Event Report: New Event Technology And Unexpected Spaces - Our Backyard Pool Party in Florida.

All hands on deck for this big event: Kristen Rensch, Alisa Walsh, Brynne Peña, Morgan Connacher, Mary Leist Vandergoot, Alora Wilde, Jessica Jazayeri, Sarah Diem, Dina Morales and Nastasha Allaire.

Orlando, FL, in summer, hot and humid. We turned a ballroom into a backyard pool deck and invited our guests indoors. Entertainment by the legendary Beach Boys. EW produced many aspects of this conference. We are happy to share the story of our most unique event.

The Backyard Pool Party.
Event Date: July 30th, 2019
Client: an international hotel chain invited their operations and IT department employees to a multi-day conference.
Guest Count: 1,500


THE EVENT:

Alisa: "This conference was a 'first' for our client, a conference for their operations and IT teams. Leaders from various properties in the front office area, in the IT area, and the food & beverage area were invited to gather in Orlando. It was a really fun and unique conference because it is not often that all these different operations teams get together.
It was also unique for EventWorks because we got to be very creative and think outside of the box to present the guests with ideas they can take back to their respective properties. We got to play with innovative food & beverage displays, novel ways to use the ballrooms and incorporate unexpected areas on the property. It was a challenge for us because we had to impress and surprise guests who get to work on creative events as part of their daily business lives as well.

For the final evening event we invited the 1,500 guests to a very different "Backyard Pool Party" - it took place indoors."


INNOVATIVE EVENT TECHNOLOGY

Alisa: "We created a really immersive environment inside of a ballroom with the help of incredibly fun decor and an interactive video dance floor "swimming pool". When guests stepped onto the dance floor the floaties would move and the water would ripple.

We created the 20'x40' seamless infinity pool with video tiles that we placed on top of the astro turf we used to cover the whole ballroom floor.
The "pool" was the focal point of the whole space, placed in the middle. Custom animation built into the video tiles was activated by an infra-red reading camera suspended overhead. The camera tracked movements and the tile animation responded accordingly. You could literally kick a beach ball across the whole surface. The big WOW is the fact that the tiles are reactive to movement. The technology has been used in permanent installations, for instance museums, and we are really proud that we were able to adapt this effect for a one-time corporate event for our client, including branded video content. It has become feasible to bring this to the event arena because some of our preferred vendors now own all technical elements that are necessary for this installation and it thus becomes financially feasible for a one-off.

Another custom element we built were "outdoor" decks on both sides of the pool that served as bar stations and were fully usable as real entertainment decks. We installed wood vinyl flooring on stage risers and then hired carpenters to build real solid wood frames in custom wood planking that were sturdy and large enough for guests to lean on and put their drinks down.

Colorful pool party furnishings and decor completed the space. We created different areas, defined by color that enhanced the visual excitement and gave guests an easy way to find each other as they could simply tell contacts to meet them in the red area or green area."

NOVEL USE OF SPACE

For the final part of the evening, the Beach Boys Concert, named theme-appropriately "Into The Deep End", we had another chance to surprise the guests with an unexpected element. We had laid out the room to have the meeting space back up to the loading dock that was hidden behind a large roll-up door. We created a Big Reveal to the sounds of "Wipe Out" - we lifted the door and the Beach Boys launched into their concert on a stage we had created in the loading dock. Everyone was surprised and rushed out and danced the night away. It was a really cool, unique way to use this space for the event.

CHALLENGES

"We were bringing in a lot of decor and furnishings, technology and many custom built elements. Furthermore our client also included 12 of their preferred food & beverage partners, who provided activations and displays, in this evening. And we needed six hours to build the concert stage in the loading dock area. All of this was happening in the hot, humid summer weather of Orlando.

Since the load-in had to be completed before we could build the stage we had many pre-production meetings to work out one of our most detailed setup timetables ever, taking into consideration
1) the amount of people involved and all the elements that had to come in before we had to shut off our own access to the ballroom.
2) the heat and humidity our crews had to work in.

Since the main concert was taking place outdoors, we scheduled it to take place during the coolest time of the evening.

Last but not least we made Plan A, Plan B and Plan C in case of rain or other risks to outdoor installations. We had everything down to the most minute detail in case the weather would turn bad and we would have to move the concert indoors.

And then the weather was perfect!"



THE REACTION

We had two reveals: the opening of the doors for the indoor pool party and the loading dock. Both worked.
When we revealed the concert space with the roll-up of the door all guests rushed out to experience the band. This was not a slow trickle and we did not notice any hesitation. The WOW moment had done the magic.
We also saw many phones up in the air, guests taking videos and photos, always a good way to judge the impact of our events.

PHOTOS EDITED FOR CLIENT AND GUEST PRIVACY.