Posts

Showing posts from 2009

What Happens In Vegas.....

Image
....does not stay in Vegas! We are just amazed at Katie Rogers' hobbies! Katie and her husband Eric have friends in Sin City. They visit regularly. They just went recently over the first December weekend. Don't worry, they do not have a gambling problem. For fun, they jumped out of bed at 4:15AM on Sunday, December 6th and headed out to run a little marathon, that is 42.195 kilometers or 26 miles and 385 yards for those of you who like specifics. Start time: at the crack of dawn, that means 6:15AM this time of year. Las Vegas celebrates the marathon in fabulous style with a fireworks send-off for the runners by Mandalay Bay Resort. Characters welcome! That explains the Running Elvi. But now honestly, Katie, how was it? "Absolutely awful" - spoken with her throaty laugh. "It was only 39 degrees out that early in the morning. I think my muscles never really had a chance to warm up like they do during training at home. By mile marker 16 I was getting really bad mus

We Wish You Happy Holidays And A Wonderful New Year!

Image
In keeping with our promise to go green, we decided to wish you "All The Best" with music instead of paper this year. We love working with DJ Matt Cornwall who is known internationally for his outstanding work spinning records at events for clients such as star photographer David LaChapelle, R&B star Macy Gray, Starwood Hotels, Warner Bros, Fox and - of course - EventWorks. Matt put together this Holiday Podcast for us. Please click our holiday logo: Melissa Armstrong, Jennifer Okamura-Albert and Katie Rogers will celebrate the Season of Giving by running the SITE SoCal 5K Run/Walk at Terranea Resort on Tuesday, December 15th to raise funds for many charities. You can find all the information about the charity event at: http://www.sitesocal.com/events/holiday-event/251-our-2009-charities.html Please consider sponsoring Melissa, Jennifer and Katie. Every dollar helps! Please click the links: Melissa: http://www.firstgiving.com/eventworksarmstrong Jennife

Janet Elkins: Why Early Morning Mingling Is Worth The Early Start!

Image
The alarm clock always rings early in the Elkins household but some days require a faster start than others. November 10th was one of those mornings when Janet dashed out of the house ready for action at the crack of dawn. Destination: Hard Rock Cafe in Universal CityWalk for the MPI Southern California Chapter's Breakfast Meeting. Moderated by Janet, the panel of distinguished experts included Nicole Bernardi of SME, Anthony Bolotta of Bolotta Entertainment, and Mark Howell, Entertainment Productions. Janet and all three panelists are active members of IACEP - The International Association of Corporate Entertainment Producers. Janet explains: "This association brings together entertainment colleagues to learn about new talent, share ideas and collaborate. Our objective was to share these concepts with the members of MPI as well as have the meeting planners learn what is important when booking talent and to work more closely with their entertainment producers. Discussions

It's A Green Holiday Season!

Image
We cannot help but notice that the 2009 Holiday season is all about "green". More people spent "green" on Black Friday than last year - a hopeful sign for the economy. The Grinch and Christmas trees remain green and decorations for the season are going ever more so! One of our clients sent us this picture: store decorations made of recycled materials. Cheap and environmentally very conscious. Melissa Armstrong noticed "snow mounds" inside Anthropologie stores, made of plastic and Styrofoam cups which rendered a very texturally interesting result. Here at EventWorks we have been making a lot of efforts to reuse props, reinvent existing items for a new use and recycle as much as we can. It's good for the environment and good for our clients' budgets. We welcome your input! Send us your pictures of "green" Holiday decorations and we will share them on our blog. You will get credit, of course! Please send your jpeg file and a short descriptio

More About Those Tricky Social Media

Image
Allen Weiss' words of wisdom have sunk in and we actually feel more comfortable with social media now although Janet still thinks that Gen X and Gen Y will always use platforms like Facebook and Twitter more comfortably than Baby Boomers do. No wonder considering the words of cultural critic, urban and media historian and author Norman Klein from the California Institutes Of The Arts, who is known for his insight into Zeitgeist and social development: “Social media started over 20 years ago but we see the system accelerating. We used to leave our houses to interact publicly. Now we have brought public life into our homes. We are blurring the boundaries of public life and privacy. We have a very exaggerated sense of privacy. But in reality the lines between being alone versus being in a community will blur. Social media only appear to be a democratic system when in fact they have a very corrosive effect. There is no control system in place. For instance, take the economic meltdown.

