Event Report: We Did It Again! A Mini Festival "Stagecoach"-Style.

Ted Bowers and Marcelo Cruz

Just two weeks after our Coachella-esque event we returned to the Empire Polo Club to turn the a client's Stagecoach style dream into event reality.

The Event: a 3-Day Conference, including evening events. Friday night featured a themed event - the Stagecoach Style mini festival - for a high-end professional association.

Guest Count: 750

Event Production Highlights:

The Conference: we made extensive use of budget-friendly scenic LED lighting to enhance the General Session and add local color to the room.

Entertainment: Entertainment: we produced a mini festival, inspired by the Stagecoach Festival, with all the bells and whistles, for the Friday night themed party.

Ted Bowers: "The association has been our friend and client for many years and we produce two annual conference events for them. The challenge for us is to deliver a fresh, exciting entertainment program each and every time. In this specific case our client had attended the Stagecoach Festival with his daughter a while back and since the conference was taking place in the Indio area he suggested a Stagecoach style mini festival for the Friday night themed event.  He was sure that it would appeal to his members.
We dove into research to define essential details to create a Stagecoach-inspired experience.
Of course, music is essential. We found a female violinist duo to open the evening's show and they joined with a local country dance band that was truly fantastic. They had everyone dancing for the whole night. The low and high desert around Coachella and Joshua Tree is home to an important music scene and that enabled us to source an incredible band without adding travel cost to the budget."

Ted:  "BBQ is indelibly linked to country music and no other than celebrity chef Guy Fieri heads his Stagecoach Smokehouse during the festival. Our guests expect a 5-star quality dinner. The client adapted the BBQ concept to be served fresh with locally sourced farm-to-table ingredients. Steak and chicken were grilled on site, served with traditional healthy fixings. The sit down dinner was followed by the 2-hour stage concert on the dance lawn. Even the weather cooperated. Sun and balmy temperatures are back in the Palm Springs area.

An exciting recent development in our event world is the impact of the now affordable Scenic LED lighting and new scenery options. Just a few short years ago the cost was prohibitive. This was the first time we used solely LED scenery for the general session stage backdrop and the results were amazing. Not only was the client happy but a number of attendees approached us to comment how great it looked. We worked with a desert landscape artist to create changing scenery. We used up to eight different backdrops for 3-hour long general sessions. We created another set of scenery options for the evening functions. It would have been impossible to create this variety of scenery with static decor. We are excited about scenic LED lighting and hope to use it a lot more.
We are happy to report that the event succeeded on all levels."

We look forward to discussing options for your event!

Thank you for reading.