Live Event: One Stop Shop

Today's post is all about the one-stop shop.  We had a lot of sponsors for the Coupa INSPIRE Conference.  26 to be exact.  With that many, we wanted to create a uniform sponsor showcase area.  Every sponsoring company had a different look and feel - no one was like the next and we didn't want the room to be a mish mash of color and logos.  All the sponsors had to do was show up with their laptops, everything else was provided for them.

We were tasked with designing 3 similar turn-key tradeshow booths for the Silver, Gold and Platinum sponsors.  We also had to design a booth for Coupa that was different than all the others, but still keeping similar design elements of the other properties.  We brought Group Delphi in to help us create the experience.

The space that we used for INSPIRE Hall was very ornate.  It was the Colonial Room of the Historic Westin St. Francis.  This room all by itself is stunning.  You would never be able to design something to match it.  Instead, we took the opposite approach.  We created booths that were very minimalistic and modern, that complimented the space vs making it disappear.

The ceiling in the room was extremely high with balconies on three sides.  To pull everything together, we used blue fabric to line the balconies.  To extend the branding, we printed the logo on two of the fabric panels.  It was the perfect and final touch that the room needed.

Take a look?  I would say success.  What do you think?

photography by Orange Photography, Turn-key booths by Group Delphi

It All Started with a Drawing

Over the next week, I'm going to be showing you all the amazing details from the 2 1/2 day Coupa INSPIRE event we produced a few weeks ago.  It was an unbelievable event and the 6 months of planning really paid off.  

Let me set the stage for this event.  It was branded - INSPIRE.  So everything that we did had to inspire, it had to be different, it had to have that wow factor.  We didn't want it to be crazy over the top, it needed to be subtle, thoughtful and purposeful.

We hired a chalk artist and told him what we were trying to accomplish. Ryan Martinez came in with an idea, with a drawing of what he was going to do.  And then as the days went by (yes, with him drawing live with people walking and standing around watching him) - his vision, our vision became a reality. (If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen the sneak peaks - I just couldn't resist)

I thought it would be fun for you all to see the progression.

All images by Orange Photography

Not your Everyday Plasma Stand

The Restoration Hardware catalog packet arrived in the mail today.  I say packet because not one but - four glorious catalogs for small spaces, interiors, special objects and outdoors came. 

I love artist easels and when I came across this photo in one of the catalogs, I thought how cool it would be to use it in a meeting.  It would be a perfect element for any art company like Art.com to add to their corporate meetings as well as an unexpected surprise if you walked into a corporate office boardroom and there she was.  Connecting your laptop and running presentations from this beauty - FUN!

This is more the standard and of course use them all the time for corporate meetings.  But holy impact if you could use the easel instead.  If you could pick - which would you want to go for?

image one & two

Playing with Flowers

I've been arranging flowers for the past couple of years and starting to incorporate it into our service offerings to clients.  Normally I head to the flower mart in San Francisco to purchase all the pretty blooms.  This past Friday, I had the itch to create an arrangement, so instead of heading to the city, I headed to the local grocery store.  I purchased 2 bouquets for about $15 total.  Voila!

It always amazes me the difference between photographs taken at night vs. during the day.  Same flowers, but feel completely different.

How did I make this pretty arrangement?  In 3 easy steps!

Floral foam
2 bouquets of mixed flowers
1 wooden box vase

I love floral foam.  It's truly a flower arranging girls best friend and makes it so easy.  Step 1: Cut the foam to fit in your container, then soak it in water until it's completely water saturated.  Step 2: Once that's done, then put it in your container, in my case, it was the wooden box vase (that has a plastic liner).  Step 3: Now it's time to start cutting flowers and arranging your blooms.  Typically I like to start on the sides with my larger blooms, but I didn't have a ton of large flowers in these bouquets, so I started from the top.  

For $15, I was able to transform two ordinary bouquets into something unique.  I love flowers and get so inspired by them.  So, of course it makes complete sense that I would have a pinterest board dedicated to pretty blooms.  Right?  Head on over to see what inspires me.  Would love to hear what inspires you.

|All images above taken by yours truly|

A Unique Breakfast Option

I'm working on some concepts for a breakfast reception for a client and I came across the first picture below.  Just one picture can spark inspiration and get your creative juices flowing.

Imagine the catering staff walking around the reception while the guests network and chat with sponsors.  The goal of this breakfast reception is to introduce the attendees to the various sponsors/exhibitors prior to the event officially kicking off.  This room will be filled to the rim with exhibitors and guests and we don't want to take up precious space with buffets.  This would be a unique spin on a continental breakfast and be a huge space saver.

Another fun touch - have the catering staff wearing brightly colored company branded t-shirts.

I'm thinking donut holes, lemon lime muffins, morning buns and cinnamon rolls.

It would be a lovely touch to have a bag like this (that's branded of course) to put your goodies in.

A continental breakfast wouldn't be complete without some fruit - but fruit in a waffle cone sounds so much better.  Don't you think?

As far as juices go - unique flavors all the way.  Maybe Blueberry and White Grape juice, or Pomegranate and Raspberry juice or Cranberry and Apple juice.

You can change this up to match what ever theme you are going for.  French - add in lots of french pastries and croissants and have the servers wear berets.  So many possibilities.

|images: candy tray | donut holes | lemon lime muffins | morning buns & cinnamon rolls | branded pastry bags | fruit & waffles |