Transformations and Dramatic Statements 
The Atlas Awards Pays Tribute to Troops Stationed Abroad by Connecting Them with Their Families
February 05, 2012
For tonight’s 2012 Atlas Award Gala at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, we’re using Skype and satellite uplinks to connect local families with their loved ones serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. Knowing how rarely these folks have the opportunity to speak with each other, we’re tremendously honored to be involved in such a cool event.
CATEGORY: Community
The Lure of the Moon: Finding Event Lighting Inspiration in the Caribbean
January 25, 2012
Like most event professionals, the moment I can grab a little rest and relaxation to recharge my creative batteries, I take it! Ordinarily, that means my wife and I head to a tropical destination where we can literally sail into the sunset. The sailing community is close knit and you hear all about intriguing places to go, celebrations to share and parties to attend. So, last Winter, after hearing about the lighting effects that take place at the Fireball Full Moon Party, we decided to head to the British Virgin Islands to do a little “research” of our own.
For many people around the World the moon has a powerful allure: it is full of beauty, romance, legend and myth. During the full moon each month, people gather together to honor and give thanks to the cycles of life. These celebrations are important times for reflection, meditation and for building relationships. In the British Virgin Islands hundreds of sailors gather at Trellis Bay, located on Beef Island, to celebrate the full moon at the Fireball Full Moon Party. If you’re not familiar with the islands, Trellis Bay is a beautiful and well-protected anchorage complimented by an artsy and hip shoreline. Sailors love to anchor here year-round, but on full moons they sail in by the boat-loads to enjoy the festive atmosphere of the Fireball Full Moon Party. This is the real Caribbean! You can’t get here by cruise ship or tour guide, you need a sense of adventure to journey here and experience the full moon party and all of its lighting effects.
The Full Moon Party is a joint production of Aragorn’s Studio and the Trellis Bay Cybercafé. Trellis Bay’s fetes feature local musicians, a top-notch barbeque buffet, and local artist Aragorn Dick-Read’s flaming fireballs. The parties are a good place to sample Tortola’s traditional music form, scratch-band music called “fungi.” Entertainment also includes mocko jumbies, colorful stilt-walking characters that perform impressive moves at heights of up to 10 feet. But the stars of the event are the fire sculptures on the water. Aragorn’s fireballs are a story unto themselves. Spherical metal sculptures about five feet in diameter, the fireballs are stuffed with flammable material, fastened on stands over the water, and lit afire. The effect is mesmerizing; flames dance over the crystal water, allowing glimpses at the balls’ intricate carved designs. So much awesome inspiration in one kickin’ party atmosphere!
However, in talking with Aragorn, we learned that the fireballs have a checkered past. Aragorn engaged in a very public dispute with the island’s Conservation and Fisheries Department in 2004 and 2005 over whether he had the required permission to station them on the seabed. (Local law states that land ownership ends at the high water mark; the seabed is controlled by the government). At the height of the dispute, the fireballs were confiscated and locked up at the East End Police Station. Luckily for us, the matter seems to have been resolved for the time being. (Imagine the photo op of the fireballs all locked up in a Caribbean jail!)
No doubt, the Fireball Full Moon Party was pretty incredible! We enjoyed the local band who kept us dancing all night under the full moon’s spell, to tunes such as their own cool version of Alicia Keys’ No One, Bob Marley classics, and other great Calypso, Reggae and Soca tunes. Combined with the fire, water and moonlight, it was an environment that just screamed “celebration”!
Seeing the World and sharing unique experiences like this gives us great inspiration for the production work that we do every day. Now, if we could just book an event where we can introduce the elements of fire and water into an amazing lighting design…
By Brian Toner, Owner & Lighting Designer
CATEGORY: Design Ideas, For Fun, What We Love
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
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 Best is Yet to Come: Pilot Freight’s Annual Meeting at the Loews Hotel Philadelphia
November 04, 2011
For the fourth year in a row, Eventions has provided production support for Pilot Freight Services’ Annual Meeting at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. As a global transportation and logistics company with over 75 locations throughout North America, this locally-based freight powerhouse clearly knows how to throw an entertaining meeting!
This year’s three-day conference was inspired by the coolest cats of all time…Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop & Peter Lawford, better known as The Rat Pack! On the first night the Millennium Ballroom at the Loews was transformed into a 1960’s supper club which included a Rat Pack tribute troupe flown in from Las Vegas, half-round café tables and classic American cuisine. Pilot’s CEO gave his keynote address from a custom-designed glossy black stage with retrofitted lightbulbs and a custom made vintage standing microphone.
The second night was a gala dinner celebration that included flamboyant crystal lampshades, and glamorous linens and floral from TableArt. A 14-piece orchestra was hidden behind a 25 foot scrim and washed with light to allow guests to see them through the scrim in typical Hollywood fashion. By varying the direction and intensity of light on the scrim, we were able to simultaneously use the scrim as a projection surface as well as see the orchestra through it. Spectacular!
Our 56-hour set up and on-site production included: draping the entire ballroom in floor-to-ceiling burgundy drape; building a raised curved black stage with custom curved steps to match; and suspending a 25’ video projection backdrop with 20,000 lumens of video projectors. Our video team filmed iconic images from the company’s numerous awards and local global headquarters, and then used clips of the footage as screen savers throughout the conference, alternating with live feed from three cameras positioned in the ballroom. The team building activities that Pilot Freight did during the afternoon were recorded by a four-person camera crew from Media Wave and were then quickly edited and projected just two hours later for the audience to enjoy.
This event is a classic example of how Eventions can completely transform an event from same ole, standard to engaging and spectacular. We took a typical corporate sales and awards presentation and made it interesting with some theatrics and showmanship. Pilot Freight could have easily had an event with two free-standing screens, a podium and some speakers. But with a little investment and a lot of creativity they had an amazing event that will resonate with their hardworking staff for years to come. The company experienced an event with a much higher ROI than normal and their employees are already talking about what next year will bring. Eventions once again raised the bar high, for ourselves and the client, now we just have to raise it higher for next year’s event.
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CATEGORY:
The Great Pumpkin Carve… and lighting
October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!!!
Sometimes Candlelight is the best lighting, especially when it comes to lighting your Halloween Jack O’ Lantern.
Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend the Chadds Ford Great Pumpkin Carve. This event, which is over 50 years old, is a spectacular display of pumpkins carved by local artists in the Brandywine Valley.
The Great Pumpkin Carve Event was started by the early Wyeth family artists and is cosponsored by the Historical Society & Concordville- Chadds Ford Rotary and has featured local and national artists including many members of the Wyeth family. Many famous and local celebrities join in the action, including celebrity mom April Margera.
The Pumpkins are native pumpkins, grown by SIW vegetables of Chadds Ford. They weigh between 150 and 400 pounds. Most of them are of the variety “Prize-Winner,” a drought resistant pumpkin that tends to be bright orange. There are also a few “Atlantic Giants” which tend to be paler and sometimes a less regular shape. Each artist is assigned a pumpkin when they arrive and then has to quickly design his work based on the shape and look of the pumpkin he or she is assigned.
Much care is taken to design the carved pumpkin to work with the candlelight. Many artists remove the outside orange skin and varying layers of the white interior to allow different intensities of light to shine thru the pumpkin.
Mark your calendars for the weekend before Halloween next year if you want to attend. You can witness the artists carving the pumpkins on Thursday night and then they are on display for the next two nights. The event also features local music, food, hayrides and vendors. More information can be found here: http://chadds-ford-historical-society.org/events/great-pumpkin-carve/
CATEGORY: Community, Design Ideas, For Fun, What We Love
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