performing at your 20 th party .. great head quarters ... we are moving in !!!!!!ice cool thank you .. from the boys at fear no ice.com.
A Jammin’ Holiday Party at URBN Headquarters, The Naval Yard, Philadelphia
December 16, 2011
If you’re going to throw a corporate holiday party for 2,200 employees from around the country, all of whom can rightfully claim they’re the coolest and hippest creatives around, you’d better plan BIG. That’s just what URBN, Inc. did with their recent holiday jam held at their company headquarters in Philadelphia.
Employees from all five of their brands – Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN and Terrain – arrived in style to incredible modern décor and a mish-mosh of festive activities. From the moment guests arrived into the already-eye-catching building, they were greeted by glittering paper stars, giant tinsel and crystal curtains, dramatic lighting, upside down Christmas trees decked out in tinsel.
A modern Elf offered bubbly all night from a suspended Champagne Chandelier, glitter and sparkle makeovers were available at chic white lacquered makeup counters, pool and air-hockey tables encouraged team building, and a live photo booth shared images as they happened on multiple screens throughout the huge space.
URBN provided modern holiday displays of food and beverage throughout the space, right down to their candy bar of nostalgic favorites.
Two DJs spun groovy tunes from a custom-designed DJ Booth we designed specifically for the party. Entirely constructed of metal truss and clear Lucite, the booth sat high off the floor and allowed dancers to look up through the floor at the DJs spinning above. The ceiling over the booth was filled with 2,000 mylar balloons which multiplied the lighting effects like mirrors. To light the dance area alone, we used 36 intelligent light fixtures including 12 brand new LED moving lights! Yeah baby! Incredible way to celebrate the season and ring in the New Year!
[Photos: Kevin York]
CATEGORY: Corporate, Design Ideas, Innovations
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES MAKE THE BEST STORIES
February 10, 2011
Looking back, this has to be one of our favorite events of all time, and certainly, one of the best we have ever collaborated on. The party was in November, 2007, a bat mitzvah for 500 guests at the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal. The 40,000 square foot “Terminal” as it’s called amongst those who’ve worked there and lived to talk about it, is one of the most challenging locations to work in for its sheer massive footprint. A historic manufacturing building dating back to 1880, the Terminal has seen some incredible parties in recent years. This was the second mitzvah celebration we had the pleasure of working on for the same family, with the same guest list and in the same venue. Needless to say, the pressure to make this particular event a completely unique experience was INTENSE.
SUSPENSION OF 10,000 LB ICE CHANDELIER
There were two major highlights to this fantastic party that Eventions had a major hand in producing. The first was the suspension of a 25 foot tall chandelier made entirely out of ice and weighing almost 10,000 pounds. Created by Fear No Ice, the magnificent chandelier posed a few obvious logistical challenges, such as:
• How on earth do you hang a 10,000 pound chandelier one half hour before the first guest arrives?
• Will the circa 1880 ceiling support that kind of weight?
• How do you test the concept with it arriving onsite only 30 minutes before the party?
• What will happen to all the water as it melts?
The biggest challenge our rigging staff encountered was the fact that the ceiling of the Cruise Terminal is made of 120 year-old iron and teak wood. The iron work was forged 30 years before the Titanic sunk and we all know how well that went! Structural engineers determined that we could only attach to the iron structure with a maximum load of 300 pounds per attachment point. To meet those requirements, our rigging staff had to spread the weight out over 36 different attachment points. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of the complicated design of the ceiling system, but it was impressive!
Once the ice was suspended, our lighting designers worked their magic to make the piece come to life against a backdrop of sensational lighting and special effects.
As to the concern of melting water from the suspended ice chandelier, event designer Katherine Warden from TableArt constructed an oversized “sandbox” made of lucite that not only caught the cascading water, but with an added lush floral design, became an eye-popping focal point enjoyed all evening.
CRYSTAL CHANDELIER GUEST OF HONOR REVEAL
The second dramatic feature of this bat mitzvah was an impressive 30 foot diameter crystal chandelier that served as the high-flying focal point over the dance floor. This concept grew out of a last minute struggle to find a fabulous way to reveal the guest of honor. While months of planning and design went into this event, it was only within the last two weeks that the concept came to life. But how?
As the guests entered the dining room, the crystal chandelier was sitting on the dance floor with the Bat Mitzvah girl hidden inside the concentric rings of crystals and lighting. After the band introduced all of the family and friends, the chandelier slowly started to rise to its position over the dance floor. Voila! as it moved up the guest of honor was revealed to wild applause!
Nothing like keeping guests on their toes and begging for more! Collaborating on this stunning event with the creative team of Peachtree & Ward Catering, TableArt, CinemaCake, Susan Beard Photography and Starlight Orchestras brought down the house yet again! But luckily, not the 1880 ceiling.
CATEGORY: Innovations, Mitzvahs, Our Stage This Weekend
Eventions Productions Releases New LED Lighting Solution
October 07, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eventions Releases New LED Event Lighting Solution
Philadelphia, PA - October 7, 2010
Eventions Productions, a top Philadelphia event production company, announces the release of their newest lighting fixture – The LED12. It was shown for the first time at an event at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The LED12 is revolutionary in that it is the first LED fixture that has a perfectly neutral white light. In the past, LED fixtures attempted to create white light by using a combination of red, blue and green bulbs. It was impossible to create truly white light by using this method.
The LED12 features 12 three watt white LEDs in a custom designed enclosure that holds the light fixture and a battery, enabling the fixture to operate for over 10 hrs on a single charge. The LED12 also has a snap in gel frame to allow lighting designers to color it any color as well as multiple frosted and clear lenses to alter the shape of the beam.
