Project GRAMMY
Reality-Style Competition Brings GRAMMYs to Planners, Exhibitors and Attendees
Published in December 2006 The Idea Factory 2006 in Review
From fashion designers, to chefs, to would-be Trump employees, you can hardly turn on the TV these days without running into a reality-style competition. This year, the events industry finally had its own.
The first ever Project GRAMMY: The Event Solutions Challenge gave four teams two days to execute a design concept for three different spaces: a GRAMMY Awards’ Salute to Classical Music luncheon, nominees’ VIP lounge and after-party. Project GRAMMY sponsors Creations Fantastic and Rose Brand provided backdrops and hanging sculptures, respectively, for use as the after-party’s theme in each group’s 15-foot by 30-foot space.
With its location on the expo floor, the competition gave attendees a chance to see GRAMMY-worthy events in the making, and offered exhibitors another opportunity to showcase innovative ways of using their products.
“One of the goals of Project GRAMMY was to provide an evolving attraction for attendees on the show floor that included the exhibitors,” says Vicki Carson, Event Solutions’ trade show director. “The Idea Factory expo provides planners with a virtual warehouse of products and ideas, and to see these products used in creative event environments was astounding.”
According to competitors, it was indeed a challenge — but a rewarding one.
“Most of us in this business have learned to work with little or nothing and on short time constraints to deliver the impossible, but to put yourselves against your peer group is the ultimate challenge,” says Sharon Free, manager of conferences and events for Shell Oil Company, who led one team.
Team leader Ira Steinem saw a business opportunity. “As creative director of ME Productions, I thought that since we had produced a number of sponsored after-parties for the Latin GRAMMY Awards in the past that it would be a good way to make some new business contacts,” he says.
Eddie Diaz, creative producer of Orlando, Fla.-based Encore Creations and another team leader, concurs. “It really put me in front of people,” he says, which was important for his three-year-old company.
The competition could be called “reality-style” for more than one reason — many team members said one of the greatest challenges was something all planners would recognize: time.
“You can do anything with time,” says Mark Wells, who led the winning team. In this type of competition, however, “you can’t vacillate. You have to have a plan, you have to execute the plan, and you have to go for it. That was really the key.”
The teams’ efforts did not go unnoticed. “I was extremely surprised with the well-executed and well-thought-out delivery of every team’s concept based on the time pressure,” says Branden Chapman, vice president of production and process management for The Recording Academy, who created the challenges and guided the groups during the competition, along with his colleague Rex Supa, manager of production and event development. “They really took our brand to the next level.”
Although all the teams were competitive, something all the participants took away was the extraordinary camaraderie that developed.
“Perhaps the best thing that I observed, not only with my group but with all of the groups, was a great deal of true teamwork,” says Steinem. “Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat!”
Sponsors
Grammy
www.grammy.com