GOING PLACES
Los Angeles-based event production and catering firm An Original Occasion has hired Cindy Wiedenheft as creative director and event producer. Call 323/467-2111. █ Sarah Sheehan has joined San Diego-based show producer Imagination Entertainment as national sales manager. Call 619/640-6500; www.imaginationent.com. █ Hilton Hotels Corp., based in Tarrytown, N.Y., has named Frank Passanante vice president of sales and marketing for its University Hotel & Conference Center division. Passanante will be based in Washington. Call 914/631-8100; www.harrisonconference.com. █ Chicago-based meeting manager ProActive has hired Tom Kraft, CMP, as director of business development. Also, Melissa Fiscor has joined the company as program manager. Call 312/654-8844; www.proactiveinc.com. █ Los Angeles-based caterer BlackTie Event Services has hired Jeffery Austin as staffing manager for its event staffing division. Call 310/337-9900; www.blacktie-event.com. █ Houston-based energy provider Aggreko has hired Keith Thomas as national event services manager for its event services division, based in The Woodlands, Texas. Call 877 AGGREKO; www.aggreko.com.
BRANCHING OUT
The Key Event Group, a destination management company based in Nashville, Tenn., has opened a branch office in Orlando, Fla. President Valerie Woodke Hershiser, CMP, will run the office at 7125 Somerton Blvd., Orlando, FL 32819. Phone: 407/345-1518; www.thekeyeventgroup.com. █ Atlanta-based tent manufacturer DeBoer Structures has opened offices in Frederick, Md., and Elon College, N.C. Brian Eaton will run the Maryland office, P.O. Box 3644, Frederick, MD 21705. Phone: 301/620-1007. Doyle Minton will run the North Carolina office, P.O. Box 1101, Elon College, NC 27244. Phone: 336/585-0552; www.deboer.com. █ Paul Segal has resigned as vice president of Santa Ana, Calif.-based Regal Rents/International to start his own company specializing in buffet serving ware. The new company, Bugambilia, is located at 27881 La Paz, Suite G 201, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. Phone: 866/8 BUFFET (828-9998); www.bugambilia.com. John Deck will remain general manager of operations at Regal Rents/International. Call 800/457-3425, 714/424-6320; www.regalinternational.com.
KUDOS
The Denver Business Journal has named Denver-based technical services company Fastlane Productions as one of the Top 25 Fastest Growing Small Businesses in Colorado. Call 303/778-1361; www.fastlaneproductions.com. █ Mary Tribble, owner of Charlotte, N.C.-based event firm Tribble Creative Group, was named the 2000 Charlotte Business Woman of the Year by Queens College of Charlotte.