“The LED12 has a tremendous number of advantages for the special event market,” exclaims Eventions’ President, Brian Toner. The fact that we can light an entire event using no electricity from the venue nor any cables that would need to be hidden or taped down allows us to light spaces and events that were either impossible or prohibitvely expensive before. For example, at the event we did a few nights ago at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we uplit 28 columns, the stairs and food stations in less than 20 minutes of setup. The client loved the quick turnaround, decreased labor needed and the complete absence of cabling.”
Photographers and Videographers will also greatly apprecriate the fact that the lights are perfectly uniform in color and do not appear to strobe as most LED lights do when filmed by video cameras.
Decorators, florists and event planners in the Philadelphia region who have seen the LED12’s in action are immediately impressed with their capabilities and have been reserving them for many upcoming events. “With decreased budgets and clients being cautious of where they spend money, as well as the fact that the labor to install these fixtures is about 1/10 of a traditional uplight, we see a huge market for the LED 12’s,” says Toner.
The fixture was created by the team at Eventions over a six month period. The LED12’s utilize cutting edge battery technology and charging systems. The fixtures feature LED Bulbs utilizing state of the art optical collimators, which allow the light to be focused into a tight beam much like a light house lens does.
Eventions has completed the first run of 48 fixtures and expects to eventually replace all of its uplighting with the new technology within a few months. Shown below are the fixtures in their custom designed travel cases with built-in charging systems.
About the event: On Wednesday, September 29th, The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Office of Special Events and Stephen STARR Events, hosted an open house for the area’s top event professionals. Event decor was provided by Table Art and photography was provided by Marie Labbancz.
About Eventions Productions: Eventions Productions is special event production company serving the greater Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington D.C. markets. Eventions provides special event and corporate lighting design, sound and audio support, video and media projection, scenic design, power generation and staging. Eventions provides these services for the wedding, bar and bat mitzvah, special event, college, social and society events as well as the general public.
Contact:
Brian Toner
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.eventionsproductions.com
610.485.5900
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CATEGORY: Behind the Scenes, Business Partners, Community, Corporate, Design Ideas, Industry News, Innovations, What We Love
Philadelphia Mural Arts Wall Ball
May 12, 2010
The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program asked Eventions to Help with the annual fundraiser event, the Wall Ball. The Wall Ball was attended by over 350 people at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia. The Mural Arts Program’s mission is to engage in art education and community public art collaborations, and to increase public access to art. Since the Mural Arts Program began, they have produced over 2,800 murals and educated over 20,000 under-served youth in neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.
About two weeks before the event, The director of Special Events for Mural Arts called the office and said “I have this crazy idea. Can we hang one of our real murals up for the Wall Ball.” When we got down to the specifics of it, it was a monstrous project. The mural, currently in 30 different panels, was installed in the Galleria Mall in Philadelphia. The overall size of the mural was 30 foot tall by 120 foot long. That’s a BIG mural.
Here are some pictures of the mural as installed at the Galleria.
The murals are painted on a canvas type of material on multiple panels and then installed at the mural site like wall paper. This particular mural was painted by over 15 different artists at different times.
After some careful measurements of the Millennium Ballroom at the Loews, we figured out a way to make it happen. Now down to the logistics… there was a previous event booked in the ballroom until 3:00 PM that day and the wall ball began at 5:30 PM. Could we install the rigging and make it happen in such a short time? OF COURSE! Our lighting designers specified a lighting plan to make the mural POP. We also provided a dual screen projection system for their presentation in another ballroom and two separate sound systems for the event. But the main attraction was the mural.
CATEGORY: Behind the Scenes, Community, Innovations, Our Stage This Weekend, What We're Up To
Oscar Party with VOA and Channel 6
March 08, 2010
Eventions teamed up with the Volunteers of America, Channel 6 WPVI and the staff at the Loews Hotel to produce Philadelphia’s only officially sanctioned telecast of the Oscars. The Volunteers of America shelter homeless people and help them find permanent housing. They also help people struggling with behavioral health issues or development disabilities and they help ex-offenders re-enter their communities, reconcile with their families, and resume their working lives. This event is their major fundraiser for the year and turned to Eventions Productions to jazz up the presentation and make this year different.
We listened to the client’s goals of making the stage and production more of a “show” They were bored of the two screens and a podium they have been doing for years. We designed a stage set incorporating two HD (High Definition) video screens to allow us to take a direct HD feed from Channel 6 and display it in crystal clarity. We also suggested a stage set with multiple plasma monitors to display sponsor logos. We originally had the idea of getting two huge Oscar statues to flank the podium, but learned that the Oscar image is a copyrighted image and cannot be used without authority from the Oscars. ( I Wonder how many other “props and décor pieces” that are used in events are copyrighted and people don’t ever think about it) We then came up the idea of having these cool statues we have seen at events magically hold the plasmas. A quick call to a friend at a prop shop and some careful engineering and we had our “floating TVs,” a sexy lucite podium and some intelligent lighting and we had a great looking presentation for the client.
The client gave us the technical requirements for their entertainment. Little did we know they were female impersonators. Cher, Liza, Tina Turner and Prince put on an amazing show and got the crowd on their feet from the second they walked in the door.
VOA arranged for about 50 Papparazzi to greet the guests as they came off of the elevators onto the red carpet. A Channel 6 on-air personality interviewed people for broadcast back to the national ABC network feed.
CATEGORY: Community, Corporate, Innovations, Our Stage This Weekend
Alicia Nathanson: (01.09.12 - 11:16 am) So many reasons to celebrate! Congratulations! And what a terrific party-we had a blast!