Esprit Award Series: Best Event Logistics, Solutions and Technical Production

Thursday, May 9, 2019

The ILEA Esprit Awards program is a dynamic industry awards programs, attracting an exceptional range, depth and quality of entries from all areas of live and special events. The 2018 Esprit Awards Gala was held at ILEA Live on Friday, 17 August 2018, in Denver. There were 36 different categories and over 45 winners. For the past year, ILEA Experience has been showcasing these recipients and their award-winning events.

The 2019 Esprit Award nominees were announced on Wednesday, 1 May. Take a look at the nominees and there outstanding events here.

Best Event Logistics and Support Services

San Francisco Giant Race and Health and Wellness Expo

Recipient: Giants Enterprises

The San Francisco Giant Race & Health and Wellness Expo hosted 20,000 participants and entertained 40,000 spectators at AT&T Park on 25-27 August 2017. The pre-production logistics were beyond challenging. Thousands of details to plan, coordinate and complete the event included: licensing; five race courses; volunteer/sponsorship participation; travel/accommodation discounts; registration; all materials, awards, and gifts; brand activation; parking; charity components; start/finish line procedures; RFID chips for runners; street closures; team wellness packages; security and medical emergency procedures; marketing, advertising/PR, social media; and F&B. During it all, producers handled threatened protests and computer crashes — all before race day. The value of this event comes from creating a unique initiative for health and wellness and bringing awareness to it. The San Francisco Giants’ sponsors/partners even saw the value to contribute to the Giant Race. As a result of our expertise in producing The Giant Race, we are developing smaller 5K races for the Giants to offer to conferences and multi-day meetings when they come to San Francisco. This brings additional revenue to the organization. But, more importantly, we merged health and wellness as part of the brand of the San Francisco Giants, which was their goal.

Best Event Solution

MAPFRE China

Recipient: Lenny Talarico, CSEP, CHE, MGM Resorts Event Productions

The celebration an incentive event for performers and senior executives coincided with the client’s expansion in the Far East as they unveiled their newest location, broadening their presence to 49 countries world-wide. The 2,150 special guests from around the globe were treated to an authentic environment replete in traditional Chinese ambiance and culture. Even a venue cancellation seven weeks beforehand couldn’t stop this team from succeeding.

Best Technical Production

Raining Cats and Dogs

Recipient: Terry & Rocky Toomey, Future Affairs Productions

Fans of jam band Phish expected to be mesmerized, thrilled and thoroughly entertained at the concert on New Year’s Eve. They did not expect it to rain in Madison Square Garden arena! But with a brand new special effect solution this is exactly what happened, completing the weather-themed musical set and raising the bar for theatrical effects. All over the stage, covering band and dancers, a fine rain effect fell, sparkling in the light and bouncing off the ground as it fell. Some landed on audience members closest to the stage, and it really felt like rain. A fully choreographed set with dancing umbrellas in the air and dancing people on the stage was accompanied by the band all the time “rain” was falling.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Esprit Recipient Reviews!

Tags: Esprit Awards , Events Logstics