Event Report: Turning a Parking Garage into a Speakeasy.
The client: an international hotel chain.
The location: a large hotel in the Phoenix, AZ, area
The guests: 500 food and beverage executives
The purpose: to show them unusual ways to use every space of their properties.
Our task: creating an amazing fete in a never before used "event" space.
We were fortunate to have a visionary client who came to us with a concept and details in mind. Creating the event together became a very rewarding collaborative endeavor.
Event Designer Kate Brack: "The event was a secret. Guests were only told that they were going to an "evening event" and to meet in the hotel lobby. We surreptitiously took over little used level 2 of the hotel parking garage and went to work. This is where we started."
Since our guests were food and beverage executives the client came up with a theme matching the current jazz age food craze: the Speakeasy!
The concept kept the surprises coming. We created a familiar entrance: an industrial walk-in refrigerator. The client had found a used model on Craigslist that we could dismantle and re-purpose to create an entry hall that covered the elevator exit in the parking garage.
Our client's national executives graciously acted as kitchen staff, greeting arriving guests in full kitchen costume.
Don't worry! That is fake blood! No animals were harmed during this production! :-)
Guests were taken for a real ride - once they gained the elevators they had no idea where they were going.
Event Producer Brynne Price: "THAT look of total surprise is what we were after! We had created this hotel kitchen with the help of our host hotel's real equipment. They provided the shelving and pallets. All those boxes you see on the sides are our real packing materials. Our equipment arrived in those and after the event was over, we used those "party props" again to ship things back to Los Angeles. We love to re-use."
Guests crossed the kitchen and arrived in the jazz age speakeasy.
Moonshine, signature mixed drinks, deviled eggs are all back in fashion. The hotel provided the glassware. We created the appropriate space for a jazz age party.
We added four cocktail serving flapper girls, a 5-piece jazz band and three dancing couples.
The client's goal was achieved! The 3-hour reception was a full success and everyone left with new ideas and impressions.
"Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)
It seems so appropriate today!
The location: a large hotel in the Phoenix, AZ, area
The guests: 500 food and beverage executives
The purpose: to show them unusual ways to use every space of their properties.
Our task: creating an amazing fete in a never before used "event" space.
We were fortunate to have a visionary client who came to us with a concept and details in mind. Creating the event together became a very rewarding collaborative endeavor.
Event Designer Kate Brack: "The event was a secret. Guests were only told that they were going to an "evening event" and to meet in the hotel lobby. We surreptitiously took over little used level 2 of the hotel parking garage and went to work. This is where we started."
Since our guests were food and beverage executives the client came up with a theme matching the current jazz age food craze: the Speakeasy!
The concept kept the surprises coming. We created a familiar entrance: an industrial walk-in refrigerator. The client had found a used model on Craigslist that we could dismantle and re-purpose to create an entry hall that covered the elevator exit in the parking garage.
Our client's national executives graciously acted as kitchen staff, greeting arriving guests in full kitchen costume.
Guests were taken for a real ride - once they gained the elevators they had no idea where they were going.
Guests crossed the kitchen and arrived in the jazz age speakeasy.
Moonshine, signature mixed drinks, deviled eggs are all back in fashion. The hotel provided the glassware. We created the appropriate space for a jazz age party.
We added four cocktail serving flapper girls, a 5-piece jazz band and three dancing couples.
The client's goal was achieved! The 3-hour reception was a full success and everyone left with new ideas and impressions.
"Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)
It seems so appropriate today!
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