THE NEWS from EventWorks, Inc.

Fall is in the air - we bring the season into the ballroom. The Event: The 3-day Fall Meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Guest count: 800 Our Task: Technical and Event Support. Location: The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Our assignment started with a site visit last April. We had to wear hard hats.  The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth was undergoing a CAN $140 million dollar renovation. Reopened in June, we reaped the benefits of working in a historic location that had received a 5-star make over just before our event.  Ted Bowers: "The staff is truly A+ and very international. Everyone is at least bi-lingual but many staff members speak more than 2 languages. We only encountered two Quebecois drivers who spoke French. Everyone else around was happy to translate." Our Event Manager Ben Majors:  "I guess I'd have to say interacting with the various Canadians in our labor crews, hotel, as well as in the str...

The George R. Brown Convention Center served as a shelter. Fresh in our minds: images of devastation. We decided to check the reality of the situation and we can confirm: HOUSTON IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS. Houstonians need your business to continue their overall recovery! As you know we have strong emotional ties to Houston. Our Creative Writer Elizabeth Brazil Dickson calls Houston home. Account Executive Brynne Peña visits her "second home" frequently and spent a week in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. We decided to get an update on the state of Greater Houston. Visit Houston's President Mike Waterman was happy to grant us an interview.  EW: Mr. Waterman, nearly four weeks after Harvey, is Houston ready for business? Mike Waterman: "Absolutely, it actually never closed. I am happy to share a few facts. According to the Harris County Flood Authority approximately 25% of Houston was negatively impacted by the flood. That could have been flooding that cam...

The sweaty EWers with PVPLC Stewardship Associate Josh Weinik We got together for our very own team-building day and managed to combine team fun with a good cause.  We broke out the shovels and worked in gorgeous surroundings with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. We liked it to so much that we will do it again! It had been a while since we had all gotten together just for fun as a team. Our travel and work schedules rarely place us all in town at the same time.  Finally, August 5th turned out to be the right moment. Since our homes are spread out over two counties in Southern California - and those of you who know Los Angeles traffic know what that means - we were looking for a location equally inconvenient for all of us to keep things fair in our search of an opportunity for our good deeds. We found the volunteering opportunity with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, the perfect fit. About PVPLC: The Conservancy preserves undeveloped lan...

The reunion in full swing on August 24th, before Harvey hit. As Brynne boarded her long-booked flight to Houston to visit her best friends, Bethany Palmer Mayott and Kimi Musser, two California transplants and current Houston residents, the forecast warned of a tropical depression in Texas counties near the Mexican border. But as we know now Harvey changed rapidly into a category 3 hurricane, made landfall repeatedly and stalled over Houston, flooding large parts of the city with record breaking rain fall.  A weekend with Kimi and her family turned into a week in Houston that changed Brynne's outlook on life. "By Friday night the storm moved in very quickly. The rain was pounding so hard that it was impossible to sleep. I had never heard rain that loud. By Saturday morning we started to take precautions. We checked whether we had enough water and bread to last several days. Neighbors informed Kimi and Michael that this neighborhood had never flooded in 30 years. But y...