We Won! Best of 2009 Southern California Meetings + Events Magazine Award for Best Décor

Image
We were nominated for the first ever Best of 2009 Southern California Meetings + Events Magazine Award for Best Décor We are very happy and grateful to announce that we won! Janet, Katie, Melissa and Jennifer got into the festive mood by decorating themselves with cocktail attire in the offices before heading over to the Paramount Studios for the award show event on the 10th of September. Melissa" "The dress code was cocktail attire. Let me tell you, we had quite the fashion show going on and laughed a lot while getting ready." Katie: "The ceremony was much like the Academy Awards. They read the names of all the nominees in the category and then announced the winner. We were thrilled to hear EventWorks! The Award Certificate will go on our wall." Janet Elkins: "We very much thank all the readers who voted for us for this honor, but we feel the award really recognizes the amazing work of our design production manager Derek Zovak who could not attend."

Confused about Social Media? You Have To Read This!

Image
It seems that everyone these days lives in Cyberspace. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter... the list goes on and on. Here at EventWorks we have had several meetings trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. Our friend and blog contributor Marion exercised her news media chops and went to interview the most renowned expert: Allen Weiss, Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Expert in online, relationship and business to business marketing. The resulting article is so interesting that Event Solutions got first rights. Here reprinted with permission from Event Solutions, www.event-solutions.com

Starting Fall With New Ideas About "Gemuetlichkeit"!

Image
Summer is almost over and we are back from breaks, family visits and vacations, full of new ideas and energy for fall events. EventWorks President Janet Elkins and husband Steve went to visit their son Brad in Germany. Brad got lucky and spent the summer in Berlin working as an intern. Steve reported back via email during the trip that Janet definitely went local in a big way! For those of you who know Janet personally, foot massages in Pasadena and meals of mineral water and salad -"hold the dressing, please" - come to mind. But yes, this lady on the bicycle in Berlin is Janet! Family Elkins explored the German capital on bikes just like the Germans who consider bikes the most practical mode of transportation in a city. It got even wilder in the restaurants! Here is visual proof of Janet eating SAUSAGES!!! washed down with a brewski from the tap, of course. When in Berlin....... One thing did not change and that is Janet's Type A personal

Wishing you all to be safe and sound from the fires!

Image
Janet Elkins' husband, Emmy-Award winning cinematographer Steven D. Elkins shot these pictures of the fire behind La Canada over the weekend. Just a few miles from the Elkins home in Pasadena. We very much hope all of you, your families and friends are safe and sound!

Thank You! To The Readers Of Southern California Meetings And Events

Image
We got a wonderful surprise this month! The readers of Southern California Meetings And Events magazine nominated us for a best of 2009 award in the decor category. We sincerely appreciate this honor and we look forward to celebrating all nominees and the awards on September 10th, 2009 at Paramount Studios. Thank you to all you readers! You can find out more about the magazine on their website: www.scalmeetingsmag.com

So What's Your Motivation?

Image
We haven't quite figured out, yet, whether what he really wants to do is direct but considering Chris Gerstenblatt's multi-tasking and juggling capability, he probably could. After all, an event producer does direct. Chris had a very busy Spring producing a variety of very different events in very different locations. Starting in Los Angeles with the UCLA Day 'o9 on May 8th, 2009, then flying off to New York City to oversee the Starwood Leadership Conference 2009 at the W Hotel in Hoboken and New York Sheraton from June 17th to 19th. Chris was immersed over his ears in preparing for those two large events while handling smaller L.A. assignments as well. Chris: "It was key for me to really listen to our clients' wishes to ensure that we fulfill their ideas for the event. Of course, collegiate events require a different approach than corporate events." Key for UCLA was to promote the university by creating a sense of community among former and current students a

Congratulations to KATIE ROGERS - MPI SCC's "Supplier Of The Year"

Image
We are very happy and proud to announce that EventWorks Director of Sales Katie Rogers won the "Supplier of The Year" award by Meeting Professionals International Southern California Chapter. Katie received the award during the MPI SCC Installation Dinner on Friday, June 19th. Katie's honor brought back fond memories for EventWorks President Janet Elkins: "Time flies! I won the same award in 1989 - 20 years ago!".

Guess Who at EW Knows Most About "Numero Uno" - Boxing's Next Big Fight!

Image
Yes, that’s Jennifer Okamura at Olvera Street’s Kiosko Stage this past Sunday during Golden Boy Promotions’ Fan Rally for Juan Manuel Marquez’s upcoming fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., an event produced by EventWorks. Jenni: “Floyd Mayweather is coming out of retirement to fight Marquez. He said that he would only come out of retirement to fight “the best”. Mayweather retired at 38-0 – the undisputed pound for pound champion in his league. Marquez is being touted as “Numero Uno” out of Mexico. They are calling this fight Number One – Number Uno.” Jennifer met Golden Boy Promotions a year ago during a large press conference to promote Oscar’s fight against Steve Forbes in Carson, CA. “We were called to help with the large media event at the Biltmore Hotel. We basically took over the hotel and put up enormous signage for the press conference. We also created a custom carpet for Oscar to walk in. I met Golden Boys’ P.R. person, Monica, and we became good friends.” It turned o