Objective
Design an Instagram-worthy welcome event for international corporate guests that authentically celebrates Vancouver’s urban essence. Impress and engage 1,300 well-traveled professionals who have seen it all.
Challenges
- Our client is a trendsetter in the event world with extraordinarily high expectations to always better her last event.
- Bring Vancouver’s vibrant, urban essence to life inside a Convention Centre, but not in a cliché way.
- Plan limited function space to create an event for 1,300 that flowed and felt connected.
- Manage the level of daylight in a venue with floor to ceiling windows, while highlighting installations and décor elements.
- Expectations for cuisine creativity were out of scope for the venue. It was a project in itself to raise the catering bar and deliver on point.
Strategy
We created the “Vancouver Culture Crawl” for guests to experience and explore on their first night in Vancouver.
- Encourage networking flow through a carefully designed stand-up reception though various food and activation stations.
- Include the adjacent outdoor Jack Poole Plaza to show off Vancouver’s dramatic ocean and mountain views and add physical event space.
- Experience real Vancouver culture in fun and surprising ways: retractable “raining” umbrellas, butcher shop, ice cream parlour, donut shop, craft beer culture, and an all-you-can-eat sushi conveyor belt with live shadowbox sushi masters above.
- Bring Vancouver to life with street art installations by live aerial, graffiti and chalk artists.
- Elevate the menu, service style and catering set up to meet this discerning client’s expectations, which the venue executed beautifully.
Award Winning Results
The result was an interactive welcome reception filled with unexpected delights –all which communicated the essence of Vancouver and represented the unique features of the destination in a subtle, elegant yet authentic way. We used space in different ways, hoisting entertainers and desserts into the air to keep guests’ attention and encourage mingling.
Related Program Events
PDS designed a 5-day program woven with authentic experiences that embody the cultural essence of Vancouver to an international, well-travelled, sophisticated audience. Every program and design element had to be original, creative,and quintessentially Vancouver. Click to view other elements of this program below.