Held during August’s American Society of Association Executives Toronto meeting, the gala took the theme, Vibrant Cities on the Edge of Nature. By Don Douloff, Sept/Oct 2009
The ASAE opening gala, at Toronto’s Distillery District, attracted a large and spirited crowd.
Suppliers
Planner/Event Producer: Accucom
Title Sponsor: CTC and their industry partners
Venue: Halls B and C at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre
All Media Screens, The Giant Inukshuk, Revolving Stage, Some Lighting: AVW Telav
Power, Some Lighting, Rigging: Showtech
Food and Beverage: Metro Toronto Convention
Centre All Decor/Flowers: Decor & More
Carpet/Draping: GES
Rentals: Decor & More (furniture, custom tables, decor, florals, linens); Amherst (trees)
Staffing: Suppliers provided own staffing; venue staff provided by MTCC
Pyrotechnics: Air Magic
ASAE Gala
Event Details
Food & Beverage: Low stages, dressed with grass and picnic blankets, permitted 16 people to dine on each stage or at patio tables with umbrellas, themed cafes and cruisers. The wildlife area featured Down East oyster shuckers and stations offering scallops.
Decor Theme: ‘Vibrant Cities on the Edge of Nature,’ highlighting Canada as a wonderful country to explore and actively experience. A 30-ft., three-dimensional, white-stone-finished, rotating Inukshuk functioned as a video screen and anchored the four regions (East Coast, West Coast, Central Canada, Prairies). Huge, shaped screens evoked skylines, mountains and other representative landscapes. Inukshuks, at 15-ft. to 17-ft. high, depicted each region.
Maximizing the Space: To create drama and intimacy in a cavernous room, the team defined and shrank the space by lighting only as far as they wanted the eye to see, by illuminating around the periphery to showcase specific images, screens and vignettes.
Stretching the Budget: To produce the event as they had envisioned it, all the players increased their sponsorships and asked co-suppliers to help out even more.
Decor Theme: ‘Vibrant Cities on the Edge of Nature’
30-ft., three-dimensional, white-stone-finished, rotating Inukshuk
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