With a handful of new locations hosting dinners for the 13th annual Bloor Street Entertains fund-raiser in support of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (Canfar) on November 25—including two boutiques that participated within days of opening—event producer David Vallee of David Vallee Entertains had to rely on suppliers and a team of volunteers to ensure the evening came off without a hitch.
"Because of my team it was really, really seamless," Vallee said of the event, which included 23 simultaneous dinner parties attended by some 800 guests and an after-party, produced by students from Seneca College's event design and management program, at the Royal Ontario Museum that drew a crowd of close to 2,000.
"Logistically, it's the most difficult year I've had because of the economy," Vallee said. (This year marked Vallee's third as event producer.) "We wanted to do the same high calibre of events while asking less of our stakeholders." Vallee said it was possible to meet that standard because of the level of commitment from vendors. "You're pulling together the best resources in the city."
Exclusive Affair Rentals and Chair-man Mills coordinated all of the rentals for the dinners and the after-party. Event managers at each venue also worked with a florist and a chef. "The amount of energy and blood spilled on the pavement with this event is incredible," Vallee said.
Participating venues included Cartier, Ferrari Maserati, Holt Renfrew, McKinsey & Company, Roots Canada, and ROM Dinosaur Gallery.
"Two of our stores—Bang & Olufsen and Boss on Bloor—opened within days of Bloor Street Entertains," Vallee said, noting other new venues included the Teatro Verde and Diesel stores, both of which opened in Yorkville earlier this year. With new venues there are always questions surrounding issues like the table configuration and constructing a makeshift kitchen, Vallee said.
The decor at the dinner venues was as varied as the list of retailers involved. At Holt Renfrew, special event director Gwen Gibson and her team paid tribute to event co-chair Kimberley Newport-Mimran—the designer behind the Pink Tartan label—with an all-pink look and tartan table runners inside Holt's Café. At Diesel, Spinradius Events coordinated a black-and-white theme inspired by the company's new spring/summer collection, dubbed Rockin' Dots. And at Roots Canada, red tartan, amaryllis, and tree branches added an elegant, outdoorsy feel to the setup on the second floor.
Guests dined on dishes like truffle rock shrimp fried rice at Daniel Espinosa Jewelry, where G.Q. Pan, executive chef at Blowfish Restaurant + Sake Bar, catered a lounge-style dinner with furnishings from Lounge Rentals Inc. Chef Jamie Kennedy served dishes like hot smoked Lake Huron whitefish with succotash salad and honey mustard dressing to 80 guests at the Gardiner Museum, and Holt's chef Corbin Tomaszeski offered Prince Edward County cheese ravioli and seed-crusted veal loin to a party of 64 at the retailer's flagship store.
Event sponsors included BMO Financial Group, Sun Life Financial, Rémy Martin, RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, Aldo, Holt Renfrew, Labatt, ViiV Healthcare, and Shire.
