Recap: Eventworld 2011
Written by:
Amy Zediana
Merit Scholarship Recipient
Director of Special Events at Gateway Productions, Inc.
Eventworld, 2011 can be summed up in one word – AMAZING!
We started the week with a general meeting, consisting of round table discussions, covering International ISES topics. This was a great way to immediately start chatting with our fellow ISES leaders. We then moved into our regional groups to further discuss regional housekeeping, learn more about the Spirit of Excellence Awards (SOE), talk about individual chapter budgeting, and more! The conversations were so meaningful, that we actually ran out of time! This is a great problem to have.
That evening, the Eventworld 2011 Welcome Event was hosted at the St. Louis City Museum. Let me tell you, this was no ordinary museum! We had amazing food presented by a list of different caterers, entertainment, a slide show of Eventworlds gone by, and of course, we got to explore the museum. The City Museum is an interactive museum with multiple slides (including a 10 story slide that I was sure not to miss!), caves, a small aquarium and more! The best part of the evening, was that this creative and imaginative place really sparked some great ideas for all those who were there, namely, your ISES New England Chapter Leaders.
The next two days were filled with educational classes to meet the needs of all levels of planners and suppliers in this industry. There were bootcamp classes intended for those emerging professionals, executive track for those who are considered our industry veterans, general session classes for everyone to come together and hear from a keynote speaker, the event practices track for those who wish to learn something that may be outside of your everyday experiences, and finally, the professional focus presentations where you may participate in any wide range of discussions. Even our own, Steven Way, past president of ISES New England, graced up with a presentation titled “Sights and Sounds – AV/Technical Production Block: Audiovisual Clinic — Simplifying AV & Technical Production.”
I’d like to feature my favorite of all the classes I attended. As a production planner, I don’t receive much exposure to catering, so I chose to attend the education class titled “Fed and Watered – On-Premise and Off-Premise Catering: Block Ties That Bind…Taking Advantage of Your Caterer.” This was an amazing class and one that will really help me in achieving my goal to become a CSEP. I walked out of this class with a glossary of catering words, a working knowledge to be able to make catering decisions, and some really unique ways to display or serve food. I mostly appreciated the eye opening of how much your caterer will be the ones to keep your event on schedule, as they are the ones that control how fast or slow your guests are fed. I learned how certain foods are easier to plate than others, which will control how quickly courses can be turned. I can truly say that I walked away with some extensive knowledge that I feel I can use on future events.
During one of our general sessions, we were able to witness the Spirit of Excellence Awards.
The ISES Spirit of Excellence (SOE) Awards recognize ISES Chapters for their consistent excellence and their overall performance during the past year. I am delighted to say that our friends of the ISES Rhode Island Chapter received the award for Chapter of the Year! They truly poured their heart and soul into their chapter and deserved all the glory (and bragging rights) for their hard work.
The conference ended with the ISES Esprit Awards, a formal banquet filled with event design, great food, unique entertainment, and of course, the awards!! If you aren’t familiar with the ISES Esprit Awards, I invite you to learn more by visiting the ISES Esprit Awards website. It is a unique and distinct honor to be the recipient of one of these awards and ISES New England is lucky to have a few of these winners in our company! Congratulations to Jill Moran, CSEP, Dmitriy Dribinskiy, Larry Green, Jennifer McPhee, Rick Morin, and Brian Winthrop, CMP.
I am honored to have been the recipient of the ISES New England Merit Scholarship and pleased to report back that my second Eventworld met and exceeded every expectation I had. You can bet that I have already marked the calendar for Eventworld 2012 where we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of ISES, in DALLAS, TX!!!
