Monte Carlo comes to Southern California THE 250 GUESTS attending the second annual Lido Consulting Family Office Wealth Conference in September enjoyed four days of "Monaco Mystique" at Loews Coronado Bay Resort on Coronado peninsula near San Diego. "Many conferences choose a first-class venue for their events," says Kevin Lemmon, president of A Great Event in Long Beach, Calif. "We wanted to have not only a first-class venue, but a first-class conference." He and Sam Kimball, vice president, created a series of experiences to engage their well-heeled guests, adding an element of entertainment to this educational conference.
For the welcome reception, Lemmon and Kimball transformed an outside terrace into the Monaco Grand Prix. Guests got to know one another as they sent radio-controlled race cars zipping around two 20-by-40-foot-long racetracks supplied by Quality Promotions & Events of Goleta, Calif.
The next evening, guests attended a poolside Parade of Masques cocktail reception, where they wore handmade masks imported from Italy. Afterward, they had dinner in the Monte Carlo Pavilion, a large tent supplied by Rancho Dominguez, Calif.-based Abbey Event Services. For the evening's entertainment, Lemmon chose "Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon," a comedic musical revue flown in from San Francisco. "Because the show is rewritten every two weeks, even if you saw it two years ago, it will be different now," he says. "It reflects current events."
On the final evening, guests enjoyed an upscale dinner followed by a customized fireworks show complete with special effects and music provided by Pyrotechs of San Diego. They then moved to the "casino" in the Commodore Ballroom, where A Great Event had set up gaming tables. There guests gambled for a chance to win a trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Every night when the guests returned to their rooms, they found luxurious pillow gifts, including a leather-bound book for business cards and a terry-cloth bathrobe. Because A Great Event is a member of the Advertising Specialty Institute, Lemmon and Kimball can customize promotional gifts themselves rather than having an outside source do it. As Lemmon points out, "It makes it easier for the client."
