Coming up with the perfect idea for a special event can be daunting, but sometimes all it takes is a little inspiration from others. We asked creative planners and destination management pros to share their most inspiring and successful concepts from the past year. One common thread is that an "old" idea can be made new again, as long as there's a way to twist the presentation.
Following are details for how our sources carried out their favorite themes.
Mad Men Style
Event: A networking reception called "Thrive in Retro" was created by Kuoni Destination Management for a client during the Global Business Travel Association's Convention 2012, held last July in Boston. About 750 people gathered at Symphony Hall for a Mad Men-inspired evening focused on the early 1960s. The charitable beneficiary of the event was Project STEP, which helps talented local minority children from underprivileged neighborhoods get classical music instruction.
Décor: All of Symphony Hall's original leather floor seats (installed in 1900) were removed, and the famous chandeliers were lowered from the 61-foot-high coffered ceiling to as low as 12 feet off the floor, giving it a nightclub vibe. Black leather love seats, club chairs and leather coffee tables sat on zebra-patterned rugs lit by deep-red floor lamps. Cocktail tables with black satin linens and red votives were set throughout, and highboys surrounded the dance floor.
Red lighting added to the atmosphere, and the client's brand colors alternated behind Symphony Hall's Greek and Roman statues above the balconies.
Entertainment: What's Symphony Hall without live music? Conductor Keith Lockhart led the Boston Pops throughout the night (on the playlist was "Zou Zou Bisou," from last season's memorable Mad Men opener), ending with accompaniment by seven students from Project STEP, who took the stage to play some boogie-woogie with the orchestra. The finale featured the 30-member Children's Inspirational Freedom choir, who joined the Pops and Project STEP students for a sweet take on John Lennon's "Imagine."
Food and Drink: The menu offered novelty foods from the early 1960s, but with a modern presentation. Served in spoons, on square plates and in decorative bowls was fare such as deviled eggs, Caesar-salad spring rolls and BLT-stuffed tomatoes. Passed hors d'oeuvres included truffled macaroni-and-cheese fritters and miniature beef Wellingtons. Jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce was passed in miniature martini glasses. Retro dessert choices included pineapple-upside-down tarts.
Models in red satin and throwback hairstyles served '60s-era drinks, including sloe gin fizzes and classic Manhattans; they were poured at a square mahogany bar set in the center of the floor beneath the lowest chandelier.
Fire and Ice
Event: This gala awards dinner for a commercial real-estate group
was designed by Sue Fern, CEO and founder, Event Pro-SSSS. "It was
themed Fire and Ice, and I had such an outstanding response from people
when they walked into the room," Fern says. "I was thrilled. As a
planner I design the theme and everything around it, but I never know
how the guests will receive it."
Décor: The event was held in the ballroom at the Vinoy
Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club in Florida, and played
off the venue's Chihuly chandelier. "It looks like ice dripping," says
Fern. Gobos of ice and fire were displayed around the walls to keep the
theme moving. Tables were covered in white and ice-blue cloths, and
centerpieces were designed to look like fire coming out of the tables.
Chair ties were chosen in a fiery color.
Entertainment: Guests were serenaded by a flamenco guitarist
during the cocktail hour, and a salsa band played as they entered the
ballroom and during breaks in the awards program.
Food and Drink: The theme was carried over into the desserts --
white chocolate cakes with a wrap of red sugar, and dark chocolate cakes
with an ice blue sugar drop on top.
Lounging Around
Event: These days, clients are looking for a relaxing atmosphere,
says Julie Krull, DMCP, of Destination St. Louis. "Over the past year
we have really seen a surge in requests for a club or lounge theme," she
notes. The DMC recently transformed the City Museum in downtown St.
Louis into a three-story nightclub with three different lounge themes
for an after-dinner event.
Décor: To facilitate the flow into the event, Krull's team kept
the first-floor trimmings to a minimum, using built-in benches and
adding some tall cocktail tables. Top 40 tunes were piped in to get the
party started.
