To achieve this objective, the event team began conducting a series of phone calls to discover their common denominators – their shared personality traits, interests and passions – to find emotional threads that could tie the evening together providing the audience with a heightened appreciation of the honorees.

Here, a reception overview.

During the calls, the team discovered not only were the honorees huge classic rock fans, but most were heavy metal aficionados. Suffice to say, that doesn’t go hand-in-hand with the image of a traditional black-tie gala!

Here, the dinner panorama.

The challenge: “How to merge these two different sensibilities into an entertaining, theatrical production?” The solution: combine the raw and the graceful – the raucous and the elegant – to create a theme based on a live, glamorous rock concert. Here, a longer view.

This approach influenced not only the entertainment, but every event element – from the menu selections, the look and feel of the presentation stage –the room decor and tablescapes, to the food service and the entertainment. Here, dinner table decor.

A major challenge was creating a feeling of intimacy for a 400+ audience inside a 95,000 square-foot exhibition space. The event team overcame this by Utilizing hanging soft goods to define distinct “zones” where key functions occurred (e.g., stage, back of house dressing rooms, reception area, dining space and dessert service), thereby breaking up the ballroom expanse into smaller, more intimate usable areas.

The team also draped off over 30% of the house behind the main stage to use as a pre-staging area for performers, as well as provide ample F&B and equipment storage space to facilitate load-in and out. This solution was vital to the execution of the event. The exhibition hall has no dedicated kitchen or back-of-house space for food preparation, so everything; refrigeration, portable hand wash stations, ovens and finishing stations must be transported from the hotel’s main kitchen.

Honoree tabletop decor.

The event program.

Another dramatic centerpiece.

The afterglow lounge.

From the reception: Lobster Roll BLTs.

A gorgeous dessert spread.

Atmosphere talent.

More talent adding atmosphere.

The opening stage.

Show performers.

A salute to industry superstar Patti Shock.

Salute to Patti Shock.

Another performance.

A tribute to a CIC leader.

Another tribute.

Extreme Beam entertains.

Extreme Beam entertains.

An aerial act.

Aerial act.

More great performances.

Dramatic act.

Taking the stage.

Moving toward the grand finale.

Special effects add drama.

The finale.