ONE Campaign Artists Lunch

The day of the lunch I arrived at Uptown 162 to begin setting up the space. We wanted to have a table in the entrance area to be able to welcome everyone. There we arranged the swag the guests would later receive - ONE t-shirts along with wristbands and copies of Bono's book On the Move. I also created a small "welcome" sign just to make things official, on which I listed the menu for that day in case anyone inquired.

The room where the luncheon was held is a really great space - red brick walls, lovely white lanterns strung overhead and plenty of light from the large windows at the front. This is the set-up of the tables as we awaited guest arrivals.

And here are the centerpieces in action with the tables fully set, including ONE wristbands for the attendees to take home.

ONE Campaign Lunch - Preparations

In September of this year the ONE Campaign began making plans to host an artists luncheon here in Nashville. Having come alongside DATA in previous years to facilitate these types of meetings, I volunteered my company's services to ONE. Taking direction from the wonderful people at The Clapham Group, I did several site inspections to find the right venue as they worked out the guest list and details of the lunch with the ONE Campaign.

Aiming at a venue that would seat around 75 people for lunch we settled on a great new place called Uptown 162 in downtown Nashville. It's managed by the staff of The Standard Restaurant which is conveniently located across the street. They were able to offer us the use of the space along with catering and rentals for one fee, thus making it very cost effective along with making the logistics very smooth.




In addition to handling the venue arrangements and set-up details I was tasked with creating centerpieces for the tables. We want to keep things fairly simple and not too elaborate or "banquety." Gina Gallimore of the ONE Campaign sent a picture of an idea that she liked - vases holding simple flowers that were wrapped in brown paper bags tied with ribbon. I adapted that idea slightly to suit our black and white look. I used simple flowers - just carnations and stock - to echo her original idea:

I started by arranging the flowers in these square vases I purchased. Yes, my kitchen counter is often where the magic happens.


And this more of the completed look with the vases wrapped in black tissue paper and tied with a small white ribbon. This kept things simple while still adding a little something so that the tables wouldn't appear too plain.

Stanford Village Fall Event

The "Boos" and "Ghouls" really seemed to enjoy their goodie bags. Their smiles were very rewarding! Here is the table where we set them out for everyone to eye before I handed them each a bag:

Since these goodie bags were geared towards kids a little older - 4 and up - I also created some simpler goodie bags for infants and toddlers. They included small bags of Goldfish crackers and a few frosted animal crackers. The "Wee Punkins" seemed to enjoy their snacks as well.

The kids had fun parading down the street in their costumes as well as playing with friends on the neighborhood playground. A good time was had by all ~

Preparing for Neighborhood Event

My neighborhood here in Nashville, Stanford Village, holds events occasionally for all of the residents, and I'm part of the events committee. We recently had our Fall event which included having the children wear their Halloween costumes so they could then parade down our main street to show them off. We also held a chili cook-off and a pie contest as part of the festivities. I was tasked with creating several things this time around. First I created some ballots to be used for the chili cook-off and the pie contest we held as part of the event.

I was also in charge of creating the goodie bags for all of the kids who came dressed up for Halloween. I had a lot of fun making them by hand and selecting the different items to be included. I mostly included toys in these bags because I figured the kids would be loaded up with candy and sugar come Halloween night.

Each gift bag contained a big plastic straw, a piece of colorful sidewalk chalk, a small bottle of bubbles to blow, some stickers, a bouncey ball and a small bag of candy. I simply cut the tops off of standard brown paper sacks, made color copies of cute pumpkins and oversized candy corn, then pasted one of those printouts to the side of the bag.

Close-up: VID Party Decorations

Part of my responsibility in helping to plan the VID Party was designing the decor which included finding some fabulous ducky garland and creating centerpieces for the bistro tables. The theme was easy, of course, ducks, ducks and more ducks! We had small ones, medium ones and a few jumbo ducks. It was a lot of fun to utilize all of these with a little imagination and hopefully a little flair!

Duck Race 2008 VID Party

The Boys & Girls Clubs Duck Race was a huge success! I was pleased to have been a part of it. We hosted the Very Important Ducks party at the fort by the river with a great set-up allowing people to have some lunch and enjoy a great view of the ducks racing downstream.

Here's a shot of the sponsorship sign listing In Any Event, Inc:

Preparing for the Boys & Girls Clubs Event

My company was recently tapped by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee to help sponsor their annual fundraiser. This event is a duck race where participants can purchase/sponsor a rubber duck for $5 each with all proceeds benefiting the BGC. All of these ducks are then dumped into the river downtown to race downstream with the owners of the winning ducks receiving various prizes.

I was asked to create gift bags or "Quack Packs" for radio winners to receive through two of the sponsoring radio stations. These bags contained items for those winners related to the duck event such as t-shirts, rubber ducks, coupons and even duck tattoos!

I was also charged with helping to plan a reception for some of their key donors that would take place during the duck race. It was entitled, of course, a party for the VIDs or "Very Important Ducks." The reception we chose was the Fort Nashborough Plaza which is located directly beside the river and has a wonderful view of the entire race.

I will be posting pictures of the event as it took place as well.