Casino Night at a Historical LA Venue--supporting LA's Best Friends

Recently I had the opportunity to work on a short project for a nonprofit organization called LA's Best Friends. LA's Best raises money to provide after-school enrichment programs in low-income schools in LA. 

Anyways--my boss Melanie sits on the board for Best Friends, and asked me if I could help out with day-of setup logistics.  The event was held at the old historical cathedral; the Vibiana in downtown LA.  This actually was the original cathedral of LA until they built the new one.  It is a gorgeous building with a lot of old spanish inspired architecture. The pics here in the beginning are from our site visit earlier in the week--(aka the before pics.) You can see both the inside and the outdoor patio area (which I think would be a great space for an event in itself).  

And then this is what the space transformed into for Casino Night...the greatest thing about this event, is that almost everything was donated...even the LIGHTING.  This event is a perfect example of what lighting can do for an event.  

It was a blast filling up this space with all of these things and working on the spatial layouts of the event.  It was so nice to be able to just go work the event with no worries or responsibilities--just there to simply help out and have fun while doing it.  The event turned into a great success! 

Corporate/Nonprofit vs. Entertainment/Social?

Recently I was able to meet with a long time veteran of the event industry who works for a high profile celebrity client. It was so exciting to hear about all of the different events he was doing for her, all throughout the year.

But as I was sitting there meeting with him, it created a sense of reality about working in the entertainment industry--it takes a LOT of time. Don't get me wrong, doing any type of special event takes a lot of time. But when you start working with celebrities, it becomes very demanding and 'cut-throat.' And what do you have in the end? You may have a fabulous looking party, you get to say you plan parties for this person, and maybe if your lucky the client will say it looks nice (after they probably came in the room before the event started and said to change out all of the florals or something).

All of this began to set in with me as I was meeting with this individual, because a lof of my current work in events is in the corporate and nonprofit world. A world that that is full of tight budgets, (or no budgets), but also one that is very affirmative and appreciative. At BDI, I've had the pleasure of doing 2 major conferences (1 for 800 people, and 1 for 600), and while those might not have been the most 'exciting' events...I can't tell you the number of people that came up to me to personally thank me, or say that the event changed their life. This is the bonus of working in this sector of events...

So now I come to the big 'Y" in the road where I question and wonder which way I'm going to go in my career. I've worked a lot of celebrity driven events, and I've also worked a lot of nonprofit events. I think I've come to realize that its finding a balance between both. What I love about the social scene of the entertainment events, is that they are usually full of creativity and design. And--its exciting...people would die to be talking to Johnny Depp or Tom Hanks. But also what I love about the nonprofit/corporate world, is simply the people...well sometimes. haha. :) I'm excited to look back at this post and see where I am in let's say 5 years...

Planning a special day: 6-7-09

This year I have the honor of helping one of my good friends Erin & her fiance Jake, plan their wedding in June.  It's always nice to work on a wedding every now and then because of what a memorable event they are.  Because this is for one of my good friends--it will mean even more. The wedding ceremony and reception are going to take place at the South Coast Winery in Temecula, CA.  Temecula is a quaint little historic town that makes you feel like you are in the 'old west' when you are in town.  Then, surrounding the town are several different wineries--South Coast being one of them.  

We have already designed the invites--got them printed, and those should be going out very soon! We went with a one fold--opening horizontally with the different appropriate cards sticking in a pocket.  To be cost friendly--we created everything from Paper Source--and Erin & her mom put them together.  Each one only ended up costing a little over $6 

Erin and I were able to go down and do a site visit last month to check out the space.  Seeing the space and being there made it really exciting to get started in all of the planning!  Below are the "before" photos of the different locations at the winery we will be utilizing throughout the day...

<---This is where the ceremony will take 

place.  The vines in the spring will be in full bloom! We probably won't be doing too much floral at the ceremony site, because the surroundings are so nice! The wooden structure in the back will be full of vines in full bloom in June--I think then we are going to add pops of color to make it stand out even more.  

