Transforming a gym into an elegant event venue

One of the functions I want to use The Events Company blog for is sharing our events in cyberspace.

We had the pleasure of working with Onondaga Community College Foundation and their Campaign for OCC kick-off event. We were charged with transforming the OCC gymnasium (your typical college gym) into an event space where we could create an extraordinary experience that would reach beyond the evening to motivate prospective donors to fully support the campaign and its mission.

You can see before and after photos that show what we started with and what the end product became. Creating an event is like a painter starting a new painting. After listening to the client share their objectives, goals, and must haves we take the blank canvas and sketch the event elements to share with the client for their approval. With this particular event we had the challenge of masking basketball hoops, protecting the hardwoods, and creating a special event venue.

We accomplished this by bringing in infrastructure:

• carpeting to soften the space, protect the hardwoods, and absorb sound
• lighting trusswork suspending from steel beams in the ceiling for ambient lighting to light the stage and wash the room with soft lighting
• fabric draping to mask not-so-attractive walls and hide basketball hoops
• black velour to wall for a dark space behind the stage and projection screens

Once the infrastructure was installed we could work on the "pretty stuff;" stage set, linens, chivari chairs, centerpieces, chargers, etc. achieving our objective of creating an elegant venue.

Our client shared their impression with us. "As your disclaimer states, you are indeed the "Producers of WOW!" That could not have been more true than in the total (and some said magical) transformation of the Onondaga gymnasium for the very successful launch of our Reach Beyond Capital Campaign." - Thomas A. Burton, Executive Director, Onondaga Community College Foundation.