The second floor was designed to be more laid-back. Black furniture was
arranged in conversation pits, and a deejay played a selection of mellow
music. "The company's logo was splashed through the space, and
turquoise up-lighting gave the room a glow," says Krull. Mirror-topped
oblong cocktail tables surrounded the bar.
The third floor was transformed into a dance club, including a VIP
area. White leather couches hugged the walls, white shag rugs and
crystal candelabras added atmosphere, and custom-made white oversized
chairs were roped off to create the VIP space. The room was bathed in
purple and accented with tall cocktail tables dotted with white votive
candles.
Human disco balls and costumed stilt walkers roamed the entire event.
Food and Drink: "Because it was an after-hours event and we had
full premium bars on each floor, we made sure to have plenty of food
options," says Krull. Grab-and-go munchies like pretzels and popcorn
were available, as well as chip stations with fresh salsas. Chefs
prepared more hearty fare on each floor: mini Southwestern beef or Asian
chicken sliders.
Prohibition Proxy
Event: Emily James, meeting and event planner for 1st Global,
worked with Arrangers DMC to create a speakeasy-themed welcome event
last November for the national conference for the wealth-management
company for accounting and legal firms. The meeting of 550 was held at
The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, with the kickoff party in a room
built in the 1920s, thus the inspiration for the theme. "It was elegant,
but not a stuffy event," says James.
Décor: The space already featured beautiful frescoes and
furniture. The décor was augmented with event colors of crimson, pewter
and cream; each of the connecting rooms (including the Fountain Room,
which opened in the appropriate year of 1923) had its own color theme.
Centerpieces in different sizes featured calla lillies, black feathers,
ostrich feathers and dripping pearls.
Entertainment: There was plenty for the attendees to see and
hear. Flappers in feathered headbands and boas greeted guests, along
with smartly dressed men in fedoras who handed out headbands and boas to
the women, and bow ties and fedoras to the men. A piano player
performed a ragtime repertoire, while a wandering musician sang and
played saxophone, urging guests to sing along. A gangster type ("I know a
guy who knows a guy who can get you what you want") escorted guests to
the bar and made boutonnieres out of bar napkins. A local "Houdini"
escaped out of chains and a straitjacket.
"My personal favorite was the Charlie Chaplin lookalike," says James. He
conducted silent "conversations" with participants, jumped into
people's pictures and tried to lure them into doing the Charleston.
Food and Drink: The reception menu featured heavy hors d'oeuvres.
"We tried to do as much 1920s food as possible, but back then they did a
lot of stuff in gelatin, so the catering staff helped us alter the
recipes to be more recognizable," says James. "It was cold outside, so
we looked for some heavier food." The Broadmoor chefs searched the
archives and came up with a cassoulet, or white-bean stew. "We wanted to
make sure that our meat eaters, which we have a lot of, were happy,"
James says, "so there were small cuts of lamb, beef or chicken to put on
top." Bisques were big in the '20s, so lobster-bisque shooters made it
onto the menu, as well as a frisee French bistro salad.
Starry Night
Event: A "Night of a Thousand Stars" reception was hosted by the
National Minority Supplier Development Council for about 1,450 people at
the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver. The
evening celebrated the NMSDC's 40th anniversary.
Décor: Playing off the museum and the organization's anniversary,
Suzette Eaddy, director of conferences for the NMSDC, chose a
'40s/World War II theme. Men dressed as pilots and women in WAC uniforms
mingled, danced and took photos with the guests. "We had a Rosie the
Riveter and women dressed like cigarette girls, minus the cigarettes,
distributing cupcakes with a '40' on top," Eaddy recalls. Participants
could slip into a photo booth, and music from the era welcomed the
crowd.
Food and Drink: "We had 'regular' food, pretty much," says Eaddy.
"We looked at '40s menus -- Spam was big back then -- and we felt that
such items wouldn't go over well."
Among appetizers were assorted cheeses, Italian salamis, olives, artisan
breads and crackers, crudités with bleu cheese or port pâté for
dipping. Heartier displays featured fish and chips, mini-hamburgers,
three-cheese macaroni, spicy chicken drummettes with jalapeño ranch dip,
chicken Wellington and vegan spanakopita.