This is where the cocktail reception

will be following the ceremony.  It 

will be really nice because all of the foliage in that corner area is lit with lights at night.  We are going to put a bunch of high-boy tables throughout the area for people to 

mingle around with a bar in the corner.  And then of course add candles all over the tables! 

This is the the reception room. It's call the Barrel Room which is really cool.  There are wine barrels all around the room that we are going to use in the design scheme.  It's going to look beautiful at night with her colors. We are also going to incorporate a lot of candles into the room as well. 

I'm so excited to continue to help out Erin! The thing that I am going to love most about this event, is the amount of detail that will be there that really highlights Jake & Erin's relationship.  

The Fabulous team that is BDI Events.

I just realized that those that might be reading this may or may not know exactly who I currently work for and what we do! 

Currently, I am working for BDI Events, local to Los Angeles but serving the world. :) We are a small, tight-knit, dynamic team that specializes in nonprofit fundraising events, corporate galas, conferences, and social/entertainment events.  BDI has been around for a few years now, but Amy, Bob, & Melanie have all been working together for a very long time.  I feel very lucky to have joined this team!  I think that each one of them brings something completely different to the table that just works...and now I bring an additional dynamic to the team that creates us to be even more of a powerhouse of event professionals! 

We are able to successfully plan & implement events with small and large budgets that are not only seen as a success from an attendee standpoint, but also from an organization/business standpoint as well.  I think that we are also very relational with our clients.  When you work with BDI, we hope that you feel as though you are our only client.  BDI has worked with very small companies, to major fortune 500 companies.  

We are located on Barham Blvd, in Los Angeles (in between Warner Brothers & Universal Studios).  So if you ever hear of anyone looking for event producers/designers--hopefully you give me a call at BDI. :)  

Check us out at www.bdi-events.com  

The Special Event 2009--aka 5000 event professionals & lots of creativity in San Diego

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to go down to San Diego for a few days with one of my bosses, Bob to the Special Event 2009.  This conference is for event professionals in all areas--producers, lighting people, florists, designers, rental companies, vendors, etc! It's always exciting to just be in one place with 5000 other people that love what you do.  

I'm hoping to post some of what I've learned in some future blogs...Bob went to more of the business end of things, and I went on the design track of the conference for one day--going to sessions on colors, fabrics, linens, going green, etc.  All of the fun stuff. (Basically making me love what I do even more)  Most of the sessions were pretty informative, or they at least inspired new ideas or creativity.  It's always interesting to hear what the new 'in' colors are...The predictions are that there is going to be a lot of shades of blue accented with bright colors such as yellows, reds, and oranges.  The metallics (gold, silver, metal-look, etc) are also making a come back.  I guess we will see...

I also got to go through the exhibit hall which is also great to gain some ideas, and insights on the latest ideas/rentals that are out there! While I was there I was able to visit the ISES (International Special Events Society) booth, and found out more information about joining their LA chapter.  I'm hoping to do that this year, and then hopefully also work towards getting my certification with CSEP (Certified Special Event Planner).  I think this will be a great thing to work towards in my career.  Plus I really want to start getting more involved in the 'network.'  

Be on the look out for some future posts on what I learned at TSE 2009! 

Me...blogging?

As most of you know, as of January 1, 2009 I have decided to change my 'industry-business' name to Joe Martin within the 'world of events.'  You may be thinking--Joe would do that...he's so 'hollywood.'  But in fact--it actually means more than you think.  It's actually my middle name, as well as my Dad's middle name, so it means a lot to me.  

Also--as most of you know, I'm very much into what I do--events.  But if you know me closely, I hope to one day even expand that to even more business endeavors--with the Joe Martin name.  I'm hoping that I can utilize this blog as just the beginning of growing my career.  I've created this for colleagues, clients, family, and friends to stay connected to on my most current work with the event world, to keep clients up to date on what is the latest in events, and to connect, inspire, and brainstorm with fellow event professionals in all different areas.  

I hope that you enjoy! Give me some time to get it going---I'm excited for this!