Esprit Award Series: Best Meeting/Conference Program and Best Print Marketing/Design Collateral

Thursday, June 6, 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 their outstanding events here.

And, if you’re coming to ILEA Live 2019, make sure to attend the 2019 Esprit Awards Gala: Seven Spaces, held Saturday, 10 August at 6:30 p.m.

Best Meeting/Conference Program (under $500,000 USD)

A Masterful Reward in Music City

Recipient: Marie Mitchell, CSEP, Maple Ridge Events

Incentive trips can be a powerful motivator for a company’s top producers, recognizing their hard work and rewarding their success. For our Florida-based client, the location had to be reasonably close to home while still giving attendees a memorable experience. Nashville fit the bill where its musical roots, unique cuisine and Southern hospitality created the backdrop to a week of strategic meetings, unique gifts, billboard-sized recognition and music-filled celebrations for our client’s most deserving sales professionals. Our team welcomed the attendees and guests as they arrived at the airport, handling luggage and helping them onto to shuttles to the hotel. Upon arrival to their rooms, guests were welcomed with a cowboy hat filled with snacks for their stay, having been previously assembled and delivered by our team. Attendees and guests were transported via 13 private motor coaches to downtown Nashville, where they enjoyed a night of live music, line dancing and a buffet dinner featuring southern specialties.

Best Print Marketing/Design Collateral

Pure Imagination

Recipient: Laney Hall, Platypus Papers

Our client, Intricate Icings, was the first cake artist to create the geode cake that went viral. She has won awards on Food Network challenges, and she is never at a loss for a creative idea. When it came to her 10th anniversary celebration, she knew she wanted something that would speak to her creativity and imagination and would grab hold of her guests. She came to us with the idea that she wanted “waved” acrylic invitations with purple incorporated somehow. She also wanted to ensure that a favorite quote was a part of the invitation and a gift to her guests. For the event itself, she wanted our help in creating an edible menu, edible flowers, edible place cards, signage for her event and a favor for her guests. When guests opened the outer box of the invitation, they revealed purple tissue surrounding a white box with a label on the front that stated: “Tremendous things are in store for you! Wonderful surprises await you.” Upon opening the box, they found the bent acrylic invitation, set into a box, custom lined in a metallic purple embossed paper. On the lid of the box, they found a lighter purple pocket attached to the metallic paper that housed three additional pieces, in a shimmer white, with purple printing. One detailed the gift of the copper acrylic on the invitation that could be slid off of the invitation and kept as inspiration. The quote on the acrylic piece reads, “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” The second card was the response card that stated, “There is no earthly way of knowing which direction you are going …unless you RSVP!” Once guests arrived, they saw a table set with white chocolate menus sitting at each place setting and poured sugar place cards hanging over each seat. Also over the table hung many wafer paper flowers as the decor for the table. We helped in the creation of all of these pieces. We laser-cut the flower shapes that the client and her planner then made into the completed flowers that hung above the table. We created the templates that were used to make the molds for the poured sugar place cards, and we 3-D printed the menu that was used to create the mold for the chocolate menu.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the 2018 Esprit Award Series! 

Tags: Esprit Awards , ILEA Esprit Awards , Best Meeting/Conference Program , Best Print Marketing/Design Collateral